IDENTUM launches new brand and website

In June 2023 we embarked on a journey to renew ourselves. We wanted our brand identity to more closely reflect who we are and what we do. It was also time for an upgrade in the visual department, and why not launch a new website as well? Here is the story behind our new look, we hope you like it!

The research phase

We have a pretty clear image of who we are and what we stand for, but will our beloved Customers and partners agree with our self-perception? It was time to capture our spirit on paper and put it to the test.

We worked closely with the excellent brand and design team in the Visma group and started the process of collecting information that captures who we are, what we do, and what we stand for. An enthusiastic Art Director went to work, and started scheduling meetings to get to know us better. Customers were contacted, partners came along to share their perspective, and a lot of information was gathered. It was an incredibly fun part of the process, and we got to know ourselves better along the way. 

Some of the words that started reappearing where:

• Always there for us (Customers and partners) when we need them.
• Fun to work with, but also highly professional and competent. 
• Bold and candid, always looking for the best solution to a problem. 
• Makes the impossible possible. 
• Proud of our Norwegian heritage.  

We were saying these things about ourselves before we started this journey, but we didn't really know if it rang true in the ears of the people we work with. It was fun to discover that this was the case, and we could get to work with shaping our new brand identity to reflect this. 

The creative phase

Filtering through all the feedback from Customers, partners and colleagues was fun. Now it was time for the tricky part, condensing this information into a visual expression of our brand. We also created a tone and voice document to capture our spirit when we write stuff. We realised that we love simplifying the complex, sharing our knowledge, and doing it with a sprinkle of wit and humour. When it came to our new logo we wanted it to: 

• Show that we are in the Identity and Access Management (IAM) business.
• Visualise what our products do (we automate and integrate, so you can accelerate).
• Do these things in a clever and intelligent manner. Our products and solutions are pretty clever after all... ;)
• Bonus! Give a hint about our Norwegian heritage.

There were two important sources of inspiration for our new logo:

1. Japanese and Norwegian woodworking techniques that cleverly removed the need for nails, glue or tools. 
2. The impossible shapes and artwork of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher.

In Japanese woodworking there is something called a "Chidori joint" which caught the eye of our designer. It's a technique that connects different parts and does it smoothly, we were intrigued...

Below you can see a few examples of impossible shapes. As we kept looking at these shapes for inspiration we found something familiar. Perhaps the two concepts could be combined in a clever way?  

One of the impossible shapes we came across looked almost exactly like the Chidori joint. We like the smoothness of how the Chidori joint comes together, and the nod towards our ability to make the impossible possible. On top of that it even looks like a snowflake! At this point we were pretty sure we were onto something.

Are you ready to see the animated version of our logo? 

*Drumroll*

Tadaaaa! It's pretty neat, right? We realise that nobody cares about our new logo as much as we do, but we can definitely say we are proud of the result. It captures who we are, what we do and does it in a clever and intelligent way. We'll probably stick to our new look for quite some time. 

The launch phase

The time had come to thank our Customers, partners, collaborators and our fantastic Identum team. The great result we achieved in this project was because of the enthusiastic participation from everyone involved. We rolled out our new look internally, and sent an email to our Customers and partners to inform them about "our new suit".

Next in line was launching our new website, it was finally time to show the world!

A big THANK YOU from all of us at Identum to everyone that put their blood, sweat and tears into this project. 

You rock! 😎  🎸 🤘