Tag: brandagency

ADURA, Brand Design for Shell and Equinor JV

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Our brand design agency is  proud to unveil Adura, a bold new name and brand for a new joint venture between Shell and Equinor.

Brand Design Background

Shell and Equinor formed an Independent Joint Venture (IJV) to consolidate their North Sea energy operations. They faced a critical brand design challenge. How to  establish credibility for a newly formed entity in an industry where heritage and track record are paramount to stakeholder confidence?

We developed a brand identity to project authority, safety, stability, and scale.

 

Creating the Brand Design

The name Adura, combines the “A” of Aberdeen with the “dura” of durability. This reflects the solid enduring granite geology that forms Aberdeen’s foundation and the new company’s commitment to the North Sea’s long-term economic future.

The visual identity works across extraordinary scale variations. From monolithic offshore oil rigs visible for miles at sea, to hard hats, safety equipment, digital favicons, and corporate communications. It speaks credibly to government regulators, reassures transitioning employees from two energy majors, and resonates with industry partners. As well as the Aberdeen community whose economy depends on North Sea operations.

 

Design Thinking

The Adura brand design system centres on a bold, confident logotype. As an established and experienced brand design agency we excel at creating custom-design logotypes. Adura balances industrial strength with modern precision. We compacted the letters deliberately to feel dense, to look rock solid, carved out of granite. Even the way the characters interlock reflects the name’s strength and resilience. Unlike its competitor brands, Adura has no brand icon, it stands strong, authoritative and confident.

Our wordmark employs geometric letterforms to suggest engineering excellence and structural integrity. These qualities are essential to offshore operations. The clean, contemporary character signals forward-looking capability.

In addition, Adura’s brand colour palette is inspired by the earthy tones of stratigraphy. A Scottish pulse of purple provides flashes of patriotic optimism and energy.  This is in contrast to the competitor landscape, which is filled with blues (North Sea). Vivid and energetic colours are more typical brand palettes of the energy sector in general.

 

Brand Credibility

The identity successfully positions Adura as a credible player in the North Sea energy landscape. The visual language differentiates Adura within a crowded market of established players.

Few brand design agencies have the experience and skill to create a seriously strong brand design, for a serious infrastructure business built for long-term operations.

 

Read the press releases here

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

55 Years Building Brands That Last

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

This year marks Designhouse’s 55th anniversary. More than half a century partnering with organisations to create brand work that drives business performance.

Origin Story

We started in 1970, when brand design meant typesetting, paste-up boards, and physical craftsmanship.

Through five decades, we’ve navigated every major shift in how brands are built and delivered; from desktop publishing in the 80s to digital transformation in the 2000s to AI-enabled design today.

But technology has never been the point. The point is what survives the technology changes.

 

Built to Last

Fuller’s Brewery still uses the brand identity we created in the early 1990s, thirty-something years ago. Not because we predicted design trends, but because we built it on strategic foundations that transcend fashion. When Michael, the man who commissioned that work, recently retired, the brand was still going strong. That’s what happens when you invest in design built on business strategy rather than commercial trends.

We’ve seen agencies chase every new tool and trend. Watched big-name studios prioritise principal celebrity over client outcomes. Seen consultancies deliver strategy decks that never get implemented.

Designhouse is an experienced brand design agency. We have always taken a different path: understand the business problem first, apply 55 years of tested experience, deliver work that performs in real markets with real stakeholders.

This longevity isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about earning trust through consistency. With clients like Vodafone, Shell, Centrica, EMCOR UK, and Springer Nature who return because the work delivers measurable value.

 

Future Proof

As we enter our sixth decade, the questions remain the same: Does this brand support business objectives? Will it work under competitive pressure? Can sales actually use it? Does it command the pricing power you need?

The tools change. The wisdom doesn’t.

Here’s to 55 years of brands built to perform, not just to impress.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Flowers Exhibition Saatchi Gallery

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Finding Inspiration In Nature

Last week, the Designhouse team took a break from the studio. We were celebrating CEO Lavinia Culverhouse’s birthday with a visit to the Flowers exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square.

With over 500 works spanning everything from botanical roots to the intersection of flowers and fashion, it was a rich and genuinely surprising day.

      

It is easy to underestimate how much time away from a screen can sharpen your thinking. Exhibitions like this one are a reminder that the strongest visual language often comes from nature. Form, shapes, colour – all  things that nature designed long before brands existed. For those of us working in strategic brand design, that kind of reference point matters.

