How we gave ION’s internal communities and events identities of their own without fragmenting the master brand, and how that approach grew into redesigning the new-joiner journey.
Role: Co-director with the head of brand and marketing design; our teams executed
Organization: ION Group
Programs: ION<athon>, InclusION, ContributION, InductION
The situation
Internal communities and events kept asking for identities of their own. Left alone, that meant one-off logos and a fragmenting brand. Each group briefed its own freelancer or used generic templates, so event materials looked different every time and none of them clearly belonged to ION.
The idea
One flexible device, the "ION word": the ION name inside each program’s name, with the master palette and nucleus as the constant. What flexes is the personality: color story, imagery, and tone.
What we built
A kit for each program: lockup, palette, photography, email header, PowerPoint, social tiles, posters, Teams and Zoom wallpapers, merchandise, and an explanatory page
1. ION<athon>: a code-language identity ("Speaking your language") built to repeat across versions 1.0 to 4.0.
2. InclusION: "Where we all belong," using the whole palette so no group owns the brand.
3. ContributION: a yellow identity with a clear rationale
4. InductION (deep dive)
New joiners faced a process averaging about three months from contract to first day, with no single owner and variation by region. I worked with a specialist designer from brand and marketing design and the head of content and copy to decide the flow and context, and our teams then executed the design and copy. We:
- mapped the current process and benchmarked four other companies,
- proposed a five-stage journey with an automated six-month email campaign,
- and designed the experience end to end: starter form, poster, welcome email, introductions to new colleagues, Day 1 to 5 emails, PowerPoint, supporting website, social tiles, Teams backgrounds, giveaways, and a post-InductION coffee.
Results
- ION<athon> ran for 3 editions with 450+ participants
- New-joiner satisfaction rose from 72% to 85%
- Time to produce a new program identity fell from six weeks to three
I would write the rules for what is fixed and what can flex before the first program launched, so each new request could be answered in minutes. I would also track reuse from day one, not after the fact.