THE CLIENT
Rideau is a leading global provider of employee recognition technology, best practices, and fulfillment. Their comprehensive recognition platform and predictive analytics drive employee engagement and increased performance for corporations worldwide.
THE CHALLENGE
The Rideau brand is over 100 years old and stems from a proud history of providing the Canadian government with the physical production of the country’s highest medal of honor. Over time, Rideau’s business has evolved to serve several Fortune 100 corporations through both consultative and technology-based solutions. However, research showed that the unique differentiator for Rideau is a much more personal quality. Their core identifier focuses on the “people” of their business, and how they honor the “people” within client businesses.
Their brand needed a refresh to honor their respected history, while also communicating a fresh take on employee engagement. Competitors focus on the “rewards” part of employee engagement. An updated Rideau brand needed to focus on the “people” part of engagement.
We were tasked to envision both an “evolutionary” approach to their identity, and a “revolutionary” approach to their identity.
THE SOLUTION
We created a variety of logo options for Rideau, each paired with a different accompanying visual system to support it. The winning solution was an evolution of the logo, and a revolution of the supporting visual system.
The logo had always been a traditional script of the Word Rideau and was displayed in a classic gray-blue that did not reflect the modern nature of their solutions. We kept the classic font, but enclosed the logo in a circle and shifted the color to a clean, modern black. This was the perfect compliment of old and new with a neutral base from which to support the more revolutionary look and feel.
The brand look and feel was built around a concept we created — “The Fabric of a Business”. This concept uses close up images of fabrics comprised of diverse colors and textures — to represent people, skills, and cultures — all intricately interwoven to create the strength and beauty of a company.
- Individuals coming together to make something strong, beautiful, unique, and durable.
- Diversity and unity.
- Tradition with a modern twist.
Custom icons, drawn as if they were created from thread, were created to support key brand messages. And images of people all contain warm, rich hues rather than the typical blue light of corporate business imagery.
The result was a modern, yet extremely warm and approachable brand that would stand out in the field.
