Change is afoot here at 7digital and we’re excited to be going through a major brand refresh. We’re growing up as a company and it is time for us to do some reflection on our brand. What do we stand for as a company? How should we be visually represented?
We need a visual identity that can grow with us. Something that better represents the ethos of what we stand for – passionate, collaborative, brave and genuine – and a strong iconic symbol that works well with others.
Brands are not skin deep. They represent a deeper connection to companies beyond logos and colours, and our change has been no less significant: from identifying our key brand attributes and understanding how they tie into our company mission to developing a logo and colours that work in this brave new world of mobile; from re-skinning our consumers stores and mobile apps, to a major update to our corporate website with updated graphics, Powerpoints, collateral, info-graphics and a new company video. All of us here, from the old timers to the relatively newbies like myself, have embraced this change and are very excited about what the future holds for us.
Perhaps you’d like to know how we got our new visual representation? 7digital was co-founded in 2004 by Ben Drury and James Kane who had the vision of creating a digital media marketplace. Eight years on, we’ve grown to be the leading global open digital music and media platform and the future looks bright.
As with many companies, our logo has gone through some evolution but the key factor throughout has been around the seven. The ‘7’ in 7digital is the unique part of our name. Seven is a lucky number in many cultures and it was important to us that this be represented in our logo. You can see that the old logo contains seven dots.
With the growth of our services over mobile devices and through partner networks, we needed something that works well when reduced to small sizes, as well being a good fit with partner brands.
Our new logo is derived from a heptagon, a 7 sided shape. One triangular segment was taken from the heptagon and subsequently broken down into smaller forms.
Sections were then removed from this in order to create an instantly recognisable ‘seven’ shape, which forms the basis of our new logo. The simplicity of this form creates a logo which is bold and confident, and transfers well to small-scale and on-screen applications.
The 155 degree angle from the right-hand side of the triangle was used to craft specific elements of the accompanying wordmark, creating a bespoke and highly identifiable brandmark for 7digital. You can see that it is quite a change, just as we are changing.
We’ve also adopted a new font called Effra which reflects the genuine and open nature of our company and brand personality. Effra is named after a river that used to run through Brixton in South London until it was re-routed underground. It was created by the design firm of Dalton Maag who are a young, dynamic London based company who kind of remind us of ourselves and who have also designed the font for the 2016 official Rio Olympic Games.
To support our brand refresh, we’ve developed some cool new content including an infographic that you will see on our corporate site next week, as well as a new company overview video on our main page.
We hope you like our new look as much as we do. We’d love to hear your comments or questions.
Best,
Kelaine
VP, Global Marketing