   

The best brand work does not emerge from a brief alone. It comes from people who are curious, who look broadly, and who bring a wider frame of reference to the table. Days like this are part of how Designhouse stays sharp.

Happy birthday, Lavinia, you deserve all the flowers.

It was a bloomin’ marvellous day!

 

 

 

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

FP Live 2025: the Future of Financial Brands

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

FP Live, Financial Promoter’s annual conference, brought together senior figures from across asset management and financial services. The conversations oreflected a sector wrestling with some genuinely difficult questions about identity, differentiation and trust.

Designhouse Creative Director Peter Dobie joined Tom Lloyd, Ronjit Bose and Hannah Robinson on stage to discuss brand identity across audio, visual and emerging channels. It is a topic with real stakes in financial services. Brand recognition is hard-won and the pressure to modernise without alienating existing clients is constant.

The wider programme tackled the shifting dynamics of global asset management. As well as the growing tension between human-led creativity and automated content. And what it now takes to build a brand that can hold its own in a crowded market. None of these are abstract questions. For firms managing significant client relationships and long investment cycles, brand is increasingly a boardroom concern, not just a marketing one.

We understand the unique pressures the financial sector faces. Our work spans some of the most complex and regulated sectors in business. The themes at FP Live reinforced something we see with clients regularly. The firms that treat brand as a strategic asset rather than a communications afterthought are the ones better placed to compete. The conversation is evolving, and it is good to see the financial sector fully engaged in it.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Transform Awards Europe 2025

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

What a thrilling night to be a brand and design agency!

We’re incredibly proud to have taken home five awards at the Transform Awards Europe 2025:
🏆 Silver | Bring Energy and Designhouse – Best Implementation of a Brand Development Project
🏆 Silver | Bring Energy and Designhouse – Best Naming Strategy (New Name)
🏆 Bronze | Loan Market Association (LMA) and Designhouse – Horizons Quarterly Publication – Best Brand Experience
🏆 Bronze | SRE Ltd and Designhouse – Best Visual Identity from the Property, Construction & Facilities Management Sector
🏆 Highly Commended | Bring Energy and Designhouse – Best Visual Identity from the Energy & Utilities Sector

Designing Without Bias: The Brand Strategy Behind TalentMapper

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

There is a particular design challenge that comes with building a brand for a platform whose entire purpose is to remove bias. Get it wrong, and the identity undermines the proposition before a single conversation has taken place.

TalentMapper is an AI-powered talent management platform, seed-funded and founded by HR professionals. It is designed to remove bias. To ensure that skills and experience determine outcomes rather than personal attributes. DE&I has moved from aspiration to operational priority for HR teams. As a result, the demand for tools that make fairness systemic rather than dependent on individual judgement, has grown considerably. TalentMapper sits squarely in that space, and it is a crowded one.

We created a brand identity that could hold its own in a noisy market, without resorting to the same noise. The decision was deliberate. Where competitors reach for bold colour and assertive graphics to command attention, TalentMapper’s new identity plays it quieter. A softer palette, a restrained aesthetic, and a design system built around neomorphism principles. Silhouettes that appear to dissolve into the background, suggesting the kind of seamless, frictionless matching that the platform is designed to deliver.

The result is a brand that feels considered in a category that has often not been. Authenticity is difficult to fake in a market built around trust, and TalentMapper’s identity earns it by reflecting the values of the product rather than simply decorating them.

Read the full case study here

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

TalentMapper: A Brand Without Bias

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

There is a particular design challenge that comes with building a brand for a platform whose entire purpose is to remove bias. Get it wrong, and the identity undermines the proposition before a single conversation has taken place.

TalentMapper is an AI-powered talent management platform, seed-funded and founded by HR professionals. It is built to ensure that skills and experience determine outcomes rather than personal attributes. DE&I has moved from aspiration to operational priority for HR teams. As a result, the demand for tools that make fairness systemic rather than dependent on individual judgement has grown considerably. TalentMapper sits squarely in that space, and it is a crowded one.

We created a brand identity to hold its own in a noisy market without resorting to the same noise. The decision was deliberate. Where competitors reach for bold colour and assertive graphics to command attention, TalentMapper’s new identity plays it quieter. A softer palette, a restrained aesthetic, and a design system built around neomorphism principles. Silhouettes appear to dissolve into the background, suggesting the kind of seamless, frictionless matching that the platform is designed to deliver.

The result is a brand that feels considered in a category that has often not been. Authenticity is difficult to fake in a market built around trust, and TalentMapper’s identity earns it by reflecting the values of the product rather than simply decorating them.

