How do you wrangle a business that includes food, funerals, travel, security, and events into a single cohesive brand? It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t quick, but the results speak for themselves.
Over the years, the brand had become open to interpretation. There were more than 20 colours in the palette, and over a dozen different typefaces. When the marketing assets were collated and reviewed, it was clear the brand had become confused and messy.
And the Building Services team didn’t have a set of design guidelines, so decisions about food stores, forecourts, and travel branch interiors were being made on the fly.
Another challenge was to create something that worked with Co-op Group’s products and pointof-sales material, to minimise the number of shapes and graphic devices appearing in food stores. This was achieved by integrating their iconic ‘squircle’.
I started by making decisions about how the different business divisions – food, funeral, travel, security, and events – could work together visually, then created a universal design system.
After months of research, Our Co-op, a new internal values initiative was launched, getting clear on the vision and mission of the business. This was delivered in a series of colleague workshops, then rolled out across the business.
And, finally, the outdated uniforms were refreshed, getting rid of the old mushroom and raspberry colour scheme, and replacing it with new styles in green and dark grey, for durability and practicality.
