New at Pentagram

AkzoNobel is the world’s leading manufacturer of paints and high-performance coatings, and a major supplier of speciality chemicals. Driven by innovation, their products are at the leading edge of technology and have been involved in the realisation of such iconic projects as the Beijing Olympic Stadium, the London Eye observation wheel and the Airbus A380 airliner. The company employs 60,000 people worldwide and has a portfolio of brands that includes market-leaders such as Dulux, Glidden, Hammerite and Sikkens. A Pentagram team led by Angus Hyland has created the new visual identity for this global corporation across the entire spectrum of its applications.

After their acquisition in 2008 of ICI, the industrial multinational, AkzoNobel undertook a major review of their brand and its applications, creating a new brand strategy, revitalising the company’s logo and introducing the corporate strapline “Tomorrow’s Answers Today”. With this strategy as a starting point, AkzoNobel then commissioned Pentagram to develop a fully functioning global visual identity system.

Pentagram’s solution bases its approach around clarity and colour, making AkzoNobel’s brand visible through the use of exuberant colour, evocative imagery and a clean, measured approach to typography and layout. Working with the copywriter John Simmons, Pentagram developed a tone of voice around the proposition of “intelligent curiosity”, building a visual identity that embodies AkzoNobel’s forward-looking approach to business and innovation. Pentagram also developed an approach to endorsement, moving AkzoNobel’s corporate identity onto product brand packaging and advertising for the first time. A colour palette of pure, vibrant primaries was devised in co-operation with the AkzoNobel Aesthetic Centre, based in Sweden. From this core palette, a series of colour gradients was derived. Applied throughout the identity, gradients add an element of colour management that is proprietary to the brand.

Commissioned photography from John Ross and Lee Funnell and illustration created by Pentagram uses the themes of chemistry, coatings and colour. White space is a key component in the use of imagery and control of colour, maintaining the clarity and rigour of a forward-looking approach. Helvetica was chosen as the corporate typeface for its global availability, flexibility of weights and compatibility with non-Roman alphabets.

Pentagram has produced a 600-page set of guidelines that instruct external agencies in the correct use of the visual identity, across all applications of the brand; ranging from stationery, advertising and literature to vehicle liveries, uniforms and product packaging. Pentagram have been retained to ensure the correct application of the visual identity through the founding of the Brand Centre; a service run out of Pentagram’s London office. The Brand Centre safeguards AkzoNobel’s investment in their visual identity, checking all the design work produced by a global network of local agencies for compliance with the guidelines.