Designing a new look and tone for inclusivity, engagement, and consistency across audiences.
Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, initially appointed us to refresh the branding and communications of its people function, promoting the company as a great place to work.
For us, consistency is key to a brand’s authenticity, and it was important that Nexus didn’t have one ‘face’ for its team and another for its passengers – after all, these two audiences are often one and the same. We suggested a revised logo and tone of voice that would be inclusive and engaging for all of the brand’s audiences – internal and external – along with a new look and feel for people campaigns that would sit comfortably with the overall company branding.
The new brand positioning and tagline establishes Nexus as an organisation ‘for everyone going places’: striking a chord with everyone from potential recruits with ambitious career goals to go-getting team members hungry to progress and of course public transport users all over the region, traveling for work or leisure, by Metro, bus, ferry or rail.
We brought this ethos to life with a new brand narrative, revised logo and brand toolkit that enshrine inclusion and accessibility at their heart. The redesigned logo is softer and more welcoming, with adjusted colouring to help make it clearer for people with impaired colour vision. New tone-of-voice guidelines celebrate diversity and give a voice to the passion and positivity, as well as the professionalism, of Nexus people.
Delighted, our client expanded the initial ask, from:
- People-brand positioning
- Refreshed logo
- Brand toolkit
- Recruitment advertisement templates
- Email templates, and
- Digital newsletter design
To include:
- A master brand video and campaign-specific edits, for internal and external audiences
- Radio
- Window vinyls for the company headquarters, and
- A rapid roll-out of the new logo company-wide.
The whole suite of assets stars real Nexus team members, who embraced the project with enthusiasm and bring a fresh and vibrant authenticity – particularly to video and radio, where their diverse voices add an extra dimension to the delivery. A further video edit showcasing Nexus apprenticeships has since been added to the mix.