Lambie-Nairn creates new MEC identity

The consultancy began working on the project in January this year, and has created a new identity and brand guidelines to be used across all touch points including MEC’s website, stationery, signage and advertising.

Sophie Lutman, creative director at Lambie-Nairn, says, ‘It was an opportunity for MEC to have a proper revolution rather than an evolution. They wanted to show they’re a part of the new digital world, rather than sitting in the past.’

Lambie-Nairn developed new colour palettes, fonts, photography styles, patterns and a new ‘portal’ graphic which ‘visualises the company’s exploration of new opportunities for its clients’, according to the consultancy.

It also devised a new brand architecture for MEC’s sub-brands, MEC Access, MEC Bravo and MEC Interaction and a set of icons, to ensure consistency across the different businesses.

The new logo uses uppercase letters ‘to demonstrate the strength and confidence of the brand’, says Lambie-Nairn, and also changed the configuration of the letters.

Lutman says, ‘We wanted to show how they would be the guide to a new world. Clients can be quite fearful of digital technology. We wanted to show that it’s exciting – not scary or daunting – so we wanted something positive and optimistic.

‘We came up with the idea of providing a gateway through loads of different worlds, then the logo came afterwards to describe the thinking that anything’s possible.’

She adds, ‘Just because we’re talking about something techie and digital, it doesn’t have to look techie and digital, so we went much more old-school with the logo and the typeface.’

Nathalie Haxby, global marketing director at MEC, says, ‘It’s been ten years since we launched MEC, and so this is the perfect time to change our visual identity as we look forward to the next ten years and beyond.’