Iress rebrand
project overview
By 2019, Iress had expanded significantly, and what initially began as a modest brand refresh quickly evolved into a much larger strategic rebrand. The original brief focused on modernising key touchpoints such as the website, presentation templates and existing brand assets, but it soon became clear that the company’s visual identity no longer reflected the scale, ambition or direction of the business.
project type
Brand Identity
year
2019
my role
Creative design lead
client
inhouse - Iress
Research & Brand Strategy
Working closely with the Chief Marketing Officer, we commissioned an external agency to conduct extensive brand research across both the industry and the customer base. Detailed personas were developed for key audience groups, and customers were actively engaged throughout the process to better understand how the business was perceived externally. Alongside this, I conducted research conversations with senior leadership to uncover how they viewed the future of the company and where they wanted the brand to evolve. The insight that shaped the project became clear: a brand is not defined by what a company says about itself, but by how it is experienced and perceived by others. The combination of leadership insight, customer feedback and external perception data ultimately built the case for a complete rebrand, which was approved at leadership level.
Bridging Old & New
My role focused on helping bridge the transition between the old identity and the new brand direction. A key challenge was ensuring the updated logo remained recognisable to existing customers while still signalling meaningful change. I refined the logo concept to reduce unnecessary variance and deliberately carried forward elements of the previous identity, including the distinctive angled form that had become synonymous with the brand. This balance between familiarity and progression helped create a more confident, modern identity while maintaining continuity with the company’s established reputation.