Roche
Brand identity for the global healthcare organisation.
The challenge for Pentagram and Roche was to create a new identity which would respect Roche’s trusted brand while embodying its future aims and ambitions. Design has always played an important part in Roche’s offer—its archive is full of many exceptional examples of the pioneering Swiss Style, and this exceptional legacy inspired the subtly-evolved look and feel of the new Roche brand. A new streamlined design system was created—centred around the iconic Roche logo, the identity has been refined to work across all online and offline platforms and applications.
The new logo uses a condensed version of the new Roche custom typeface commissioned for the brand evolution. Influenced by the letterforms of the previous Roche logo, this has been placed back into a redrawn hexagon (the first hexagon logo was introduced in 1971 and has been slightly adapted multiple times over the years). These new letterforms have more open counters which allow the logo to work seamlessly at different scales, particularly within the digital space.
The ‘Roche Blue’ is now a more vibrant, richer shade of blue, and a broader palette was created, taking the Roche brand from a blue and grey tonal landscape to a more vibrant, human and warm tonal range, which also helps to distinguish it from its competitors. A gradient style was introduced into the brand toolkit as a way to use colour in a human but sophisticated way. The gradients mimic the unique 49-degree angle found in the Roche logo. To further differentiate Roche from other healthcare brands, an elegant and versatile bespoke typeface was created. Roche Sans and Roche Serif were designed with a nod to the past, the requirements of the present and to last well into the future.
A flexible grid system based on the proportions of the Roche logo was designed to streamline content across all brand communication. The system is based on a proportional ratio of space that can be flexed across vertical and horizontal applications. The iconic logo with the name of the founder, the custom-made font family, the warm and natural colour palette and the close and personal style of photography all ensure that every element in Roche’s new visual identity toolkit works together to convey the vision of ‘One Roche’.
Designed at PentagramPartner.......................... Angus Hyland
Project team..................... Eoghan McMahon, Hans Arnold, Jack Brown, Rhian Edwards, Federico Gaggio, Katerina Kerouli, Gabrielle Knowles, Alice Murray, Daniela Perez, Marisa Piñana, Nathalie Shores, Charlotte Selby, Yuri Suzuki, Shirley Wang, Alex Wright, Jess Yanzio
Collaborators.................... Colophon Type Foundry