We energise the world’s largest brands and organisations
by helping them connect and respond to cultural change
Ocado has established itself to be synonymous with an incredible range of quality groceries. But their visual identity risked losing its zing and zest over time and was in need of a refresh. We worked with the Ocado team to set a new course for their visual design, towards something distinct, vibrant and long-lasting.
Digital spaces demand more of a brand’s visual identity. It was vital that Ocado was able to come alive brilliantly here, and for every customer interaction to be meaningful and well received. Space Doctors delved into culture – using semiotics and cultural insight – to discover how Ocado’s visual world could evolve to become more potent.
Our analysis explored Ocado’s colours. Their previous green and charcoal colour scheme felt too serious – it risked seeming impersonal or lacking in emotion. These muted colours had a quiet subtlety that felt at odds with the vitality and variety of choice Ocado is known for. More energy was needed. We sought a new way that not only evoked a fresh new vibrancy, but that was ownable for Ocado.
We knew shape and form would also be vital to evoke a sense of dynamism and opportunity. The brand’s organic shapes were strong, but as people view the world on ever tinier screens, they needed to work harder to be distinct. We considered how the Ocado swirl and wordmark could be tweaked to stand out and be even more clearly recognisable.
The resulting redesign shows Ocado having evolved. It feels emergent, bright, fresh and distinct – and robust enough to remain so into the future.
Lisa McDowell, Head of Brand Marketing at Ocado Retail, said of working with us;
“We love working with Space Doctors at Ocado Retail. Their contribution across multiple projects has been invaluable over the last year. Our teams across Marketing, Merchandising, Insights and Creative value the rich and wide ranging culturally-informed category insight, through to the granular analysis we’ve done on our visual and packaging identity, fleet design and value messaging. Our relationship with the team at Space Doctors has helped us stretch our thinking, shape successful creative briefs and carve out new exciting opportunities.”
If you’d like to chat to us about how we can help you reinvigorate your visual identity, please get in touch.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Ocado
While global design agency, Saffron, were working on the launch of Meta – Facebook’s new company brand – the pressure was on to make this the most significant digital relaunch of (at least) this year. To ensure no details, opportunities, or meaningful moments were missed, Saffron turned to Space Doctors to help them understand the vital role of colour and emotion when crafting a definitive identity to bring in a new era of digital immersion.
In designing the ‘metaverse’, Facebook were trying to push the limits and lead the future of social media and the immersive digital environment. Reaching beyond the screen, metaverse design principles should inhabit the entire canvas of the user’s imagination – from the air you breathe to the light on your skin. Keeping in touch with Facebook’s core social values, this world had to be built on foundations of connection, empathy, and possibility.
We began this journey by researching the cultural codes of digital natives, how colour plays an emotional role in their lives, and how we could call upon their vibrant creative energy to define this digital frontier specifically for them.
We then dug deeper into the design codes of virtuality itself – how light, interactivity, energy, and motion unfold across the spectrum of VR/AR and MR to create a narrative meaning that would speak to the social essence of the metaverse.
To focus our insights, we synthesised the two research pieces into unique colour worlds detailed through imagery, texture, narrative and cultural context. Now armed with an intricate visual outline for design, the creative team at Saffron had the tools they needed to form a new brand identity that could hold the vast range of human experience the metaverse was striving to offer.
Could your brand identity use a cultural refresh to encourage more engaged and meaningful customer interactions? Get in touch to find out how we can help.
What do sexuality and semiotics have in common? To us, they’re both all about exploration, attention, and discovery. When Durex needed a fresh, culturally powered read on a category that still remains taboo in many markets, an innovative approach that put semiotics to work was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Durex were struggling to establish meaning beyond being the world’s number one condom brand. Wanting to gain relevance in conversations of broader sexual well-being, they needed to understand the cultural shifts impacting how people talk and think about sex across intersections of sexuality, ethnicity, generation, and region.
Using local analytics from our in-market teams across the globe, we defined a set of Cultural Codes of Sexual Wellbeing and plotted them onto a Semiotic Map of Sexual Wellbeing. This tool enables each regional Durex team to visualise market-specific nuances they can use to identify the visual and linguistic levers they need to pull to activate these codes.
We then decoded key competitors in each market by studying core brand assets and communications. These Global Category Codes highlighted connections between dominant and emergent narratives, as well as how Durex can disrupt them to elevate and differentiate its brand in the future.
Durex now have a wealth of accessible information helping them to tell more powerful and distinctive stories, directly inspired by and tailored to specific cultures and markets.
This project was about unlocking the world of discovery. Without returning to traditional, demure imagery, Durex have found ways to represent sexuality in a way that champions inclusivity, sensitivity, and authenticity. That feels important for the future, not only for Durex as a brand, but for society as a whole.
We identified four key cultural stories of sleep the brand could tap into. Two powerful insights were supported by ethnographic observation in hotel rooms: the importance of fluid, flexible space and the importance of thresholds.
We then worked with leading designers from outside the sector to reinvent the hotel room space in a way that uniquely addresses guests’ real unmet needs.
The design has been so successful that in late 2018 it was patented.
How effectively is your brand delivering the experience you and your audience want it to? Get in touch to find out how we can help.
