Hitting Reset on the Leading Ladies Brand
Yesterday we were thrilled to celebrate International Women’s Day by debuting the new Leading Ladies Networking brand at the IWD Leading Ladies event. This beautifully-done work by our team is part of R&G Strategic’s ongoing sponsorship of the event series.
We’re excited about the results, so we thought we’d deconstruct the design thinking behind the new brand for anyone curious, and give you an inside look at our process.
The ‘old’ Leading Ladies brand was admittedly in need of retirement, but we liked it’s clean foundations and its strong bones.
Our first step was to strip it back to the basics to isolate and analyze what was working in the design, and to lightly polish and freshen it up.
The word mark was strong, but it just wasn’t representing the vibrant Leading Ladies community of intelligent, excellent women who inspire us. We knew what we like about the organization and how it might translate into design, but of course we couldn’t make decisions in a vacuum.
We asked the Leading Ladies Team - ‘what do you want to see?’
Their answer?
“Make it 80s!”
Well, we did a little research, and there was a lot going on in the 80s. We had a lot of fun exploring how this could play out in our design.
Well, we did a little research, and there was a lot going on in the 80s. We had a lot of fun exploring how this could play out in our design.
None of these directions was really speaking to us.
We took a second look at design trends from the decade, and another movement jumped out at us: new wave. Characterized by its colourful combination of futurism and synthesizers, new wave was about strong style, the Arts, diversity, limitlessness… and very cool textiles.
This angular/modular approach, combining geometric shapes for an effect both soft and hard-edged at the same time, blew the lid off for us.
We hit home with a new wave look.
Classy, timeless, feminine, strong - and just the right amount of ‘80s’.
We’re proud to sponsor women in business through initiatives like Leading Ladies. We love the final design we unveiled last night and we hope other ‘Leading Ladies’ everywhere will feel the same way.
Look for a Leading Ladies event near you - but get your ticket early, they sell out!
