When I arrived to MullenLowe New York I found a very traditional agency with a very corporate culture. I was determined to change that. Obviously that is a complex task that starts with the people, the processes and the product in order to put modern creativity at the center of it all.  It meant getting rid of old ways of working, fostering a collaborative environment where everyone shared an optimistic mindset focused on making the best work we could do. Making people feel more agency on their outcomes but also more accountable for what they brought to the table. It was about making sure that all of us could enjoy every single step of the  journey. Because only that would allow the best work to come out. In other words: we needed to get rid of everything that made us worse in order to make room for what made us better.

But besides all that, we needed to look like a modern agency. As simple as that. We needed to feel current. We wanted a conceptual idea that allowed us to flex our craft muscles and show everyone what a new MullenLowe could look like. So we set ourselves to change a logo that was feeling old, traditional and corporate in order to come with something that could look much more like us. We wanted it to feel modern and wild and different. We wanted it to be iconic and undeniable. But we also wanted it it to be able to represent each of us in a unique way. So we came with a generative visual identity the got rid of the octopus as a literal symbol and embraced the very idea behind it: its ability to adapt, its liquid, ever-changing nature. 

And that’s what we did: a visual identity that is so visually strong that, even if allows for an unlimited number of logos, it’s always recognizable based on its style and unique nature. Absolutely innovative, fundamentally free, utterly playful. A sort of visual manifesto against the stale, uninspiring world of traditional corporate visual identities. Finally, what started as an attempt to change the way our agency looked. It ended up being the visual identity of the global network. 

I no longer work at MullenLowe but I do hope this new visual identity reminds every single person in the network the kind of work that we should all be making.

Joao Paz was the Head of Design behind the whole project. I think I never saw anyone pour more love into anything. The amount of iterations, changes and tweaks was insane and he never stopped giving it all. I will be forever inspired by him and the rest of the team: Marcio Doti, Christian Meissner and the wonderful Lu Borges who was by our side every single day.