Visual identity: Creating a modern brand for a 194-year old law firm

18 Sept 2015News

Bruce Cockerton discusses how the rebranding of his 194-year old law firm is enabling it to achieve its strategic ambitions

Bruce Cockerton discusses how the rebranding of his 194-year old law firm is enabling it to achieve its strategic ambitions

Key takeaway points:

Articulate a clear vision to your partners on how your firm needs to evolve
Bring everyone in the firm with you on the journey to evolve your brand
Conduct client and partner interviews to identify and articulate the firm’s values and strengths
Create a sense of urgency with a fixed deadline to improve the efficiency of the rebranding processes
Don’t remove all vestiges of your firm’s history during the rebranding – heritage still matters
Use your visual identity to demonstrate your firm’s value proposition to current and prospective clients

In 2009, our London law firm, Carpmaels & Ransford, undertook a rebranding exercise to ensure our physical brand represents our current market image as a leader in intellectual property (IP) law. Since the project - which involved a new visual identity and offices - was completed, we have increased our staff base by 50 per cent. We aim to become a leading European IP firm within the next five years.

Proud heritage

In 1776, the Patent Office of the Attorney General in London appointed a new clerk of inventions, James Poole. During his four-decade career in the post, Poole revolutionised the practice of patent law by acting on behalf of inventors, helping to guide them through what was then a frustratingly convoluted process. In so doing, he became the world's first
patent attorney.

When in 1821 his son, Moses Taylor, formed a partnership with the engineer William Carpmael, the first firm of patent attorneys was born. Four years later, it was Carpmael who helped to create the new Patents Act, the basis of the system with which we are now familiar.

Our firm has been a leading figure in the world of patent law ever since. Our partners have held the presidency of The UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys seven times. In three of the four terms in which the president of the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office has been a UK representative, it has been one of our partners at the helm.

This is a heritage of which we are very proud. For many years, visitors to our offices have seen Letters Patents issued
by King William IV and Queen Victoria, along with portraits of many generations of the firm's partners on our walls. Yet, no patent lawyer can live in the past. We deal every day with some of the most technologically-advanced companies in the world, helping them protect new discoveries and inventions.

Changing offices

In 2009, we had finally outgrown our long-established offices on Bloomsbury Square and felt it was time for a change. Momentum had been building for a few years with the retirement of several senior partners and the emergence of a new generation of partners. We took on a chief operating officer, James Getgood, who had previously worked with McKinsey & Co on business improvement and brought a fresh perspective on business management to our firm.

Perhaps most importantly, our managing partner at the time, Keith Howick, guided the partners as a group to articulate a very clear vision for how the firm needed to evolve. While we all appreciated the many positive associations with our firm's heritage, there was also a recognition that we were, in some quarters, seen as somewhat old-fashioned.

It was time to bring our reputation back in line with the reality. We needed to make a clear, visual statement that Carpmaels & Ransford is a firm that brings heritage and expertise dating back to the 18th century but is also a firm of bright, energetic people who offer skills and attitudes that are entirely relevant to the 21st century. This statement took two forms: our choice of new offices and our investment in a new visual identity, language and attitude.

We had been in our previous offices for several decades and, by 2009, these had become four interlinked and wonderfully atmospheric Regency houses with stucco features and fireplaces in every room. Corridors and staircases wound through the buildings; navigating them all was often quite a challenge for new starters, particularly given the absence of name plates on the solid oak doors.

We took an early decision that our new offices would be very different. One Southampton Row is without doubt an office for the 21st century. Visitors step from the noise and traffic of Southampton Row through the vast glass frontage into a minimalist atrium and then glide up in glass lifts to our open-plan modern offices.

Vestiges of our old offices remain. Objects such as the antique Letters Patents and the portraits of retired partners are precious to our firm and remain in pride of place. But, visitors to our offices no longer feel like they are stepping back in time; they feel they are engaging with technical and legal experts who understand the business challenges they face.

Visual identity

The second stage in bringing our reputation into line with reality was to develop our visual identity. To coincide with our move to modern offices, three partners led the rebranding project: myself, Hugh Goodfellow and Chris Tunstall. We saw five branding and design consultancies and asked them to present ideas on where we could go with our look and feel across all of our marketing collateral.

