Carne is a €400m business, with over 500 employees in eight countries, that operates in a complex area of asset management, helping many of the world’s leading financial institutions handle the legal and regulatory obligations of their funds and portfolios across global markets.

Carne’s brand and communications had become very complex and hard to navigate. They struggled to articulate their offer, listing over 40 products and services, leaving clients daunted. Ironically for a company that made things simpler, they communicated complexity. Visually they had taken refuge in cliches common across the industry, but research showed that there was no cut-through – people were simply unaware of their capabilities.

They recognised the potential of digitisation within the sector and required a brand that could help realise their vision for the future. We developed a brand strategy around two key insights: they brought fragmented operations together in one place, at fund, company and industry-wide levels. Secondly, they greatly simplified things for their clients. We built the brand around the core idea of ‘Unity through simplicity’ and expressed it through a ‘line language’ to suggest how digitisation with Carne can unite an industry of many disconnected parts. This visual style is further reflected in the logotype, which uses a series of lines to point to a unified centre.

We devised a palette of greys ranging from dark to light, punctuated with brighter accent colours that are used sparingly. These accent colours are dotted around the identity and used more prominently with internal communications. The aim was to strike a balance between a brand that felt solid and credible but that had a modern digital edge.

And we simplified their product offering into three clear narratives and rebranded their technology platform to Curator – giving their clients the power to curate their entire fund universe.