Project

acdc (no, not the band!) design and manufacture architectural LED lighting. They specialise in making buildings come to life with creative, impactful lighting. In real life, they’re bolshy, straight-talking Northerners, full of enthusiasm. But their brand looked and sounded like everybody else. Our brand development brought their tone of voice to the fore.

Giving purpose

Tasked with updating the brand, we began with a series of workshops with the client in which we defined a bold new purpose – to amaze people. It’s about the effect their work has on their audience, not the products themselves.

Tone of Voice

We needed to find a tone of voice that felt true to this purpose. So we worked together to define what makes them them. The result: EDGY, FULL OF LIFE, and HONEST. Using these three qualities, the whole brand was revitalised with a new look and feel centred around bold written statements.

Design approach

acdc’s new brand identity uses language at its core. Brochure covers, presentations and web pages all lead with bold statements, set in strong black bars, that proclaim the transformational impact of acdc’s work and their attitude going into it. These can be overlaid onto either project imagery or one of a series of patterns that represent the varied effects their lighting produces on surfaces.

The company shares its name with a certain famous rock’n’roll band. Inspired by this, we created a series of short teaser stings set to music. Edgy, a little. Full of life, certainly.

Tone of voice guidelines

We expanded on the copy style to create a whole tone of voice guidelines, printed like a fanzine. It gives practical before and after examples, to keep them on track. The wider brand is being rolled out with a renewed sense of confidence among the team.