Global Switch is a data centre provider and operator that sets new standards in scale, resilience and connectivity with its network-dense, highly connected data centres. Established in 1998, their 12 network-dense, highly connected facilities in Tier 1 cities across Europe and Asia are backed by dedicated teams on the ground.

Pentagram was brought on board to help Global Switch stand out and better communicate the high performance of its business offering in an increasingly competitive landscape. Its ambition is to double capacity over the next five years while remaining boutique, trusted and highly secure.

What separates a data centre from other digital companies are the physical locations and spaces at the heart of the business. These enigmatic and often imposing buildings are becoming ever more present in our cities, yet the data and possibilities that they enable are almost magical. The challenge was how to capture these fundamental qualities of physical, enigmatic and mysterious while still being highly functional and professional.

Through in-depth research it was apparent that the visual standard of data centres was crowded and full of industry cliches and generic assets. The Global Switch brand didn’t feel like a modern digital company and fell into many of the same visual traps. 

The new brand strategy centered around the ideas of ‘Data Centrality, High Performance and Precision Engineering’. Together these concepts help convey the world-class locations of the Global Switch data centres, the innovation around security and cooling, as well as the speed and connectivity of the sites. 

The project involved designing a new logo and symbol, a refreshed and expanded colour palette and a library of patterns and iconography. The new Microsoft default font Aptos was chosen as it reflected the tech characteristics of the brand, and ensured that Global Switch would have a simple and effective roll out and internal implementation. As part of the project, the Pentagram team also delivered an in-depth set of brand guidelines, as well as a comprehensive suite of templates and artwork that could be used to help embed the new brand within the wider business ensuring a consistent brand experience and unifying more than 500 staff across seven countries.

At each stage the precision and performance of the brand was interrogated. The Pentagram team crafted a bespoke monospaced wordmark that set the tone for a new digital, data-led brand. From this a symbol was developed from the wordmark, with the characters I and O from the wordmark becoming numbers 1 and 0, which are the binary fundamental components of data. This abstraction allows the viewer to discover both the meaning behind the symbol and the numbers embedded within the wordmark. This was then used to create a library of patterns and abstract textures that can be used across Global Switch’s different brand communications.

Ashley Muldoon, CEO of Global Switch, comments: “Pentagram took the time to listen to how we work and who we are, then turned that into a brand our teams across seven countries immediately owned. Since launch, our new identity has been enthusiastically adopted by our colleagues, and we’ve seen a lift in website engagement. Their fresh perspective has given us a clear, consistent brand that feels unmistakable as Global Switch.”

By focusing on the core ideas of data centrality, high performance and precision engineering, the team at Pentagram has created a bold, distinctive identity that elevates Global Switch above industry clichés. The result is a modern, confident brand that reflects the technical excellence and future-facing ambition of one of the world’s leading data centre providers.