We loved working with TalentMapper, crafting a brand identity that puts people at the heart of talent management. Discover the new brand today here.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

What the Fashion Runway Can Teach Us About Brand Identity

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

The Designhouse team visited the Lightroom in King’s Cross recently for Vogue: Inventing the Runway. It’s an immersive exhibition tracing the fashion show from the intimate couture salons of the early 20th century to the era-defining spectacles of recent decades. Narrated by Cate Blanchett, it is a genuinely compelling piece of experiential storytelling. With incredible Vogue archive featuring designers from Chanel and Dior to Vivienne Westwood and Maison Margiela,

Fashion Show as Brand Statement

 

What struck us was how clearly the exhibition frames the runway as a communications medium. It’s not just a vehicle for clothes. The show is where a designer’s identity is made legible. It’s where values, references and audience are declared season after season. In that sense, it is not so different from the work we do. Designers of all disciplines struggle with the question of how to make tangible something that is abstract. The challenge is to embody  a vision, a set of values, a sense of who you are and who you are for, to make it visible and felt by an audience.

Authenticity is Always In style

 

The figure who stayed with the team longest was Patrick Kelly.

Born in Mississippi in 1954, Kelly became the first American admitted to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter, the governing body of the French ready-to-wear industry.

His runway shows looked genuinely fun. Models sashaying and twirling, turning the catwalk into a party. The majority of his models were Black at a time when that was far from the norm.

His signature playful buttons were a direct reference to his grandmother, who mended his family’s clothing with mismatched buttons from her sewing basket. That detail matters: a brand rooted so specifically in personal history, translated into a visual language that was immediately recognisable, joyful and subversive all at once.

Kelly was extremely proud of his roots and culture. He actively incorporated his own background into his practice. And he merged the celebration of Black identity with a contemporary aesthetic. He built a brand with genuine conviction behind it. One that communicated something real rather than simply competing for attention. It is a lesson that transfers well beyond fashion.

 

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Funds Congress Conference

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Funds Congress is the definitive gathering of fund managers and asset allocators. It brings together top executives to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the asset management industry. From regulatory change and economic outlook to AI and digital distribution, it is all discussed in this forum. The event is one of the most senior conferences in the UK funds calendar. Recognised as Event-led Initiative of the Year at the Financial Promoter Awards 2024.

This year the visual identity running throughout, across the environment, signage and all event materials, is created by Designhouse.

Co-hosted by Carne Group, Dechert,  PwC, and Euroclear, the challenge is to reflect the collaborative nature of four significant institutions coming together. To visualise this we use a gradient wave device and a clean typographic logo. This concept communicates connectivity and confidence. It presents the organisers as a unified proposition to an audience of over 1,000 senior delegates.

 

Seeing our work in place, at scale, and in context, is one of the more useful things a design team can do. A conference identity of this kind is not simply a backdrop. It sets the register of the whole day before anyone takes the stage, and in a sector where trust and credibility are foundational, the visual language carries real weight.

 

In asset management, trust is the product. Brand is how you build it.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

M6N – A Brand Under Pressure

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

The first weekend of the Six Nations delivered everything it usually promises. Kit design upgrades were in evidence across all the teams. France were imperious in Paris, Ireland edged a tight one in Dublin, and Scotland held off a determined Italy. But alongside the on-the-pitch kit and caboodle, there was a parallel conversation running, one that those of us in brand design found equally compelling.

Rebrand Reactions

The tournament rebranded to M6N ahead of its 25th anniversary in 2025. The new identity was developed by London creative agency How Now. It centres on a slanted, shiny wordmark rendered in a fiery orange gradient, chosen to channel warmth and optimism. The reaction, predictably, was split.

Fans compared it to everything from Mars bar branding to the credits of a 1996 comedy film. Others called it a necessary evolution. That kind of response is familiar to anyone who has worked through a major rebrand with a client. The logo lands first, stripped of context, and people react to a mark rather than a system.

 

 

Standing Strong In the Face of Criticism

Michael Ritson, Head of Marketing & Creative at Six Nations Rugby was clear on the intent. It is designed to create memory structures with the brand, attract younger fans, and build something that works as a digital-first identity. The men’s rebrand also aligns with the Women’s Six Nations identity launched in 2023. There is now a unified, intuitive naming structure across M6N, W6N and U6N. As a result, each stands on its own, while also remaining part of the same family.

