Evolving a brand for the future
Cedar
Stuart and his team built on their earlier work to create a refreshed identity system that will support Cedar’s future ambitions in the content marketing industry.
The Issues and Challenge
Cedar is a full-service content marketing agency, with a strong team of over 170 editors, designers, strategists and media sales experts based in London, Hong Kong and Cape Town. At the core of their offer is the ‘fine crafting’ of whatever they create, whether it be graphic designs, copy or other important content. They craft videos, magazines, social campaigns and digital platforms.
Stuart had created a new identity for Cedar some years back. They came back to him and his design team in 2019, asking him to further enrich their visual ‘armoury’. They wanted to build further on the ‘fine crafting’ element of their offer and to re-emphasise their brand proposition and values.
What we did
Stuart and his team audited all of Cedar’s existing communications to assess what aspects could be retained and where he could make significant improvements in this brand evolution. The ‘hand-written’ wordmark he had created previously was still very important to them but now needed further refinement. He then turned his hand to other aspects of the identity system such as the typefaces, colour palette and a new illustration style.
In all the work done, Cedar’s brand proposition – ‘Big Ideas, Smart Content and Commercial Success’ – and their six values either underpinned or featured strongly in the updated visual identity system. In particular, these are now being applied to office environments, reinforcing the importance of the proposition and values to all staff.
What we achieved
The updated logo keeps true to the handmade look and feel of the previous mark, but now has a new script style. There are also new fonts, a new colour palette to complement their existing red, white and black, and a new bespoke illustration style which accentuates the personal and human nature of their relationships, both within the office and with their clients.
This brand evolution includes a complete update of their London office space, creating an even more collaborative environment for colleagues and for visiting clients.
By reinforcing their proposition ‘Big Ideas, Smart Content and Commercial Success’, and their core values – Create great, Focus on impact, I’m on it, Show the love, Do what scares you and Be real – Cedar can now continue to promote their distinctive positioning within the industry, making a compelling and attractive case for people to use their finely crafted skills.
