Articles on brand strategy and positioning

1 September 2026

Germany's state railway builds its brand around its own people

Deutsche Bahn realigns its brand around the people who run it, keeps the logo and the colours, and builds the new system on the sleeper.

13 August 2026

Instagram refreshes its brand identity after a decade

Instagram introduces a refreshed script wordmark, new typefaces and a subtler gradient, its first major brand update in a decade.

29 July 2026

Vans rebuilds its identity system in two layers

Vans rebuilds its brand system with Accept & Proceed, separating locked assets from flexible ones under the line Our Canvas. Your Way.

14 July 2026

Tinder rebrands with a dating columnist voice

Tinder presents its first rebrand in nearly a decade, built with Porto Rocha around an all caps wordmark and a columnist voice.

2026

KFC builds its global rebrand around the bucket

KFC presents a global rebrand by JKR that promotes its bucket from packaging to the organising device of the entire brand system.

2026

Schweppes returns to its roots in JKR-led overhaul

Schweppes presents its biggest brand refresh in generations, led by JKR with Studio.One and Mischief under the platform With Time Comes Taste.

Google | 19 May 2026

Google introduces Neural Expressive for Gemini

At Google I/O 2026, Gemini adopts Neural Expressive, a design language built around fluid motion and adaptive layouts.

Lacoste & Burberry | 2026

Deblandification: How Lacoste and Burberry signal the end of the minimalist consensus

After a decade of geometric sans rebrands, Lacoste 2026 and Burberry 2023 mark the return of distinctive identity as the strategic priority.

Aesop | 24 April 2026

Aesop designs its first lighting collection in Milan

Aesop presents its first lighting collection, Apose, during Milan Design Week 2026 with architect Rodney Eggleston.

Lacoste | 21 April 2026

Lacoste presents a new visual identity by Commission Studio

Lacoste evolves its visual identity with Commission Studio, a bespoke serif typeface, refined Crocodile and three historic green tones.

Walmart | 2026

Walmart Unveils Modern Redesign of Great Value, Its Flagship Private Brand

First major refresh in more than a decade enhances shoppability while maintaining the same trusted products at Every Day Low Prices

Samsung | 20 February 2026

Samsung builds a brand sound from six notes

Over the Horizon began as an in-house melody chosen by staff ballot and became the one Samsung asset rewritten every year.

SpaceX | 2 February 2026

SpaceX acquires xAI, Musk's AI company

SpaceX acquires xAI in a share exchange that values the combined company at $1.25 trillion, reshaping the brand.

Apple | 4 November 2025

Apple TV Retires the Plus Sign and Presents a New Identity

Apple renamed its streaming service from Apple TV+ to Apple TV in November 2025, alongside a new logo built from real glass and a sonic identity by Finneas.

Aesop | 1 November 2025

Aesop's hand wash becomes an unlikely status symbol

Aesop's Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash has become an unofficial status marker in upscale bathrooms worldwide.

Tesla | 1 September 2025

Tesla’s Master Plan Part 4: from sustainable energy to “sustainable abundance”

With Master Plan Part 4, Tesla introduces its most ambitious—and most abstract—vision to date. While earlier plans focused on scaling electric vehicles and clean energy, this new chapter expands the mission toward what the company calls “sustainable abundance.”

Bentley | 7 July 2025

Bentley Redesigns Winged B: Fifth Iteration in 106 Years

Bentley revealed the fifth Winged B iteration on 7 July 2025 — the biggest change to the mark in a century.

Adobe | 25 May 2025

Adobe Quietly Overhauls Its Identity with Mother Design

Adobe's 2025 refresh by Mother Design introduces a new logotype rooted in the 1982 original, the Adobe Lens graphic device, and a brighter signature red.

ING | 16 April 2025

ING rebuilds its brand system across forty markets

ING rolls out a new global brand system across forty markets and four segments, with no launch announcement of any kind.

Mercedes-Benz | 4 April 2025

Mercedes-Benz Returns to a Flat, Monochrome Star

Mercedes-Benz has quietly reintroduced its flat, monochrome star for brand communications, dropping the three-dimensional metallic version used since 2010.

Walmart | 24 January 2025

Walmart's Biggest Brand Update in Nearly Two Decades

Walmart's first major rebrand since 2008 — JKR redraws the wordmark, brightens the blue, and refreshes the spark.

Amazon | 2025

Amazon Expands Smile Arrow and introduces new Typeface

Amazon completed a gradual visual rebrand beginning spring 2024, introducing a thicker Smile Arrow and custom typeface Amazon Ember Modern.

Jaguar | 19 November 2024

Jaguar Retires Leaper for Exuberant Modernism

Jaguar retired the leaper and introduced a four-symbol identity system built on 'Exuberant Modernism.'

Lamborghini | 28 March 2024

Lamborghini Flattens Bull and Shield Logo for Digital

Lamborghini presented a flat 2D logo redesign in March 2024, replacing the previous 3D embossed bull and shield for digital-first applications.

Google | 8 February 2024

Google renames Bard to Gemini

In 2024 Google retired the Bard name and unified its consumer AI under a single brand, Gemini, matching the model that powers it.

Tesla | 5 April 2023

Tesla’s Master Plan Part 3: a technical roadmap to a fully electrified world

With Master Plan Part 3, Tesla shifts from storytelling to system design. Unlike the earlier plans, which focused on product strategy and company growth, this document is structured as a detailed white paper. Its purpose is to demonstrate, with data and modeling, how a fully sustainable global energy economy could realistically be achieved.

Burberry | 7 February 2023

Daniel Lee restores the Equestrian Knight at Burberry

Daniel Lee restores the 1901 Equestrian Knight Design and a serif wordmark, reversing the 2018 sans-serif rebrand.

