IDP Architects

Delivering a brand refresh

IDP is a multidisciplinary architectural practice based in the North of England, delivering innovative design solutions across a variety of sectors. As the practice entered the next stage of its development, they wanted a refreshed brand that reflected their expertise and creative approach. Drawing inspiration from their workspace and hand-drawn site plans, we updated the brand marque, refined the brand assets, and developed an illustrative visual style. This approach was applied across all documentation, ensuring a consistent, cohesive brand presence throughout the practice’s day-to-day communications.

Refining the marque

As part of the update, we refined the IDP logo to retain the familiar look and feel while improving its overall balance and finish. Small design flaws were corrected, creating a cleaner, more polished marque that works consistently across digital and print. The result is a logo that feels modern and professional while staying true to the brand’s heritage.

“Many successful brand updates start with a strong existing foundation. The key is knowing how to build on what already works while modernising and refining the elements that need attention. With IDP, we explored ways to modernise the visual style, refresh the colour palette, and refine the logo while staying true to the essence of the existing brand. It’s a reminder that a thoughtful brand refresh can have a significant impact, giving the organisation a clearer, more confident identity without losing the heritage and recognition it has earned over time.”

Carl Rutherford

Design Director at Cargo

Creating a visual style

With a limited set of existing assets and a colour palette and type that felt dated, we refreshed IDP’s visual style to give it a more modern and flexible look. A new colour palette was designed to work across digital and print, while a new typeface created a clearer, more typographic approach to communications. We also developed a distinctive illustrative style, adding personality and character to the brand and helping it stand out amongst competitors.

Developing illustrations

We developed a distinctive geometric vector illustration style for IDP, taking inspiration from their office space in a converted church, particularly the patterns of the stained glass windows. These geometric tiles informed the creation of scenes representing each of the sectors in which the practice works. From these larger scenes, we extracted smaller sections to create modular tiles, which could be combined in different ways to build bespoke illustrations. This approach gave the brand a flexible, recognisable visual language while reflecting the creativity and precision at the heart of IDP’s work.

A complete brand toolkit

To ensure IDP could fully adopt and implement their refreshed brand, we supplied all assets within a clear brand framework. This included templates for documents and presentation layouts, along with all illustration files and visual assets. The framework provides the team with everything they need to apply the brand consistently, giving them confidence and flexibility to showcase the practice with a cohesive, professional identity.