EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY · EXTERNAL PERCEPTION AND VISUAL IDENTITY STRATEGY
Turning a complex benchmark into shared rules for a future-ready ECHA brand.
ECHA needed a rigorous basis for visual identity decisions across a complex scientific, regulatory and public communication environment. A structured benchmark and two days of facilitated work brought leadership and the communications team together around one practical question: what rules should guide the brand?
At a glance
- Client
- European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)
- Context
- European Union agency operating across scientific, regulatory and public communication
- Challenge
- Create a shared, evidence-based framework for a recognisable, accessible and strategically aligned visual identity
- Contribution
- External perception assessment, comparative benchmarking, senior facilitation and conversion of findings into brand rules
- Result to date
- A jointly established set of 120 rules to guide decisions throughout the brand usage
The challenge
The identity has to work for experts, institutions, industry and the public.
ECHA communicates as a scientific authority, a regulatory agency and a public institution. Its audiences include policy-makers, national authorities, industry, scientific and technical communities, civil society and the wider public. The brand therefore needs to carry authority and trust while supporting clarity, accessibility and use across many channels.
In that context, taste or preference cannot be the basis for major identity decisions. The team needed a disciplined way to assess the existing landscape, compare relevant practices and agree the criteria by which future work would be judged.
The approach
1. Make the benchmark specific enough to support decisions
The assessment was structured around 16 benchmark assets. Each asset represented a distinct part of the brand and communication system, allowing the team to move beyond general impressions and examine what worked, what did not and what ECHA would need in practice.
2. Put leadership and practitioners in the same working process
The two-day workshop brought together ECHA’s Executive Director, the Head of Communications within the Governance, Relations and Legal Directorate, and around twenty people involved in communication — effectively the full communications team.
3. Review every asset, one by one
Together, we examined all 16 assets. Facilitation kept the discussion connected to ECHA’s mandate, audiences, communication realities and future needs, while making different perspectives visible and comparable.
4. Convert observations into rules
The workshop did not end with a list of comments. It produced 120 rules to be applied throughout the brand's use. These rules created a shared decision framework for strategy, design development, review and implementation.
Why the workshop mattered
The value was not the benchmark alone. It was turning evidence into criteria everyone could use.
- 01
Leadership and the communications team worked from the same evidence.
- 02
Every part of the benchmark received focused attention.
- 03
Preferences were translated into explicit, reusable decision criteria.
- 04
The brand gained a shared framework for consistency and review.
- 05
The team’s knowledge became part of the system rather than remaining dispersed across individuals.
The impact to date
A stronger foundation for coherent decisions throughout the brand's use.
The 120 rules give the project a practical governance layer: a way to test choices, protect coherence and keep strategic intent connected to implementation. They also create continuity between leadership expectations, communications practice and creative development.
The contents of the benchmark and the resulting rule set are confidential. This case study therefore focuses on the method, participation and decision architecture rather than disclosing the documents themselves.
Before redesigning the brand, create the conditions for better decisions.
Bring us the point at which preference, evidence and organisational needs are becoming difficult to reconcile. We can help determine whether an assessment or facilitated decision process is the right starting point.
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