A new coat of paint

In 2008, AkzoNobel, the world’s largest paint and coatings company, was growing very fast. It had recently acquired ICI, itself an enormous organisation numbering nearly 30,000 people; the time was ripe for it to take stock of the organisation it had become and refresh the brand that had served it so well for nearly 20 years.

Building equity into Bruce

With the acquisition of ICI, AkzoNobel’s brand had to be made both more powerful and universal, in order that peo- ple coming from a company that itself had a very powerful

tradition would feel part of this new company. We advised on a new brand architecture, recommending our client to retire the ICI brand (keeping, of course, some consumer- facing brands like Dulux) while investing in and leading with the AkzoNobel brand. And we refreshed the visual identity, reinvigorating Bruce – AkzoNobel’s iconic mark that had been developed by Saffron’s Chairman, Wally Olins, over 20 years ago – and creating a visual language to support it.

A very successful launch

On the day the new brand was launched, AkzoNobel’s share price went up by 3%. It retains the same brand to this day.

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Client: AkzoNobel
Project: Strategy and Rebrand
Agency: Saffron
Role: Creative Lead
Date: 2007
Region: Global