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Stockholm Design Lab has created a new identity for Swedish technology company Ericsson that prioritises text and logos on digital devices, rather than physical branding. 

Revealed at his year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the rebrand places an emphasis on functionality for mobile and computer screens.

Stockholm Design Lab‘s (SDL) new identity features a higher resolution version of the original Ericsson logo – three black lines with rounded edges – a clearer typeface, simplified iconography and a minimalist webpage design.

“The digital-first brand identity promises simplicity, trust, and enhanced productivity and SDL’s work is a response to the aim of making complexity a thing of the past with little space for ambiguity and meaningless decoration,” says Björn Kusoffsky, founder of Stockholm Design Lab

“The new brand identity focuses on functionality over aesthetics and aims to provide tools for simple communication and product performance, thus reflecting Ericsson’s technical expertise,” said the designers.

The rebrand forms part of  Ericsson’s plans to become a “truly digital brand”, with the company describing the changes as a “direct response to the business strategy and brand promise”.

To create a smoother identity, the geometry of the logo was altered to align with the pixel grid, meaning it would appear clearly rendered on digital screens.

A new easy-to-read typeface called Hilda – named after one of the company founders Hilda Ericsson – also features in the rebrand.

“Hilda expresses Ericsson’s business needs for today and is a versatile brand asset for tomorrow integrating across all company applications as Ericsson continues to evolve and transform,” said the designers.

The colour palette was also tweaked to feature bright and high-contrast shades, including blue, red, orange, yellow, green, purple and cool grey tones.

“Our approach to colour is born from digital interfaces and information design principles,” said the designers.

“The tones we have selected are digitally native, internationally bright and rich in contrast.  The accent colours are primarily intended to help guide the user towards key messages and interactions, rather than distract them through unnecessary decorative usage,” they continued.

The rebrand comes alongside a redesigned website, which is updated with clearer navigation and less text.  This contributes to an overall cleaner website design.

Noting an increase in the use of emojis on the internet and mobile devices, Stockholm Design Lab increased the number of icons used on the company’s website.

“The internet and mobile usage has fueled icon consumption and created a greater understanding of pictograms and emojis in general,” they said.

“This is reflected in the communications and user experiences of today,” they explained.  “Ericsson Brand 2.0 takes this into account by simplifying style as well as reimagining business metaphors and meaning for tomorrow.”

An increasing number of brands are opting for stripped-back identities, including dating app Tinder that replaced its text logo with an alteration of its flame icon and file sharing service WeTransfer that ditched the “Transfer” part of its logo for a more minimal “We”.

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