I took part in Alliance’s rebrand in 2022-23. I envisioned a swash mark to distinguish Alliance as a broker above the rest and then developed branding collateral from there.
The Alliance logo was developed based on the tagline, Broker Partner Like Never Before. The tagline alludes to the fact that Alliance is a one-stop shop for brands because of their in-house marketing services, data services, and full-service client concierge. I included a swoosh in the A of "Alliance" to denote a specialty marker placed over Alliance to set them apart from their competitors. See below for the original Alliance logo followed by each redesign stage.
In its final stage, the low contrast typeface "AXIS" and electric blue as the primary brand color bring Alliance into the future, reflecting the fact that they are on the ball as far as trends and help break new brands into the consumer packaged goods business.
It was an incredible experience taking this branding from just a logo to a full-fledged, multi-faceted identity. What helped the most was that the creative director, my fellow designer at Alliance Marketing, and I developed a brand toolkit in tandem and then used it to create company collateral and branded content separately.
What propelled me forward in fleshing out the Alliance retractable banner, Alliance Insight Suite logos, and the weekly newsletter with all the internal program logos within was sticking to the essence of the tagline and the simple shapes we created to complement the logo. This was huge for the brand as it previously had several taglines floating around and an outdated look rooted in stock imagery.
I developed this retractable banner for display at trade shows and Alliance-hosted vendor days for consumer goods brands to see. Each callout on the banner refers to what Alliance can do for each brand based on its state in the industry. "Jumpstart my brand" calls to brands that are just starting out and need to expand their reach. "Re-energize my brand" calls out to brands that are established at the retailer and in households but need to meet evolving consumer needs. "Advise my brand" calls out to brands that have gotten into the retailer but need guidance to continue growth. I chose to display these callouts on the retractable banner as they show what Alliance does for an effectively concise design.
These callouts can also be found and selected on the "For Brands" tab of the Alliance website.
The logos representing the data tools within the Alliance Insight Suite were already developed before this rebrand and the layout of the logos worked well with the bright, future–forward branding. It was only a matter of switching the colors to the updated palette.
A majority of the brand work I developed for the Alliance rebrand was internal collateral, more specifically the "logos" for the internal company programs: Alliance Cares, Alliance University, and Alliance AWARE. I also created logos for the weekly email newsletter, Alliance Weekly, and the employee appreciation section of the newsletter, “Friday Alliance Appreciation”. While designing, I thought about how the logos would work together in the weekly newsletter as that was where employees were most often seeing them.
I let each one take on the character of the program they were representing. For example, Alliance Cares is a hub for resources for employees to maintain their well-being.
I designed several templates for social posts for ease and a clean look. For example, the Partner Highlight showcased a CPG brand that Alliance represented. A good portion of social posts were to show blogs that we published on our website. I created bright illustrations that would stand out on social and online.
It was paramount to do a complete overhaul of the master template in the rebrand as the first impression CPG brands got of Alliance was through a presentation to get their business as their food broker. Creating slide layouts with the limited color palette and graphic elements of the branding was an exciting challenge but also completely simplified the display of information in presentations.
