REED

WHAT’S NEXT IN THE WORLD OF WORK

Reed is one of the most successful family-owned businesses in the UK, founded in 1960 in West London and now employing more than 3,400 co-members in over 100 locations across the country.

While most people recognise the Reed brand from its high street locations or the reed.co.uk “Love Mondays” campaign, there are more than ten different businesses answering different challenges across the world of work under the name Reed.

REED
REED

SETTING THE AMBITION

We were asked to define an overarching brand story that encompasses all of its operations and drive a refresh of the brand identity, answering the challenge of maintaining high-level consistency while enabling flexibility between sub-brand businesses.

“What’s Next’’ is both a provocation (what’s next?) and a resolution (this is what’s next), equally open and assertive. Across all of Reed’s operations, the services they offer are about looking forward – the next job, the next skill, the next colleague, the next project, the next challenge. 

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A FLEXIBLE IDENTITY FOR THE BRAND FAMILY

The family of Reed brands is not only aligned through a shared Purpose and brand idea, but by common core assets of the brand identity. This helps them to feel part of the same family but still enables them to create differentiation and distinction as sub brands.

The simplicity of “What’s Next” means that it is an incredibly flexible creative idea – focusing the brand on progression, continuation and looking forward – that frames the way Reed thinks, speaks and acts, and influences all aspects of design.

JOINING THE DOTS

The Reed “dots” have always been a recognisable part of the brand and were a fantastic opportunity to strongly link to the brand idea with the concept of the ellipsis. It is a literal representation of “What’s Next” taken from conversation – suggesting more to come, encouragement to always move forward and the start, middle and continuation of a journey. 

The dots have been heroed in the evolved logo and as the foundation of a broader distinctive and flexible graphic language, extending to create a number of graphic styles and communicating individual concepts for both the Masterbrand and the sub brands. 

The circular graphic language is used in a number of ways to create a vibrant, flexible graphic language across all of the Reed brands. To create differentiation each sub brand uses their own colour palette and has specific benefits which have been translated into a creative word or direction that they will use to inform their graphic language.

BUILDING ADDITIONAL BRAND EQUITY

 New assets such as an extended colour palette and display typeface have been introduced. Raisonne is a geometric sans-serif that includes unexpected letterforms, providing distinction and personality for all Reed brands, adding a unique character and softer human side to the business. 

The extended palette of blues is familiar to the history of Reed but has an added vibrancy and strength for the digital world. The fuller palette provides a bright, optimistic spectrum of colours from which to create bespoke palettes for the sub brands, and pick hero colours for the sub brand identifiers. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Becky King and the Dragon Rouge team on this important rebrand for Reed. Becky and her team approached the brief with great creativity and flair, and we now have an approach that works for all our businesses as we define what’s next for Reed’s seventh decade. James Reed Chairman and Chief Executive of the Reed Group
The vibrancy of the colour palette and the creative direction has given our businesses an exciting new look, coupled with the creative freedom to have their own distinct identity within our family of brands Lily Drake Group Head of Customer Experience at the Reed Group