AkzoNobel is a leading global paints and coatings company and a major producer of specialty chemicals. When developing our Brand Book in-house, we endeavoured to take readers on a journey through our brand. This would be achieved by explaining the four cornerstones of our brand platform – brand belief, brand promise, brand personality and brand essence. By taking this approach, we would show how the AkzoNobel brand benefits society in general, and how we are in touch with people’s lives on an everyday basis. We also had a clear objective to demonstrate the character traits of our brand – transforming, pioneering, caring and inspiring. This was important because it would enable audiences both internally and externally to develop a deeper understanding of what our brand stands for. It would also help to establish more internal engagement, while at the same time offering the outside world a clearer and more detailed insight into what makes our brand special.

Our creative process was very much dictated by the key elements of our brand platform. So we focused on bringing the idea of “going beyond the surface” and “touching people’s everyday lives” to life. The cover immediately teases readers with these concepts, offering a tactile finish and an open spine (Swiss binding), which reveals the layers of the book.
Inside, we opted for bold, colorful presentation. Information is presented clearly, in a logical sequence, which guides readers through the AkzoNobel brand and illustrates how each pillar of our brand platform makes up the heart and soul of our brand – our brand essence.
Key features include a harmonica-like pull-out section, which tells a story in pictures from morning until night of how we contribute to almost every aspect of daily life. We have also incorporated Layar technology, which invites readers to scan and explore extra digital content. So they quite literally go beyond the surface. The inclusion of an at-a-glance brand identity section offers a quick guide to our essential brand elements, such as our logo, brand architecture, tone of voice, use of color and image style.
Always at the back our mind was the fact that the book had to be informative, practical and a useful resource for a variety of stakeholders. But equally, we stuck to our design goals of making it attractive, eye-catching, of the highest quality and a true representation of what the AkzoNobel brand stands for.

The brand book has already been distributed throughout the organization, and to selected partners and design agencies. Since being launched, the reaction has been one of universal delight. Our colleagues around the world are particularly excited about having this new resource available and are very positive about the benefits it will bring in aligning all our marketing/communications to the brand.