Introducing Our New Name And Logo And The Rationale Behind Them

Today, we want to introduce you to our new name and logo

The Integumen name and brand has served us well for many years. It helped distinguish us as a new, innovative player in the world of skin science, health and beauty. We have come a long way in those years, and we wanted our brand to reflect a new sense of progression, innovation and discovery. Together with a name change we wanted to develop a rich and flexible brand identity that could be applied to the Integumen parent company and its subsidiaries. This would serve to bring brand cohesion across the group.

We wanted the brand to:

• Reflect an expanded focus (beyond skin)
• Communicate a forward-looking, innovative company
• Position as a science/technology focused company

The Name

We started with the name. Integumen was derived from “The integumentary system” – an organ system consisting of the skin, hair, nails, and exocrine glands. As the company has expanded into new areas such as science, technology and the environment it was felt that we had outgrown this name. We would require a name and flexible brand system that could better communicate a sense of discovery and innovation and reflect the core pillars of science, technology, environment and health.

We went through a rigorous naming process beginning with establishing a criteria for the new company name. It needed to have an agreed “feel” and match the narrative and strategy we were aiming for. It had to be legally viable and have available URLs etc. From a list of 30-50 names we shortlisted that to 2-3 and after some further checks brought that name into design.

The name is DeepVerge.

Deepverge – Pushing to the Verge

The name was chosen for a variety of reasons. It consists of two words that we felt encapsulated a good brand fit and positioning.

Deep
There are many connotations and associations with the word Deep that we liked. AI and technology are brand words that we wanted to connect with.

Here are a few examples that came to mind:

Deep Blue was a chess-playing computer developed by IBM. It is known for being the first computer chess-playing system to win both a chess game and a chess match against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. Its successor, Deep Thought.

Deep learning is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks. A deep neural network (DNN) is an artificial neural network (ANN) with multiple layers between the input and output layers.

DeepMind Technologies is a UK artificial intelligence company founded in September 2010, and acquired by Google in 2014.

Deep sea. Deep space. Deep water. Skin deep. Deep web…

We were very much attracted to the brand feel of the word deep and played with various couplings of different words that might work in creating a unique company name.

Verge
The word verge meaning an edge, border or boundary had the naturalistic quality that we also wanted to communicate within the brand.

We imagined a scientist being on the verge of a major breakthrough.

Pioneers going further than ever before.

Being on the verge or brink of discovery, at the edge of the world.

The word verge really invoked that sense of innovation and discovery and together with the word “deep” hit the mark in terms of connecting the core pillars of science, technology, environment and health.

The Identity

With DeepVerge at the core of the brand a new identity system was developed. The DeepVerge logo and mark sits at the top of this. It is a fresh expression of our identity.

The identity included a new brand look, logo, icon, fonts, colours and brand assets that could be carried through all marketing touch points of the brand, both digital and print. This brand identity is applied in various ways across all of the DeepVerge subsidiary company brands.

Each daughter company has its own unique set of brand guidelines and communicates its own set of brand values but certain core elements of the DeepVerge design are shared to create visual cohesion.

In Application

In application the new DeepVerge brand consists of specially chosen and designed brand assets. These include typographic elements, logos, colours, commissioned photography and curated licensed photography. Brand manuals have been produced to support the consistent application of the brand assets across the group of companies.

Uniting the Subsidiary Brands

A key challenge for the brand refresh was to bring visual cohesion to the subsidiary company identities and unite them all under the umbrella brand of DeepVerge. To do this we took typographic and colour elements from the core DeepVerge brand and brought them into each subsidiary company identity. The lettering of each logo has been redesigned using the new corporate typeface and different shades of strong RGB blues are introduced into those brands to further align them.

A New Era

Our new name together with a new visual expression of the brand is a signal that we are entering a new era. Our visual identity gives us a sense of confidence and simplicity and signifies a drive for the future and the exploration of new frontiers.