I’ve had the pleasure of working for Cubeworks since its inception in 2002, and have played a key role in the creation and development of our brand. With our 2009 refresh hot off the press, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to review how the visual side of our brand has changed over the past seven years.

We started out as Qoob (pron.’Cube’) in 2002. My hand-designed geometric typeface and vibrant orange logo were designed to stand out from the competition, and often became a talking point with prospective clients. Though the logo tended to marmetise opinion, at least it demanded opinion.

For a small agency with big ambition, it was a great fit. A few years down the line, we began to contend for larger projects including those in the public sector. I felt that pronunciation ambiguities (‘Goob?’ or is it ‘Kwob?’) and the polarising effect on taste were both potentially harmful to our new business strategy.

Brand reinvention becomes more difficult the later it occurs in a company’s lifespan. If tackled early, it can be a fairly painless segue from old to new, while still reaping the benefit of established client feedback and a few years’ field testing. The time was right for a relaunch:

When designing Cubeworks’ first logo, I wanted a typeface that stood out. I felt that ITC Bauhaus offered some of the geometric strength of that used for Qoob, while managing the difficult task of looking modern yet enduring. Impressive for a typeface designed in 1975. The rendered 3D element also had a very contemporary feel to it – the classic Sony Eriksson logo was a favourite at the time.

For the last year or so, I’ve been keen to give Cubeworks a brand update. Here’s our new logo:

It’s easy to see the family resemblance, and that’s the point – it looks and feels like a progression rather than a reinvention.

It’s now a purely vector logo which allows it to be scaled and deployed on a variety of backgrounds and colours with ease. The vertical edges of the graphic make it easier to align with the grid and other layout objects.

The most progressive aspect, for me, is the change of typeface. In ITC Avant Garde I found a typeface with a rich design heritage and more than a nod to the geometric type used throughout Cubeworks’ history. We can finally stop using Helvetica as our title / heading typeface since Avant Garde is more than capable.

Opting for a brand evolution over a brand reinvention makes sense if a company has already established a positive mindshare and rapport with its clients. It builds. It can be rolled out softly. It’s evidence of a maturing brand rather than a critical need to reassess.

The greatest benefit of our brand refresh is that it will be an organic process, managed in-house while fitting around our busy production schedule.