Ritson’s response to the initial backlash was straightforward: trust the strategy, and see how it comes to life when the games kick off. That is sound thinking. A brand identity is not a logo on a white background. It is colour filling a stadium, players wearing it, broadcasters running it across millions of screens, supporters wrapping themselves in their nation’s colours. Seen in that context, across that first weekend, it worked. Brilliantly.

The Final Result

The M6N rebrand is a useful case study in one of the most consistent truths in brand design. Reaction at launch is rarely the measure of success. The measure is whether the identity holds, scales and builds meaning over time.

And this is most definitely a brand identity that earned its conversion.

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Design Week Internship Spotlight

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Dh CEO, Lavinia Culverhouse,  talks to Clare Dowdy at Design Week.  about Internships. They discuss what design leaders look for when offering internships and employing young talent. Why it is important to support new talent by providing opportunities to gain industry experience, and how companies benefit from fresh perspectives and diverse backgrounds.

Check our careers page 

Read the full article here

 

Designhouse shortlisted for Transform Awards 2025

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse is shortlisted in 5 categories at the Transform Europe Brand Awards 2025.

Our nominations include:
🏠 Best Brand Experience for the Loan Market Association (LMA) Horizons Quarterly Sustainable Finance Publication
🖌️ Best Visual Identity for evolving SRE Ltd’s core identity
🖋️ Best Brand Development, Best Naming Strategy and Best Visual Identity for our work on Bring Energy

We are also incredibly proud to celebrate our Strategy Director, Marina Guirey, nominated in the Brand Strategist of the Year category.

 

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

2024 Review

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

2024 was a year of considerable range for Designhouse. Across sectors, scales and briefs, the work reflected something consistent: that strong brand strategy, applied with rigour and creative conviction, produces results that matter beyond the studio. Here is some of what we are most proud of.

New Brands Built From The Ground Up

Bring Energy is a pioneer in city-scale sustainable heating and cooling. We handled naming, strategy and identity from scratch. The resulting brand centres on a multi-coloured palette. This reflects the diverse communities BE serves. The name is designed to do more than identify. The word “Bring”, embedded throughout messaging, gives the brand a conversational quality. As a result the brand name will drive communications for years to come.

For Gulf Oil, a brand with over 120 years of global history, we created something entirely new. Reviva, is a coffee brand extension launching into one of the most competitive consumer categories there is. We developed strategic positioning, naming and full identity. As a result, Reviva made its debut at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. It has since secured partnerships with Swansea Football Club and the Raffles Hotel.

 

Established Brands Taken Forward

We worked with VEV, the fleet electrification company founded by Vitol, the world’s largest independent energy trading business. The output is a contemporary identity built around the interlocked EV letterform. The brand is designed to hold its own in a fast-developing and increasingly crowded sector. The project won at the Transform Awards in April. It was also recognised with a Bronze at The Drum Awards for Brand Development, where the client noted that we combine creative and digital expertise with a genuine sense of being part of their marketing team.

For Cruxy, a deep tech growth consultancy, we developed a brand around The Crux. This ident is a precision design device formed by two intersecting lines, anchored in an electric blue and acidic green palette. The brief demanded a visual language that matched their incisive, data-driven positioning for senior private equity audiences.

TalentMapper  is an  AI-powered talent management platform designed to eliminate unconscious bias. We built a brand around neomorphism principles and a deliberately restrained palette. This stands it apart from a noisy market by playing it quiet, and earning confidence in doing so.

 

Content That Makes The Case

The first edition of the Loan Market Association’s Horizons ESG publication gave us the opportunity to build a brand story around the LMA’s sustainability agenda, drawing on elemental imagery and a flowing design language to communicate a conservation mission in a sector too often dominated by technical language and dense regulatory copy. The work was shortlisted for Content Campaign of the Year at the Financial Promoter Awards, where Designhouse was also shortlisted for Design Agency of the Year.

 

Looking Ahead

In 2024, we worked across sectors. From energy infrastructure to fintech,  consumer brand launches to financial services publications.

What 2024 demonstrated, perhaps more clearly than any single project, is that the principles of strategic brand design are not sector-specific. The thinking that goes into naming a sustainable energy business is not fundamentally different from the thinking required to launch a coffee brand at a Grand Prix, or to give a fintech firm the visual authority it needs in front of private equity. The problems are different. The discipline is the same.

