As the rollout of Australia's new faster internet medium continues, the National Broadband Network (NBN) found itself in the middle of numerous telecommunication companies, each vying for the spot of best internet service provider. What the NBN was lacking in was a clear brand identity, as well as a clear, simple and recognisable logo.
This potential rebrand attempts to place them clearly in the middle of the pack of companies such as Telsta, Optus and more, whilst simultaneously looking to display to the common consumer what their market is.
It uses a Wi-Fi symbol (commonly associated in today's world with the internet) shaped into a map of Australia, cleverly combining both the market space and the target audience into one symbol. To ensure recognisability, the lettering remains, making this logo a wordmark.
Figure 1: My proposed rebrand of the National Broadband Network's logo. This features the Wi-Fi symbol and the shape of the Australian coastline, depicting location of the market and the market space.
For this project, I aimed to remedy the existing National Broadband Network's brand, particularly their logo. I discerned a number of issues with their current identity, including the fact that they did not correctly convey their relation to the internet industry through their iconography or colours. Their typography was also not as appealing or welcoming, something required for a company in an ever evolving industry.
This project started with an initial market analysis, comparing the brand identities of various telecommunication companies in the same market as the NBN. This was quite fruitful, giving an insight into how a well developed brand identity can lead to a higher market share, as seen in Optus' rebrand. I also discovered how the NBN's typography, colour and imagery choices did not give a succinct and effective depiction of what the company was about.
Figure 2: The three older versions of the NBN logos, oldest on the left.
From here, I created a moodboard to be able to visualise some of the commonly used elements in the technology and networking fields, as well as to be able to see the colours used.
This helped greatly, giving me a number of different ideas in the next stages, but simultaneously giving me more information on the state of branding in the industry.
Figure 3: A moodboard used to showcase commonly used elements in networking technology brands.
Colours were further explored through the use of colour psychology. I tested different variations of the chosen colours to be able to arrive at the perfect set of complementary colours which showcased the NBN's position in the field of technology.
Typography was similarly chosen, with the use of A/B testing to determine which font would fit best in the wordmark. Two fonts, Montserrat and Montserrat Alternates were chosen for this final set of testing. Montserrat Alternates provided the slight level of uniqueness that the NBN needed to ensure that the logo was memorable, which meant that that would be used for titles and headings. Meanwhile, the simplistic Montserrat was used for body copy.
Figure 4: The colour set that was used to create the logo.
Ideation followed soon after, with a number of different concepts explored. Each concept took from a specific idea in the networking sphere.
Figure 5: A set of concepts that took from the polygonal style found in point-to-point networking designs.
For example, this first set of designs took from the idea that each point in Australia is connected by a networking line. The ideas evolved slowly, becoming more and more refined, with each iteration removing some complicated issues and unnecessary elements.
Figure 2: The second set of designs, taking more from waves that Wi-Fi normally has.
Conversely, the second set of designs combined both the point-to-point networking model with the curves and waves found in the Wi-Fi symbol that we all are used to. Some designs used random waves, some designs connecting the major cities, some using negative space and more.
Figure 7: A depiction of some final alternative designs which used the 'mobile data' symbol, also used to showcase networking occasionally.
The final designs used the mobile data symbol to display the same concept of networking within Australia. The Wi-Fi symbol was also explored, and this seemed to fit a lot better with the idea.
Finally, the concept was refined before becoming the symbol that was used in the final propsed marketing showcase. The wordmark was developed with variations, as all brand identities must be. Each variation fits a different purpose, some with the NBN lettering, some with variations on the colours.
Figure 8: A showcase of all variations of the logo side by side.
Finally, the propsed rebrand was concluded with some sample marketing documents, as well as mockups of how the brand would be used in communications and merchandise.
