ABOUT

Harvey Water Softeners was nearly 40 years old when I joined the rebrand team as a freelancer. The model of the company had been for some time ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, but times, and Harvey’s, as they were affectionately known needed to be brought right up to speed.

The old logo had a few versions, but most of them featured two characters who resembled potatoes; while these characters were fun they were very unpopular with the stakeholders. This coupled with a very traditional colour scheme and font family made for a very old fashioned identity.

A team was put together to create the new company values, which would guide the rebrand and make sure nothing made it into the brand that wasn’t “Harvey”. Also from the values came the birth of the “Being Harvey Book”, a friendly look into the character of Harvey staff and of the founder himself.

The brand guidelines were fluid and to quote one of the values, ‘kept simple’ so that everyone and not just the in-house teams could use them. The guidelines grew over 3.5 years to include real world touch points, such as vans and signage; as well as developing a whole section dedicated to the digital use of the brand.