Designhouse works across verticals by design, not by accident. Sector diversity keeps our thinking sharp, prevents the kind of category myopia that produces safe, predictable work, and means our clients benefit from a perspective that is genuinely broader than their immediate competitive set. A financial services brand can learn something from the energy sector. A consumer launch can inform how we approach a B2B identity. That cross-pollination is one of the less visible but most valuable things we bring to a brief.

Wherever the work takes us, the intention remains constant, and ROI is a given. Designhouse is where strategy takes shape.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Zines creative chat

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

In our latest CreativeChat, designer Victoria H, curated an exhibition exploring the history of zines.

Zines often promote diversity and serve as catalysts for change, amplifying the voices of underrepresented and marginalised groups to bring fresh ideas into focus.

Inspired by this history, each member of the team crafted their own double page spread which were combined to become a Designhouse zine.

How do you use design to tell your story?

Trip to Euston Food Bank

Posted on by Millie Regan

Today, we popped across to the Euston Foodbank to drop off some much-needed supplies for those who might go without this holiday season.

Our Designhouse team have been loading food items into our collection box this week as a small favour to help local people in crisis, hoping to provide some form of comfort this Christmas.

We also collected clothing items that seemed better passed to those battling the harsh conditions of winter.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers we interacted with today. You are nothing short of exceptional in your tireless work to better the circumstances of those who are struggling.

Learn how you can donate to the Euston Foodbank here > https://lnkd.in/ejsycfMj

Discover Foodbanks near you > https://lnkd.in/eWz75tDt

Every Woman Entrepreneur Awards

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse CEO, Lavinia Culverhouse, had the honour of attending the Everywoman Entrepreneur Awards 2024.

The annual awards celebrate female entrepreneurial success, and the achievements of female business owners, like Lavinia.

Everywoman is an expert in the advancement of women in business. For two decades they have hosted highly acclaimed events, elevating female role models and high-quality training programmes, helping to shape tomorrow’s leaders and their teams.

Their learning and development platform, the everywomanNetwork, has thousands of members in over 150 countries, enabling women and male ‘ambassadors of change’ to access first class development resources. The digital platform has been shown to have a positive impact on the way women view their own careers and future progression, whether that’s with their current employers or as entrepreneurs.

Lavinia was a a guest of Stonehage Fleming.

Meet Our Director Matt

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Matt Gillman has been at the heart of Designhouse for 10 years, helping steer our agency’s design and branding approach to achieve success for our clients.

He recently led the Cruxy rebrand, driving the creative solution for the tech specialists’ unique positioning. Check out our case study here.

Cheers to a decade of Designhouse brilliance, Matty!

OncoSil Medical Brand Refresh

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse has completed a full brand refresh for OncoSil, a global medical device company at the forefront of pancreatic cancer treatment. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia, OncoSil has recently received regulatory approval in both Switzerland and Malaysia.

This marks a significant step in its international expansion. To reflect this growing global presence and cement its authority in oncology, a refreshed brand was required.

The brief called for a more dynamic identity that balanced scientific rigour with human warmth. Designhouse evolved the existing brand assets, introduced a refined colour palette of dark navy and electric blue to convey trust and transformation, and adopted the semi-condensed typeface FS Industrie for its clean, technical quality. A new strapline, “Targeted Approach, Positive Impact,” was developed to anchor the brand’s refreshed direction.

   

The work extended well beyond visual identity. We produced a new

  • website
  • social media assets,
  • exhibition graphics
  • corporate literature
  • a suite of video content, including mode of action and dose preparation films tailored for healthcare professionals.
  • annual report
  • radiation safety guidelines
  • corporate brand film to introduce the new identity to employees and external stakeholders

  

OncoSil’s Marketing Director, Cynthia Azucena, noted that Designhouse delivered creative work and well-considered strategic input, with the new identity effectively capturing the company’s human-centric approach to pioneering science.

Read the full case study here

 

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

X Marks The Spot for Cruxy rebrand

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

In fintech and deep tech, precision is everything. Your brand needs to work just as hard as your data. It must communicate authority and sharpness before a single word is read. That is a brief Designhouse knows well.

When Cruxy came to us, they had a powerful proposition. As deep tech specialists, they operate a proprietary data engine, Cortex. They map over two billion market data points to identify fast, precise opportunities for growth. The challenge is translating that rigour into a visual identity that senior executives would instantly trust and respect.

The answer came from the heart of the brand itself. We developed ‘The Crux’. This design device is built from two intersecting lines, expressing the pinpoint accuracy and absolute precision that defines how Cruxy works. Paired with an electric blue and acidic green palette, the identity carries genuine energy without sacrificing credibility. Bold, but disciplined. Distinctive, but purposeful.