Porsche | 25 January 2023

Porsche refines its crest for the 75th anniversary

For its 75th anniversary in 2023 Porsche refines the heraldic crest in-house, the first update in nine years and the most extensive yet.

Aesop | 2023

Aesop's packaging borrows its look from a pharmacy

Aesop's amber glass bottles protect formulas from UV light, a packaging choice now paired with recycled materials.

Tesla | 30 September 2022

Tesla Introduces Optimus and Reframes Itself as a Robotics Company

At AI Day 2022 in Palo Alto, Tesla walks its first Optimus prototype on stage and pivots its identity beyond automotive.

Aesop | 22 August 2022

Waldorf Astoria makes Aesop its global amenity brand

Waldorf Astoria becomes the first global hotel brand to carry full-size Aesop amenities across its properties.

Steiff | 20 May 2022

Steiff redraws the wordmark and centres the teddy bear head

In May 2022 Steiff retires the claim Knopf im Ohr from its lockup and places the iconic teddy bear head at the centre of a new identity.

IKEA | 7 December 2020

IKEA closes the printed catalogue after 70 years

IKEA announces that the 2021 catalogue is its last printed edition, closing a 70 year run of the brand's primary marketing tool.

BMW | 3 March 2020

BMW Introduces a New Two-Dimensional Brand Mark

BMW presents a flat, transparent logo alongside the Concept i4, marking the first visual update to the roundel since 1997.

Samsung | 12 February 2020

Samsung reorders the Galaxy naming system

Samsung adds Galaxy Z as the name for its foldables, then folds the Note into the S Ultra tier, tidying a portfolio built by accretion.

Google | 7 May 2019

Google folds its home products into Nest

Google retired the Home product brand in 2019 and placed every connected home device under a single Google Nest name.

Trade Republic | 1 May 2019

From Neon Trading to Trade Republic

The Munich startup Neon Trading took a civic name and a first identity system before opening its app to German investors in 2019.

Apple | 14 March 2019

Apple Turns Privacy Into a Platform Claim

With "Privacy. That's iPhone.", Apple writes data privacy directly into the product name and reframes the category.

Burberry | 2 August 2018

Burberry breaks with the Equestrian Knight under Tisci and Saville

In August 2018 Burberry retired its 1901 Equestrian Knight wordmark for a sans-serif logotype and TB monogram by Peter Saville and Riccardo Tisci.

McDonald's | 15 July 2018

McDonald's adopts the Speedee custom typeface

In 2018, Turner Duckworth and Dalton Maag introduced Speedee, McDonald's first custom typeface, drawn from the curve of the golden arches.

IKEA | 7 June 2018

IKEA previews MARKERAD with Virgil Abloh at Democratic Design Days

IKEA revealed MARKERAD with Virgil Abloh at Democratic Design Days 2018, a 15 piece collection that turned a cash receipt into a rug.

Aesop | 21 March 2017

Aesop builds a Los Angeles store from cardboard tubes

Aesop's 2017 Los Angeles store is built from cardboard tubing reclaimed from the neighbouring Fashion District.

IKEA | 20 October 2016

IKEA Sweden makes everyday life the platform with Where Life Happens

IKEA Sweden and Åkestam Holst launched Where Life Happens, a long-running platform that turned price tags into narrative devices.

Tesla | 20 July 2016

Tesla’s Master Plan Deux: expanding from electric cars to a full energy and mobility ecosystem

In 2016, Tesla published the second part of its long-term strategic vision, known as Master Plan, Part Deux. Building on the original roadmap, which focused on scaling electric vehicles from high-end sports cars to affordable mass-market models, this new plan expands Tesla’s ambitions far beyond car manufacturing.

Guinness | 4 May 2016

Guinness Brings Craft Back to the Harp

In a deliberate counter-move against flat design, Guinness gave its 154-year-old harp icon a handcrafted overhaul — for the sixth time.

Volkswagen | 7 January 2016

Volkswagen retires Das Auto and lets the brand name stand alone

In January 2016 Volkswagen retired the claim Das Auto and replaced it with the brand name alone, a deliberate response to the 2015 diesel matter.

ASICS | 2015

ASICS ran two heritage brands and quietly retired one

ASICS Tiger launched in 2015 as a third pillar brand. It disappeared from the company's own reporting four years later.

Oatly | 6 June 2014

Oatly’s Radical Rebrand Turned Packaging Into Media and Built a Global Challenger Brand

Oatly’s 2014 rebrand replaced conventional packaging and messaging with bold design and provocative language, turning cartons into advertising and positioning the brand as a challenger to the dairy industry.

Loewe | 1 June 2014

Loewe redraws its Anagram in a 2014 rebrand

In 2014 Loewe presented a new identity by M/M Paris, redrawing its Anagram and wordmark to open the Jonathan Anderson era.

Aesop | 10 December 2012

No two Aesop stores are alike, by design

Since founding, Aesop has commissioned a different architect for nearly every store, refusing a single repeatable format.

SpaceX | 8 December 2010

How SpaceX named Falcon, Dragon and Starship

SpaceX named its rockets and capsules after Star Wars and a folk song, turning naming into part of the brand story.

McDonald's | 23 November 2009

McDonald's Repaints Its Arches Green Across Europe

McDonald's swaps red for forest green behind the Golden Arches across Europe, signalling environmental responsibility.

Tesla | 2 August 2006

Tesla’s Secret Master Plan Outlines an Electric Future Built Step by Step

In 2006, Tesla CEO Elon Musk published what he called a “Secret Master Plan,” outlining a structured approach to transforming the automotive and energy industries. At the time, Tesla was a young company with a single product: the high-performance Roadster.

Tiffany turns its blue into a private Pantone shade

Tiffany & Co. | 2001

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