SAFETY FIRST
2020 is a year that has become synonymous with change. All over the world, the way we lived and interacted was challenged and pushed into new territories – much of this was in the interest of the health and safety of everyone.
It was in the midst of this upheaval that CNB Safe decided to make some changes of our own. We embarked on a six-month long journey to redefine who we are and where we are going. This began with an extensive research program, some of you were involved, that aimed to question our assumptions and confirm our learnings from over 20 years in the speaking business.
Our research took us into the psychology of safety, how fear and perception of risk can influence our behaviour, the way responsibility is delegated and what the role of our storytelling is in all of these things. Throughout this process we kept the needs of our clients in mind.
The conversation around safety in the workplace was changing too, extending from physical injury to a more holistic understanding of an individual or group’s wellbeing – and the role of the workplace and employer in this wellbeing. In today’s working world, safety covers everything from the mental to the cultural to the physical and even the impact it has on the broader community – and our families at home.
As this new narrative came together, we saw that it was transforming the way we communicated internally and externally. Our own stories were changing. And so, as 2020 came to an end, we looked toward 2021 with a new perspective.
We began the rebranding process by questioning all the assumptions we had built into and around the existing CNB Safe brand. The name, the logo mark, colour palette, typography, imagery and tone of voice had all come together over years and years of business growth. It was time to redesign and realign.
We pared back the layers of the existing CNB Safe brand, taking away as much as we could until there was only the bare elements left: the orange, the wheelchair and the message. The orange was synonymous with our brand and the hi-vis clothing that the audiences of our speakers so often wear. The wheelchair was representative of the challenges faced and overcome by our founder Woody. The message was the power of storytelling to influence behaviour.
THE WHEEL AND THE LOGOMARK
There was a lot of healthy discussion about whether we keep the wheelchair or not. It had meaning when Woody first started the business but was it still relevant? In some ways, the wheelchair had come to represent Woody’s experience and his story. Would CNB Safe exist if Woody wasn’t in a wheelchair? We decided to keep this part of the brand, but to make it more modern and integrate it into the logomark.
You’ll see the C is ¾ of a full circle and almost the same shape as the wheel in the universally recognised wheelchair symbol. It’s where our logo begins and then flows through to the N, kind of like a story. The B is fluid and loops back on itself. The whole logo has a flow to it that goes up and down and up, kind of like the way a good story does.
THE ORANGE
Our design team spent a lot of time trying to find the right orange. Originally, the orange was inspired by the hi-vis workwear that Woody and so many of the speaker audiences wear every day. Yet, this isn’t the only reason it stayed. Our new orange had a deeper tone to it, referencing the earthy environments that we frequent.
We brought this orange together with a charcoal, a brown and a clay to create a retro, yet modern tone for the CNB Safe brand.
THE MESSAGE
The message for CNB Safe has always been at the heart of what we do: we believe in the power of storytelling to influence behaviour. In our line of work, we are actively trying to influence people to behave in a way that ensures everyone’s wellbeing; the safe way.
It has been a long and interesting journey to get to the new look CNB Safe. We asked lots of questions, uncovered answers expected and unexpected and ultimately redesigned the way we start our story and finish our story.
