Nomad has carried out a brand refresh for The Economist designed to attract new audiences. The magazine, which was first published in 1843, wanted to highlight its full range of offers across digital, social media, audio, video, events and newsletters.
The Nomad team started by defining the brand’s positioning. “The Economist has always had this clarity, a clear-eyed view through the chaos of the world,” says Nomad design director George Edwards. This developed into the strapline – “Know which way is up” which is used across the campaign that accompanies the refresh.
They also built a key visual device – the small square used to mark the end of an article in both the print and digital editions.
“We fell in love with it when we saw it and we liked that it was consistent across those applications,” Edwards explained. “We didn’t need to invent a new graphic element – we just hero’d this glyph they were already using, and used it to create a visual system that threads throughout the communications. It takes the marketing right back to its editorial DNA and gives the glyph a whole new purpose.” Nomad co-founder Stu Watson adds that the symbol, known as the Ufinish, works as a metaphor as well as an icon.
“The bigger meaning is that it’s a definitive end because The Economist is the final word when it comes to their incredible journalism,” he says.
Another element of the brief was to create icons that could work as wayfinding and navigation for readers, both to flag up specific content formats, and collectively communicate the breadth of The Economist’s output.
Nomad created also a “kit of parts” using playful animation, snappy movements and typographic treatments to help inject new energy into the brand.
“Motion just hits different and we knew it would be a game-changer for a brand that has always been so respectful,” Watson says.
Edwards says they worked to combine the confidence and wit which The Economist is known for with the new positioning, creating taglines that could tell the broader story of what the brand stands for. And for the campaign, he says, they focused a lot on the interplay between the media and the message – “not only what the copy says, but where its situated.” This led the team to seek out unwanted, unusual or unused spaces where they could play with the identity, “to really create an environment in that environment and make it feel heard.”
