RSM refreshes worldwide branding to support global ambitions
With its previous image overhaul stemming from nine years ago, global accounting and advisory network RSM has undergone a major branding update.
Global accounting and consulting network RSM has unveiled its refreshed visual branding, adding what the firm has dubbed its ‘Pattern of Progress’ creative device in response to “changing market dynamics.”
The pattern, which could be roughly described as reminiscent of a beginner’s Tetris game running bottom left to top right of its marketing materials, has been received to varying degrees of enthusiasm by the network’s individual international members.
“Our new, reinvigorated visual brand better represents both who we are and why we are different,” said RSM’s Australian branch on its LinkedIn account, while the firm’s Italian member issued a press release; “Today is extremely important for the entire RSM community worldwide as we are celebrate the launch of our new identity, a crucial step in RSM’s growth and consolidation as one of the most prestigious entities in the global landscape of professional services.”
Previously noted as the first major milestone of the year in support of delivering its global business strategy, RSM has also variously described the ‘Pattern of Progress’ visual – said to be taken from the DNA of its logo and symbolising forward movement – as reflecting the firm’s “focus on the issues that matter most to its clients and people” and “the journey of discovery RSM undertakes to build dynamic and compelling solutions to individual client needs.”
As a reminder of the fact that RSM and its clients currently live and work in a constant state of technological flux, the Pattern, the firm says, exudes a digital feel and is not uniform in nature, designed rather as “a container for powerful secondary imagery from a specially crafted global image bank for everyone to draw from.” Still, RSM adds, its new visuals continue to hero its talented people as protagonists, but with a dramatically revamped photographic style.
The people behind the brand
Here, hundreds of its partners and staff worldwide have become the new ‘Faces of RSM’, pictured against a fresh Midnight Blue background and dressed naturally to showcase their approachability and confidence and capture the deeply humanistic essence of RSM. To highlight that the portraits are of real RSM people and not stock photos, each model has their first name added to the image, bringing both their own and RSM’s personality as a brand to life.
“You don’t often get an opportunity like this to do something quite unusual and out of your comfort zone, so I thought yeah, why not?” said RSM UK’s marketing and business development head Nina Arundel on being asked to participate. “That fact that everything is of the highest quality and there is a consistent look and feel around the imagery is really important, so that it really resonates with us as individuals and replicates the service clients receive.”
In addition to the ‘Patterns of Progress’ creative device and photos of RSM employees, the overall brand update has been further been supported by the release of a spirited corporate video, which features snappy narrative grabs which can be imported by member firms as text for their social media stills, such as “We look beyond the ordinary to deliver the extraordinary”, and “The biggest opportunities are often found by paying attention to the smallest details.”
RSM’s logo and its colour bars remain as is, having been previously updated during the firm’s last major global rebranding exercise in 2015 when it moved to unify its identity across its international network. At the time, RSM said the, “the grey signifies a relationship based on a solid reliable foundation, the green a positive, ideas-driven, responsive approach, and the blue symbolises forward movement and the attainment of future goals.”
