When Graphic Design and Architecture Meet: How ArtVersion Refreshed Legat Architects Brand

Strategically evolving your brand over time is an essential element in modernizing your company, and a brand refresh is often the favored path. While a company may enjoy success with its established design language, a comfortable stasis can gradually lead to a brand seeming outdated as trends continue to change, and technology evolves. Even the most recognizable corporations periodically revitalize their visual narratives, infusing contemporary elements and making subtle alterations to remain relevant. To initiate a truly transformative change, a brand refresh can seamlessly transition a successful brand into a successful contemporary one. This process, when done carefully, preserves the brand's core identity while aligning it with the changing times and customer expectations.

ArtVersion, a leading digital design agency based in Chicago, has a long history of helping companies undergo a brand refresh and showcasing the transformative power such updates can offer. Often, stakeholders gain insights into their brand when viewed through an outsider's lens. In this context, an aesthetic revamp becomes more than just an update; it's an opportunity to infuse their digital presence with a sleek, contemporary look that resonates with today's audiences.

Such was the case with Legat Architects, a prestigious Chicago-based architectural firm. Their team was seeking a refresh that encapsulates their design projects and revitalizes their brand to reflect their modern and innovative ethos. Through their partnership with ArtVersion, they set out to precisely accomplish this goal, breathing new life into their brand identity. Knowing where to start, and how to implement a design refresh with best practices can make a world of difference.

Brand-Focused and Human-Centered for User Resonance

A brand refresh serves a dual purpose: it not only infuses the brand with a revitalized aesthetic but also prioritizes the audience's interests. In recent years, a considerable shift towards a human-centric approach has been observed among many companies. Essentially, this means prioritizing the desires and needs of their audience and making strategic decisions based on this valuable insight. Adopting such a user-centric mindset allows brands to undertake a comprehensive brand overhaul, considering user preferences and actively working to meet their needs. This approach ensures that the decision to reinvigorate the brand's presence is not merely a matter of aesthetics, but a purposeful process aimed at fostering a deeper connection with their audience and enhancing their overall experience.

In their collaboration with Legat Architects, the ArtVersion team knew that their approach to the design had to pull focus on the user, and the overall commitment to the community—a core aspect of the Legat mission and purpose.

"When you design with a user-first mindset, especially during a brand refresh, it can clear up any hurdles before encountering them. Understanding what your base audience wants, and what's worked so far for them is key to note before shifting around design elements they may not resonate with and that can be achieved through data-driven design," states the ArtVersion team.

When designing for the Legat website refresh the team had core aspects in mind that were central to human-centric design and development: usability, accessibility, and overall user experience. ArtVersion's creative concept included a design that was fresh and modern, with a plethora of white space and optimized imagery. Every Legat architectural project was rich with detail and innovation, and the refresh had to display that while considering the user interest with dynamic ways of navigating their user journey. Not only did the optimized and large imagery help create an immersive experience, but so did the animation and movement found throughout. This was a significant change from Legat's previous website which leaned more toward a static layout. The refresh captured the integrity of the Legat team's work.

Cohesion and Consistency Across Channels

With brand refreshes, it simply will do your brand a disservice to elevate and revamp partially. For example, if considering redesigning your logo or website, every other collateral should follow suit. These items include marketing collateral, social media posts, print materials, presentation templates, and even down to the finer details such as business cards. A universal level of consistency throughout your brand after a refresh can fully enhance your brand experience internally and externally.

To ensure that the Legat upgrade left no stone unturned, the ArtVersion design team also updated all coordinating collateral for the architecture firm, including marketing and print collateral along with a style guide that solidified the design language of the refresh initiative. This also contributed to a brand ecosystem that was cohesive and unified. When a complete upgrade of a brand feels complete, it can energize your brand with new visual appeal and excite your audience about the modern look and feel. Yet, a brand overhaul ceases to be a mere visual makeover—it becomes an orchestrated effort to reinforce brand values, reassess strategies, and realign with the audience's needs. Through this purposeful revamp, brands can fortify their market presence, ensuring that they continue to engage their audience in meaningful and compelling ways. By recognizing and responding to the needs of their audience, brands can enhance their relationship with their consumers and, ultimately, ensure their longevity and success in an ever-changing landscape. Consistency is a valuable component of a redesign that unifies a brand and its design language with new momentum.

Throughout time, brands come a long way in their growth. Sparking a change with a brand refresh, whether a large overhaul or a minor adjustment, encourages a reflection on a brand's evolution and growth, this further establishes credibility while showing the audience that your brand is continuously innovating.

Information Architecture and a Seamless User Experience

The current digital design landscape is ever-evolving as quick, accessible information is prioritized among users. The rate of information flow is hard to catch, therefore your users will essentially always efficiently want streamlined details. Recognizing that this is not merely a passing trend, but the evolved paradigm of information consumption, ArtVersion encouraged and developed intuitive categorization into the Legat site.

Employing vibrant hues—lime green, blue, and orange—they paired each color with a distinct shape, crafting a visual language that guides users toward specific architectural segments. For example, a lime green pill symbolizes "Learning", a slanted blue square signifies "Wellness", and an orange circle designates "Community". While this might appear as a mere subtle enhancement, these color-coded, shape-specific markers have become integral to the website's user experience and overall design language. Consistently deployed across all forms of collateral, these graphical elements allow the Legat team to showcase their awe-inspiring designs in a manner that is not only rapid and straightforward but also visually compelling. In doing so, ArtVersion has successfully redefined the parameters of effective digital communication, making information not just easily accessible but delightfully so.

A brand refresh can have a significant impact. Whether a subtle change or a complete metamorphosis, brand rejuvenation should be purposeful, innovative, and authentic to the brand story. Capturing the positive impact that Legat Architects continues to have throughout communities within their new digital product and brand presence solidified the mission for ArtVersion to make an unforgettable user experience.