The tone of voice followed the same logic. Cruxy speaks with authority while actively challenging convention. Black-and-white imagery set against vivid colour delivers a confident contrast. Cruxy is not just another data provider, but a sharp and exacting partner for leaders who demand more.

The result is a brand that looks and sounds exactly like what Cruxy is: incisive, rigorous, and built for the top of the market.

To see how the identity came together across every touchpoint, take a look at the full case study.

 

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Creative chat: Manhole Covers of the World

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

“Art (Design) is not what you see, but what others make you see.”

Edgar Degas

 

This morning, Designhouse welcomed Björn Altmann, graphic designer, illustrator and typographer, for one of our Creative Chat sessions, and it was a genuinely inspiring start to the day.

Björn shared his latest publication, Manhole Covers of the World, produced in collaboration with Swiss publisher Niggli AG.

The book is exactly as it sounds, and all the better for it. A meticulous, visually arresting catalogue of manhole cover designs drawn from over 80 countries, presented through 170 crisp white-on-black illustrations.

The result is a quietly extraordinary object, one that reframes something entirely overlooked as a lens through which to explore culture, craft and civic identity.

The conversation that followed was rich. Björn spoke openly about the process behind the project, a creative journey that unfolded over two decades.

From the earliest concept through to finished publication, the commitment required to see something so singular all the way through was not lost on anyone in the room. This is the kind of labour of love that rarely gets made, and even more rarely gets made well.

What struck the team most was the discipline behind it. Twenty years of due diligence. Quietly building something with rigour and curiosity, without losing sight of what made the idea worth pursuing in the first place. It served as a timely reminder of the value of following a creative instinct through, however long the road.

We’re grateful to Björn for sharing his time and his thinking with us. Sessions like these are part of what makes Designhouse the place it is.

 

Designhouse has partnered with FTSE 250 companies and global enterprises for over 50 years, delivering strategic brand consultancy that creates measurable competitive advantage. If you’d like to discuss your brand challenges, we’d be glad to talk.

Contact us

Vev Win At The Prestigious Drum Awards

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Vev Energy was awarded Bronze 🥉 in the Design Strategy category at The Drum Awards for Brand Development work.

The project with VEV   supports their ambition to lead the charge in fleet electrification ⚡

A massive thank you to the whole team at VEV for their expert vision and trust, allowing us to collaborate with them to drive impactful change in EVs.

Read the full case study here

Design Agency of the Year 2024 Winners

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse are delighted to announce that we were awarded Design Agency of the Year last night at the Financial Promoter Awards in London.

We were also awarded Highly Commended for Content Campaign of the Year for our quarterly online publication, Horizons, for the Loan Market Association (LMA), offering thought-provoking commentary on sustainable finance

We could not have won these awards without the dedicated support of our clients who make it all possible and of course, without the hugely talented team we have here at Designhouse.

Designhouse creates strategic brand systems that maintain coherence across visual, digital, and informational touchpoints. We design for  humans and the AI agents increasingly shaping how expertise gets discovered.

Designhouse is where strategy takes shape.

Read the case study here

Cruxy Brand Refresh

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

With a refreshed visual identity, Cruxy can now demonstrate how they operate, cutting through the noise to deliver real impact for B2B tech enterprises, with acidic green and electric blue colours to provide a striking and incisive visual experience.

Keep an eye out for our next update to discover how we approached the brand refresh to reflect Cruxy‘s positioning as growth intelligence specialists. Whilst you wait, discover their re-energised website

Designhouse creates strategic brand systems that maintain coherence across visual, digital, and informational touchpoints. We design for  humans and the AI agents increasingly shaping how expertise gets discovered.

Designhouse is where strategy takes shape.

Loan Market Association (LMA) annual conference in London

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We are pleased to share our latest conference branding work for the Loan Market Association (LMA), which recently featured in their annual conference in London, the biggest of its kind in Europe.

This year, over 800 in-person & 500 virtual delegates had the opportunity to engage and network with industry-leading speakers and draw insights on the current & future projections of the Loan Market.

The goal was to create a concept that positioned The LMA as ‘Representing All The Loan Markets’.

The creative execution brought the vastness of the cosmos to life with a visually striking and all-encompassing design featuring a vibrant colour palette and dynamic graphic device.

The tagline “Further Together”, reinforced the industry’s collaborative, ever-expansive nature and positioned the LMA as a leading advocate for the collective growth of its partners.

