Rebranding in Energy
It was a new project, and one month into it, everything changed: we got acquired by the client. It was my first M&A experience and a fun one. Today, I will focus on how we developed the new brand for the resulting company.
The business we found ourselves in was trading crude oil. This business is essential for the way our current economy works (not for gasoline, also for fertilizers and myriad of essential materials), and it is also vilified as dirty and singled out as the cause of climate change. I started with research and visual mapping:
I worked on overcoming my own biases and building empathy with the oil producers (Good find was a podcast and YouTube channel drillers in Texas).
My primary finding was that the energy business's shortfalls are exactly the reason to be in it. We had a real chance to make a difference by building a new generation of platform with built-in incentives for sustainability.
We invited a brilliant designer, Barney, for a late evening workshop with fresh coconuts and newfound clarity. The day before, I sketched a human hand imprint on a whiteboard. I wanted to tap into fundamental human connection.
We outlined the message during the meeting and quickly iterated from words to visuals. The next day we had a new brand representing the human connection as a hand reaching out for a handshake:
It was such a great outcome when a basic sketch and a feeling emerge into something tangible.
The website started with writing down of what we wanted to say:
A website is a conversation. Once you clear what you want to say and why you can build.
Once we had a brand and a message, the website “unfolded” naturally:
Working together with Hanny, in a couple of weeks we put together a working version:
Researched lead to clarity, clarity and creativity allowed us to move very fast making a robust product. In a few weeks we moved from nothing to a new brand and a clear message.
This clear message also became the foundation for product vision empowering the product development.
