Elmwood Partners with RS Group on Its Global Brand Transformation

Global brand and design consultancy Elmwood has partnered with Industrial Product and Service Solutions provider RS Group to develop a compelling and purposeful new brand story and identity system, marking a key milestone in the FTSE 100-listed company’s transformation journey.

Elmwood’s role in this new partnership has been to create a bold new brand identity that would support and elevate the internal business ambition, helping to position RS as the first choice in the market for its customers, suppliers and employees.

Achieving this came with a wholesale review of the brand architecture. Seven previously independently operating businesses have been restructured and renamed, with a common thread, to represent the different propositions within the new RS Brand - moving from a more disconnected house of brands to a cohesive branded house. This has given the Group a simpler, more holistic story that can be easily understood, and that the brand will leverage to its advantage.

To communicate this, a refreshed, digital-first brand identity system was developed to better reflect the future-facing mindset of the business and set a new industry-leading standard for design. Built around a simple but infinitely flexible shape language, the new identity aims to emphasise the human creativity and imagination that’s so pivotal to unlocking innovation.

Commenting on the launch of the new identity system, Paul Waters, senior account director at Elmwood says: “RS combines human experience and ingenuity with engineering excellence to truly make amazing things happen and change the world. The new RS identity tells the brand story through a verbal and visual language that’s about shifting perspectives in a way that’s reflective of the transformation at the heart of the business.”

“It’s been a fantastic partnership and experience collaborating with Elmwood on this project”, says Jon White, CMO at RS Group. “The new RS brand identity that we’ve created has helped future-proof and unify the business. It stands us alone in our market as a brand that is technology and digitally enabled but with a human touch. Thank you to the Elmwood team for their strategy, creativity and support.”