It was amazing seeing the identity across various digital, animated and printed mediums within the QEII Centre and online through their streaming platform.

Read more here

Designhouse creates strategic brand systems that maintain coherence across visual, digital, and informational touchpoints. We design for  humans and the AI agents increasingly shaping how expertise gets discovered.

Designhouse is where strategy takes shape.

 

Building a sustainable future for the SRE brand

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse conceived and created a revitalised brand identity to help portray SRE Ltd’s vision within the build environment consulting sector, reimagining their visual devices and communication to help “Build a Sustainable Future.” See here > https://www.sre.co.uk/

The new brand rollout included a modernised website, engaging social media content, eye-catching event banners, branded merchandise and professional PowerPoint templates.

See our case study here > https://designhouse.co.uk/project/sre

Financial Promoter Awards Shortlist

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We are delighted to share that we have been shortlisted for not one but two Financial Promoter Awards for Design Agency of the Year and Content Campaign of the Year 👏 > https://financialpromoter.co.uk/fp-awards-shortlists/

Nominations included our work for the Loan Market Association (LMA) including their Horizons ESG publication > https://horizons.lma.eu.com/march2024/

AMPYR Solar Europe Launch

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse is excited to unveil AMPYR Solar Europe‘s new look identity and website, a dynamic and radiant depiction of their alternative energy solutions

Our brief was to reflect AMPYR Solar Europe’s conscious effort to support landowners and farming communities by offering sustainable power solutions for their land. We hope you agree that the bright and warm palette, coupled with the radiant animated visual device, conveys growth and vitality…

Read the full case study here

Creating brilliant brands for the energy sector

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Our mission at Designhouse is to create, nurture and grow award-winning, stand-out brands that excel in dynamic markets.

With the energy sector evolving rapidly, we are enabling companies to stay ahead of the curve by re-energising their identity…

See our work with energy giants: Bring Energy, VEV & Centrica Business Solutions

Westminster City Council Spotlight

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

It’s great to see Westminster City Council getting recognition for their efforts in Central London to protect the vulnerable here.

Designhouse devised the name and identity ‘Night Stars’ to represent the idea of stars guiding the vulnerable back home at night. The dynamic neon pink identity ensured visibility and individuality…

Recognising Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games come to a close, we wanted to share some Designhouse Olympic history.

In 2005, the then President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, announced that London would host the Games for a third time.

To commemorate the greatest sporting spectacle on earth returning to the capital, we were delighted to collaborate with Nick Knight on a range of Royal Mail stamps.

These designs demonstrate how creativity and athleticism can come together to showcase something beautiful and inspirational, not to mention the power that branding has to represent elite sportsmen and women and frame record-breaking triumphs…

Discussion at The Drum Labs

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

It pays to kick off a midweek morning with some creative inspiration!

Our Design Director, Matt Gillman, attended an insightful discussion at The Drum Labs yesterday, with the Creative Editor of The Drum, Tom Banks, presenting a new strategic design direction for the namesake’s publication.

Learn more about her experience here

 

DH summer party at Denbies Wine Estate

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

The Designhouse gang enjoyed a brilliant summer party on Friday at Denbies Wine Estate Limited in Dorking 🍷🍾🥂🌞

The rain held off as we experienced a fantastic tour of the vineyard grounds and factory, tasting the delicious selection of wines on offer and learning about the history of the grounds, local wine regions and the fermentation process.

We played bowls on the lawn, quizzed, drew our Euros Sweepstake and had lots of laughs.

Football Shirt Friday! ⚽

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

In honour of Real Madrid C.F. winning the UEFA Champions League Final, the guys and girls at Designhouse decided to highlight the power of creativity and branding in elite-level sport with our very own Football Shirt Friday ⚽

Branding has the power to transcend culture, with our favourite teams’ logo and colour identity recognisable all over the globe!

Bring Energy Creativepool Editorial

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We were delighted to have been featured in Creativepool’s recent editorial, on our work on the Bring Energy brand! Check it out here.

Our Design Director, Richard Debenham, spoke to creating a new brand name and visual identity for Bring Energy, developing the strategy, naming & positioning of the creative concepts and championing them through delivery, reflecting Bring Energy’s commitment to pioneering low-carbon heating and cooling solutions for cities across the UK.

Transform Awards Success

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Transform Awards
17 April 24

Our team had a fantastic night celebrating all things brand design and were delighted to win an award for the brand identity we developed for VEV at the Transform magazine awards!

