notNeutral
A Refreshing Rebrand
In 2021, we marked our product company notNeutral’s twentieth anniversary with a new visual identity. During our collaborative design process, we reflected on the many ways notNeutral has evolved over the years and the values that remain at the center of who they are as a company. Re-imagining the brand for the first time in twenty years was not about changing who they are — it was about defining a visual identity that better represents who they’ve become. New look, same notNeutral.
In close partnership with the notNeutral team, we helped them articulate their core values, assessed the competition and market, identified what makes them stand out above the rest, and developed a visual identity that clearly communicates their value to their target clientele.
Before
After
The brand is an aesthetic marriage of precision and humanity that reflects notNeutral’s products and process: they are rigorous in their technique but leave space for an element of surprise, beauty, and delight. The logo communicates this dichotomy by combining an underlying structure preserving the weight and distribution inherent in penmanship with a series of logical and consistent angles and curves.
The color palette is primarily high contrast black and white to emphasize the technical expertise, with pops of color that highlight the most important elements of their innovative product designs. The entire catalog of icons was redrawn in a refreshed style that is consistent, purposeful, and simple.
Finally, we outlined a new photography style which emphasizes the humanity (and humans!) behind notNeutral’s products: using realistic natural lighting for product shoots, incorporating the people behind their products and the customers who use them, and breathing life into the products by showing them in motion.
The notNeutral brand communicates an aesthetic marriage of precision and humanity — rigorous in technique with space for surprise, beauty, and delight.
