COMPANY NEWS
Notice Anything Different About Us?
22 October 2019
Anything at all? We’ve been hard at work re-branding ourselves. Can you imagine anything more meta?
Change the world, start with yourself.
We took this idea to heart when we embarked on the rebranding of QUO this year. The truth is, every shiny brand in our portfolio means nothing if our own branding isn’t strong, singular, recognisable and impressive.
It wasn’t easy. The project required a large group of creatives learning to see themselves in an entirely new light—and to see themselves, collectively, in the same new light.
At the project’s heart, it required a long, hard look at who QUO is and what we stand for.
It All Started with ‘QUO DAY’
Our re-branding journey began on QUO Day, a date when agency staffers abandoned their desks and formed small teams, each set on quickly brainstorming, creating and presenting a new identity that represented QUO best.
What came to light in the process were ideas of duality, of East meets West, classic meets contemporary, witty meets humble. These concepts represented the work we do as well as the team behind it.
After cherry-picking the best ideas from each presentation, the project began to take a more defined form.
Branding a Branding Agency
QUO’s Chief Branding Officer, Catherine Monthienvichienchai, explained, “Following the same process we take with client projects, we pulled some key team members together for an internal workshop and brainstormed QUO’s Vision and Why (our reason for being). We considered:
What is our ultimate dream for QUO?
Why do we exist?
What’s our underlying purpose?
“We quickly narrowed our focus on what we do best—defining culture—and the lengths to which we, as an agency, go to probe beneath the surface and understand each brand’s core. This is where distinction and differentiation is born. Our Why then become obvious.”
We believe that every organisation has a soul worth uncovering.
From this Why, the strategy was formed. QUO’s updated brand culture focused on a combination of passionate creativity and strategic intellect, alongside bold opinion tempered with absolute humility.
Visualising the Soul of QUO
From there, a visual identity emerged built on perspective. The letterform of our name was enlarged with wondrous, saturated images visible inside, offering observers a window into the soul of our brand.
Our own culture, defined through duality and perspective
We evolved our previous dual font logo to better represent the idea of old meets new by crafting half of it in classical Serif font and the other half in modern Sans Serif font.
QUO Content Director Derek Kirk explained that this strategic new thinking required an updated Tone of Voice for our brand as well. “We felt this striking visual treatment demanded a more measured approach to copy,” he said. “We took a less-is-more stance—paring down headers, embracing white space and cutting the fluff. Our goal was to create a decidedly human voice that’s unpretentious but just witty enough to keep readers smiling.”
Our new identity feels right. It reflects who we are, what we do and what we want to do. It represents us, but also inspires us, beckoning us to continue discovering and defining our own soul, so we can better understand the souls of our clients.