We’re proud to be part of such an exciting and vibrant industry, here’s to evolving brands to shape the future 🥂

Financial Promoter 2024

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We attended Rhotic Media‘s Finance Promoter Live as a proud event sponsor. A huge thank you to the Rhotic Media team for organising such an engaging day, bringing together forward-thinking financial marketers.

With our sector experience, we recognise the importance of storytelling in building a strong brand narrative that cuts through crowded marketing communications.

Vertree website has gone live!

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Check out Vertree’s new website – https://vertree.earth!

Part of Hartree Partners, Vertree provide companies with high-impact solutions to achieve net zero emissions.

A fantastic collaboration with Lucy Haines MSc PIEMA, Perla Hilario Almonte and team on an optimised user experience, design and build that engages visitors with a simple way to discover more information about their services.

BGB and CBS Global reports are now live!

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We’re excited to share the British Gas Business and Centrica Business Solutions global reports which have now gone live!

These reports address important issues businesses should be acting on to meet their net zero and sustainability goals. With increasing pressure from all stakeholders, now is a more important time than ever to invest in your sustainability.

Read the reports below to learn more:

BGB 👉 https://lnkd.in/eErWCSAf

CBS 👉 https://lnkd.in/eRHkH985

RELX: A UK success story

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Designhouse are incredibly proud of our collaboration with the RELX group.

Including our on-going brand development projects for LexisNexis Risk Solutions and our award winning rebrands for EG and Accuity.

We are confident they will continue to go from strength to strength. One of our great British success stories. 🇬🇧

LMA Syndicated Loans Conference 2023

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

Check out our work for the Loan Market Association (LMA) Syndicated Loans Conference that took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London yesterday!

Every year, the team at LMA host their annual conference with over 800 delegates, the event offers a platform for discussing industry challenges and collaboratively pinpointing solutions as well as determining the best path forward.

We created a suite of deliverables including the conference theme, event stands, banners, merchandise, lunch and cocktail menus and signage.

If you would like to know more about how we can help elevate your event, do reach out to us at dh@designhouse.co.uk

 

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

This week we’re excited to share the ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’ exhibition.

This exhibition pays tribute to Gabrielle Chanel’s profound influence on fashion. Highlighting an array of significant Chanel pieces, including an early surviving garment from 1916, ensembles tailored for Hollywood luminaries Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich, an early groundbreaking evening trouser ensemble by Chanel, and selections from Chanel’s final collection in 1971.

Delving into the designer’s trajectory from the launch of her inaugural millinery boutique in 1910 to her ultimate collection in 1971, the exhibition will dissect how Chanel’s own individual style informed her creations, consequently revolutionizing women’s attire forever. While the era was characterized by corsets and voluminous skirts, epitomized by Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’, Chanel drew inspiration from menswear, particularly the attire worn by the British upper class during their sporting weekends in the countryside. She seamlessly integrated many of these menswear elements into her designs, employing tweed and wool, and popularizing trousers and knitwear for women.

Head over to the Victoria and Albert Museum this weekend to check out the first UK retrospective of Chanel’s work!

 

Colors Festival: A Symphony of Hues exhibition

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

This week, we’re thrilled to share the “Colors Festival: A Symphony of Hues” exhibition!

Immerse yourself in a vibrant world curated with the brilliance of colors, all brought to life by a diverse array of artists and creators.

From breathtaking installations to interactive workshops, this exhibition promises an unforgettable journey through the spectrum of human expression.

Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a culture seeker, or simply looking for a day filled with creativity and inspiration, the Colors Festival caters to all! 🌟

Head over to Camden this weekend to experience it for yourself!

 

Oncosil Annual Report 2023

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

We are thrilled to unveil the newly released OncoSil Medical 2023 annual report! 🎉

A great collaboration with Caner Turay – we are delighted with the result.

Dive into the full report here – https://lnkd.in/dE2nWb_v

If you would like to know more about how we can help elevate your annual report, do reach out to us at dh@designhouse.co.uk.

 

A world in common

Posted on by Matthew Gillman

This week we’re excited to share a Tate Modern exhibition on contemporary African photography!

‘A world in common’ is in London to celebrate Africa’s diverse culture and history, portrayed in photography, audio and film! The exibition explores how images travel through time, creating a beautiful mixture of historic elements weaved in contemporary art.

The exhibition is open to visitors from 6 July 2023 until 14 January 2024, at the Tate Modern Gallery in Banskide London.