Description

A clear vision for Middlemarch, through a new look brand and website

The challenge

Middlemarch approached us with a unique challenge. Through its new strategic directive – the Strategic Development Plan – Middlemarch wanted to make sure every level of its communications was aligned to the new strategy.

This meant looking at and reviewing the company’s values; evolving its brand and guidelines; creating a new company website; and exploring a new colleague intranet, all underpinned by an ongoing focus on its new strategic direction.

The solution

Our first approach was to get under the skin of Middlemarch and its colleagues, through our ‘Discovery’ process. This took the form of organising and undertaking stakeholder interviews, as well as some workshops with the CEO and core senior leadership.

The same process was followed for the intranet discovery too, where we spoke to colleagues from across the country to better understand the business needs, and employee wants.

We spent time with our key communications counterpart to produce a new values document, highlighting the beliefs, values and behaviours, and a new Middlemarch brand book, including a new, shorter name, core illustration, font, colour and imagery guidelines. In addition, we created a suite of branded items to support the new values and brand, ranging from branded hi-vis clothing, office signage, promotional items, email signatures and more.

We then produced website visuals along with editorial content, before undertaking the website development phase. Finally, we produced intranet and website discovery reports, outlining the core deliverables and schedules looking ahead. The new website and intranet are due to launch in 2023.