Some of the design agencies we met had rebranded other firms in the legal sector and most of the ideas they showed us were entirely unmemorable. They looked like every other law firm's branding. A general theme seemed to be that if it was blue it was good.

But, we wanted something distinctive, something that would make people re-evaluate Carpmaels & Ransford. We decided to work with Identity, which did not have a great deal of experience in advising law firms but had worked with luxury brands that represent tradition and quality. We did wonder whether they would be able to successfully apply that pedigree in the world of patents, to understand our firm and to communicate it externally. However, the concepts they presented had us excited from the start.

Rebranding process

This was a project with a deadline: from briefing the agency to our moving date, we had just 14 weeks and we were determined to have our new identity in place by then. In some respects, this deadline engendered a helpful sense of urgency and focus. All too often, important creative projects that involve multiple stakeholders can become diluted and over-run, but here that was not an option. We had to be strategically clear and operationally efficient.

We also needed to bring everyone in the firm with us on this bold and rapid evolution of our image. There was a real appetite within the firm to see our external reputation better represent the reality of life within the firm and our day-to-day interactions with our existing clients, but we still needed to reassure all involved that we were not abandoning more than two centuries of heritage.

So, the first step was to conduct extensive client and partner interviews. This stage of the process was absolutely critical to articulate a clear understanding of our firm's positioning and values, and formed the cornerstones for all that was achieved subsequently.

Our new brand identity was based on the insights gained from those interviews. The new type-only logo is unashamedly modern but maintains the simplicity and quiet confidence of its long-established predecessor. It is a contemporary brand identity that uses a bold colour palette and simple iconic illustrations to reflect our position as a leading patent law firm, while informing clients about the breadth of specialist disciplines we offer. Each specialist field in the firm is represented by an icon to help communicate the range of services offered.

A new website was developed to showcase our new brand identity and include new photos of all our lawyers, giving us consistent suite of portraits which capture our lawyers' personalities. In a business where personal relationships are key, we felt this was particularly important. A bespoke content management system allows us to update the site as and when people join and leave the firm.

Once the initial rebrand was completed, we distributed simple, concise brand guidelines and template designs for all documents (see Figure 1). For example, we have templates for practice newsletters, which we produce in-house to keep clients regularly updated on developments in patent law.

FIGURE 1: OUR NEW BRAND GUIDELINES

One of the most striking elements of the rebrand was the 3D 'word wall' that now dominates our reception area (see Figure 2). Fashioned out of Corian, the wall is a montage of words and phrases which reflect our firm's vision, values and services. It visibly highlights the importance of language in our work and provides an immediate talking point for visitors.

FIGURE 2: THE 'WORD WALL' THAT GREETS VISITORS IN OUR RECEPTION AREA

Impact on the firm

The impact of this rebranding exercise on our firm has been significant. The visual identity we now present to the world far better represents the forward-thinking and progressive attitude of our firm. While those who already knew us were well aware of the quality of advice we provided, the rebrand has opened doors to prospective clients who may have previously considered us to be overly traditional. What has been particularly interesting is to see many of our competitors follow suit and invest in brand development.

Perhaps the most important impact has been the renewed sense of confidence within the firm. We rarely lose out on candidates we want to hire. Partly this is due to the reputation we have for outstanding training, but it is also a result of the sense candidates gain, when visiting our offices, of a capable, efficient operation that is confident in its place at the forefront of its profession. A significant part of that flows from our new outward-facing visual identity.

Since the rebrand, the firm has grown by 50 per cent, from 130 to 190 employees, and we recently added a dispute resolution team of three partners. This is a step-change not only for our firm, but also for the IP sector as a whole. Our vision is to be the leading European intellectual property firm in five years. It is a bold vision, but with the people we have in our team and the reputation we enjoy in our market, there is no reason to aim for anything less.

To stand out in an increasingly noisy and crowded market is a challenge in itself. The need to accurately convey the energy and heritage of our firm in the 21st century further complicated the rebranding process. We learnt much during the process but, more than anything else, we discovered the importance of identifying and articulating our firm's strengths. These strengths can be easily overlooked by staff and clients, immersed as they are in the pressures of day-to-day work. Today, I am proud to say they are visible to all.

Bruce Cockerton is a partner at Carpmaels & Ransford (www.carpmaels.com)