Behind the renown of The Economist, the international weekly newspaper presented in magazine format, is The Economist Group. That organization had an astounding 50+ sub-brands in its portfolio. Those holdings used the Group’s journalistic, research, forecasting, and educational expertise to create profitable B2B relationships. Wolff Olins took on the task of creating a solid brand architecture and rebrand that could make sense of this wealth of offerings without undermining the immutable reputation of The Economist.

From the Wolff Olins’website: “This was an exercise in radical simplification, bringing the Group’s portfolio of over fifty brands down to just four (including the creation of two entirely new brands, Economist Impact and Economist Education), united under a shared mission and brand narrative, all tied together nicely with the recognisable 'red thread' design theme.”

The Economist magazine’s masthead has long been a simple horizontal red rectangle. Wolff Olins designers borrowed from this tradition to create “the red string,” which literally and metaphorically ties everything together.

The string is played out in four new visual themes (see visual):

the lens, to represent intelligence;

the steps, to represent education;

the frame, to represent the entire group, and;

the stage, to represent impact.