Wolff Olins Verbal Identity
The Brand in the Mirror
Want to help a client find their voice? You’ll need a mirror.
“Go on,” you need to say, gently steering them to face the polished glass. “Take a long look. At your brand, your business, your people. YOU. What do you see?”
And then you have to help that client with the tools and the thinking to truly own who they are - including their voice, which inspires how they speak, connect and communicate with the world.
Does it sound like therapy a bit? Because it sort of is.
Now imagine you’re a brand consultancy in the midst of redefining its own brand. It’s kind of an odd meta-moment. And it requires looking into that mirror yourself. Think you can handle what you’ll find? Think you can find your voice and commit to it, even if it’s not what you expected or wanted? Even if it’s…a bit weird?
That’s just what we had to do at Wolff Olins during our own recent brand evolution. The result added a whole new dimension to our own brand voice - one that was there all along, we just needed the courage to share it with the world.
Talking the Talk
We didn’t take that long look in the mirror just to try on outfits. We did it as part of a larger effort to better reflect how we’ve been partnering with clients for ages: doing brand for clients, of course, but also doing internal culture as well as experience. Brand development is in part about establishing the beliefs and values that can drive better decision-making across every facet of a business.
So as a brand ourselves, we couldn’t keep looking and sounding the same old, same old. We had to rise up to meet the new evolution of who we were. Because you have to practice what you preach, otherwise you wind up like a doctor who smokes, or a barber coiffed like Chewbacca.
Across every point that our brand touched - including our client work - Wolff Olins had always shown up with a sense of rigor. And that rigor is reflected in how we tackle client challenges of any size.
But there was another side to who we were as people and as partners - a warmth, a joyfulness, an irreverence, a wild side - that sparked enthusiasm and delight for team members and clients alike.
Rigor, Meet Joy
Rigor and joy became the creative brief for our agency brand evolution, because it spoke to who we are. And it all came together in our revamped logo, with that weirdly wonderful W, and that perfectly rigorous O, as well as our visual and verbal identity.
On the verbal side, we crafted a voice that gave us the tools and permission to sound like us like never before. This is how we broke it down:
We sound rigorous, because brand transformation takes precision. Rigorous captures the sharp point of view and expertise that make us essential partners who are opinionated, but humble.
We sound joyful, because we’re here to enjoy the ride. Joyful conveys the passion we bring to our work and the satisfaction we get from it. It gets at the down-to-earth way we roll, and the exhilaration of transformation.
Raising Our Voice
We’re just starting to bring our new voice and new identity to life. But you can already see it in moments like our recent LA party, our website, our social channels, and in our client work.
It’s been cathartic to embrace our joyful - and sometimes weirder - side. And it’s had an impact not only on how we market and promote ourselves, but also how we bring clients along on the branding journey.
By focusing too much on the rigor, you can be at risk of simply chasing that A+ approval from the client. But perhaps, more often, the ambition should be about helping the clients to fall in love with a great idea, and want to take the ball and run with it.
That’s where I see us getting some great mileage out of a refreshed brand voice—being able to romance the ideas and tell better stories, sharpening our sense of rigor to be more declarative with a stronger point of view, and just getting weird, wild and wonderful when the spirit strikes.
In the end, transforming your brand takes more than the right idea. It takes guts, vision, imagination, and most importantly for us, it takes joy.
Creative Credits:
Agency: Wolff Olins
Wolff Olins verbal team: William Rauscher and Katherine Pisarro-Grant
Wolff Olins Verbal Identity
The Brand in the Mirror
Want to help a client find their voice? You’ll need a mirror.
“Go on,” you need to say, gently steering them to face the polished glass. “Take a long look. At your brand, your business, your people. YOU. What do you see?”
And then you have to help that client with the tools and the thinking to truly own who they are - including their voice, which inspires how they speak, connect and communicate with the world.
Does it sound like therapy a bit? Because it sort of is.
Now imagine you’re a brand consultancy in the midst of redefining its own brand. It’s kind of an odd meta-moment. And it requires looking into that mirror yourself. Think you can handle what you’ll find? Think you can find your voice and commit to it, even if it’s not what you expected or wanted? Even if it’s…a bit weird?
That’s just what we had to do at Wolff Olins during our own recent brand evolution. The result added a whole new dimension to our own brand voice - one that was there all along, we just needed the courage to share it with the world.
Talking the Talk
We didn’t take that long look in the mirror just to try on outfits. We did it as part of a larger effort to better reflect how we’ve been partnering with clients for ages: doing brand for clients, of course, but also doing internal culture as well as experience. Brand development is in part about establishing the beliefs and values that can drive better decision-making across every facet of a business.
So as a brand ourselves, we couldn’t keep looking and sounding the same old, same old. We had to rise up to meet the new evolution of who we were. Because you have to practice what you preach, otherwise you wind up like a doctor who smokes, or a barber coiffed like Chewbacca.
Across every point that our brand touched - including our client work - Wolff Olins had always shown up with a sense of rigor. And that rigor is reflected in how we tackle client challenges of any size.
But there was another side to who we were as people and as partners - a warmth, a joyfulness, an irreverence, a wild side - that sparked enthusiasm and delight for team members and clients alike.
Rigor, Meet Joy
Rigor and joy became the creative brief for our agency brand evolution, because it spoke to who we are. And it all came together in our revamped logo, with that weirdly wonderful W, and that perfectly rigorous O, as well as our visual and verbal identity.
On the verbal side, we crafted a voice that gave us the tools and permission to sound like us like never before. This is how we broke it down:
We sound rigorous, because brand transformation takes precision. Rigorous captures the sharp point of view and expertise that make us essential partners who are opinionated, but humble.
We sound joyful, because we’re here to enjoy the ride. Joyful conveys the passion we bring to our work and the satisfaction we get from it. It gets at the down-to-earth way we roll, and the exhilaration of transformation.
Raising Our Voice
We’re just starting to bring our new voice and new identity to life. But you can already see it in moments like our recent LA party, our website, our social channels, and in our client work.
It’s been cathartic to embrace our joyful - and sometimes weirder - side. And it’s had an impact not only on how we market and promote ourselves, but also how we bring clients along on the branding journey.
By focusing too much on the rigor, you can be at risk of simply chasing that A+ approval from the client. But perhaps, more often, the ambition should be about helping the clients to fall in love with a great idea, and want to take the ball and run with it.
That’s where I see us getting some great mileage out of a refreshed brand voice—being able to romance the ideas and tell better stories, sharpening our sense of rigor to be more declarative with a stronger point of view, and just getting weird, wild and wonderful when the spirit strikes.
In the end, transforming your brand takes more than the right idea. It takes guts, vision, imagination, and most importantly for us, it takes joy.
Creative Credits:
Agency: Wolff Olins
Wolff Olins verbal team: William Rauscher and Katherine Pisarro-Grant