Case Study
Rebranding a program with 20,000 branded materials.
Role: art director, brand designer, project manager
A safety program owned by Amazon was rapidly expanding across the world. In its wake was a collection of 20,000 branded materials with a broad range of media types such as interactive video, brochures, and mobile apps. Quality varied greatly from item to item and place to place. The program owners wanted to correct this.
Challenge #1
An initial discovery meeting revealed the scale of this project would be tremendous. I needed a plan, and I needed to better understand the program to make one. I assembled a working group to assist in planning and working on this project. I’ve never been a project manager, so setting up this group, managing it, and establishing a plan was challenge #1.
Challenge #2
The group met and agreed a brand audit should be first. No one knew it yet, but we were about to collect and audit 20,000 materials. This was challenge #2.
Challenge #3 (and #4)
The audit was eye-opening, and to be blunt, intimidating. A rebrand wasn’t going to be straightforward, but we had clarity now. During the audit we discovered the program lacked brand definition. We also learned members of the program were creating their own materials without understanding their impact on the collective whole. These challenges complicated our work, but also highlighted areas to focus on. We now had enough information to plan.
- Step #1 would be brand discovery.
- Step #2 would address the visual expression of the program.
- Step #3 would address how people created materials, and build ways to ensure quality was maintained.
Step #1
We helped leaders define a vision statement, customers, tone of voice, and so forth. We also defined what the program is supposed to do, and equally important in this case, what it doesn’t do. Knowing the difference immediately strengthened the program’s voice and allowed its members to engage with customer more confidently. We then moved onto visual expression.
Step #2
Since materials lacked cohesion, and the logo would be deprecated for parent brand reasons, we had a blank slate to work with. The updated mark was straightforward, but we needed a palette versatile enough for 20,000 materials. Here’s where we landed on visual design:
Original mark
Beloved by the program owners, but deprecated due to updated company brand standards.
Updated mark
Fits cohesively into the Amazon brand family. Leverages the company’s brand equity.
Brand palette
We chose a calming palette, but one that could be energetic when needed. This flexibility was essential because of the breadth of material types, locations, and program messaging.
Step #3
The audit showed us most of the 20,000 materials could be organized into distinct topics. While our tiny (but mighty) working team couldn’t directly update this volume of materials, we could create templates that replaced them. With guidance from the program leaders, we developed topic-based templates using program-approved messaging and visuals.
The templates were professionally translated and placed into a library were anyone authorized could search for and use them. Each topic included plain language playbooks and guides for successful deployment. This created a flexible system for the program because it streamlined work and new topics could be added as needed. It also addressed the issues of inconsistent quality because stakeholders were no longer producing their own materials, and instead leveraging ones that met program standards.
Example template materials.
