Landor & Fitch rebrands to Landor with expanded offerings

Specialist brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch has rebranded to Landor, as the culmination of its five-year strategy that has seen an expanded offer across consultancy, design and experience. 

The brand's new ultramarine identity is inspired by the transformative power of water and pays tribute to the origins of the business, which was founded by Walter Landor on a ferry boat in San Francisco harbour, according to the release.  

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Lulu Raghavan, vice president of APAC, Landor, said with the belief in brand being the last mile of business strategy, a change in brand should never happen in a vacuum; but should follow on from a material change in the state of a business or an organisation.

With its evolved business and expanded offerings over the past five years, the agency hopes to celebrate its pioneering heritage, signal its powerful evolution and set an ambitious vision for the future with a new and more singular brand.

As part of the rebrand, the agency tapped into its group capabilities to create a multi-faceted brand system, that brings together visual, verbal, sonic and motion.

"Our new word mark combines contemporary serifs with subtle design features, to communicate both gravitas and playfulness as well as differentiate from the overpopulated world of sans serif logotypes. We are big and prestigious, but also open, welcoming, and fluid in the way we work," she added.

The agency also designed a custom type family, Landor Sans, as its trusted workhorse, combining elegant grotesque features with subtle references to water. "Ink traps and ligatures map up a bold but flowing typeface that provides high legibility and distinctiveness," Raghavan added.

"Lastly, our core ultramarine colour links beautifully to our brand story – a precious and rare pigment, once imported overseas by pioneering explorers and traders, redefined the aesthetic bar during the Renaissance. We have redeployed ultramarine, the superlative blue which name stands for “beyond the sea”, to signal the redefining of the brand and design category," she added.

The global rebrand will be across all 32 markets that Landor is present in, including APAC markets such as Singapore, Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Melbourne, Mumbai, Seoul, Sydney, Shanghai and Tokyo.

In recent years, Landor has welcomed sonic branding leaders amp, workspace and architectural design experts BDG, and motion design specialists ManvsMachine into its family.  

In parallel, the business has bolstered its consulting capabilities with a rapidly growing Brand Performance practice, broadened its retail experience offer in a 2020 merger with Fitch, and continued to build out its brand-led employee experience offer. 

“Over the last five years, our business has evolved, and our offer has expanded significantly. We’ve welcomed world-class specialists in sonic, motion and workspace design, and today, most importantly, we have come together as one team with a shared culture. United in our drive to make a positive difference” said Jane Geraghty, group global CEO, Landor & Fitch. 

“Our new brand charts an ambitious course for our future. We use our new brand colour, the ultramarine blue, to signal the redefining of the brand and design category” said Teemu Suviala, global chief creative officer, Landor & Fitch.  

“Our design and expression capabilities are now unparalleled. For our own brand, we tapped into brilliant creative minds from around our network, just as we would do for our clients, to create a brand that comes to life in every facet - from visual and verbal to sonic and motion,” she added. 

Don't miss: Landor & Fitch bolsters APAC leadership with new senior hires

The rebrand comes after Landor & Fitch bolstered its APAC leadership team with new senior appointments back in March. The new hires aimed to further enhance the firm’s strategic brand and design offers, driving impactful transformation strategy and brand-led experiences for clients in the APAC region.

Abel Sim joined from Accenture Song as executive director of experience for the APAC region. In his new position, Sim will be heading up the brand experience practice in APAC and accelerate growth in response to increasing demand for brand-led experience strategy.

Damian Arce joined Singapore studio as creative director for Southeast Asia. No stranger to Landor & Fitch, Damian has been a driving force in pushing the creative boundaries in Mexico and across the Americas before relocating to Singapore. 

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