Playgroup | Helping brands build genuine brand equity

Unilever House Rebrand

18 May 2007

Cleara helps Unilever create a vibrant and stimulating work environment that reflects their 'vitality' mission

We have just completed an extremely successful project to rebrand Unilever's new corporate headquarters at 100 Victoria Embankment (100VE).

The building, originally opened in 1932, has been completely transformed by architects KPF to create an open and energising environment that makes a strong impact on all who enter, and will invigorate and inspire Unilever people. Transparency, light, visibility and above all flexibility were the main aspirations. A wonderful atrium maximises the amount of openness and daylight entering the offices with predominantly glazed walls. Lifts, bridges and breakout spaces are treated as a sculptural object, both intriguing to view from the office, and to experience materially and spatially from within. The aesthetic of the space is not 'high-tech' but more the inheritor of the 1930's modernist tradition.

Working alongside the architects and workspace consultants Pringle Brandon, Cleara were tasked with continuing the transformational theme through to the office spaces and public areas. Strengthening a sense of community within the building through the interior design by allowing visible and physical interaction and connection was key.

The brands have been brought into the workplace through a series of 'baby walls' with abstracted photographs that connect to different parts of Unilever's business. Large, layered, semi-transparent 'vitality walls' define areas with engaging lifestyle stories and blocks of energising colour.

For internal meeting rooms the theme centres around a micro/macro look at production, processes and raw materials. Imagery and colour are used to encourage staff to engage with the brand and to get an understanding of the business as a whole. In external meeting rooms, imagery is used to showcase Unilever's work through a range of defined themes such as sustainability, consumers and heritage.

The branding of communal spaces like the gym, café and vending areas is perhaps more surprising and playful. Huge images of cows and giant berries combined with motivational messages promote vitality more directly.