CORPORATE IDENTITY FOR ADANI

TitleCORPORATE IDENTITY FOR ADANI
BrandADANI
Product / ServiceCOMPLEX INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP
CategoryA01. Corporate Identity Schemes
EntrantWOLFF OLINS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Entrant Company:WOLFF OLINS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Design/Advertising Agency:WOLFF OLINS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Credits

Name Company Position
Sebastian Klein Wolff Olins Lead Creative

Brief Explanation

The complexity of the group struck us. Three quoted companies and many more privately held businesses across a wide range of activities: edible oil, coal trading, mining, property development, power generation, ports, a free trade zone, oil exploration, and natural gas distribution. Of these, only the edible oil business was well known to the Indian public under a separate brand, Fortune. The other businesses were all low profile, many operating under various forms of the Adani name. All had rather dull identities to match. They dealt primarily with other corporations or governments. How to make this interesting?

The Brief

We first met Adani in April 2011. The brief was unusual but interesting: to produce a new group website and corporate brochure. This also meant telling a new Adani story and overhauling the identity. The Group is big, with revenue of $7 billion. It is now active in Australia and Indonesia as well as India. It would need to better its brand to compete on a global stage. The focus was on two concrete deliverables that could be used to help staff see the full scope of the group’s activities and to brief journalists and analysts.

How the final design was conceived

Our goal was to tell the business story simply. A contemporary expression gives the brand stand out in a industry that is dominated by visually complex identities and cliches. We saw the opportunity to make playful information graphics the hero of the expression. Three activities accounted for most of the Group’s revenue and growth: acquiring natural resources, moving them from A to B, and using them to generate electricity. The design genesis was a colour for each activity represented in a spectrum to show integration. All under one name, Adani, and all in a modern, international form.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The brand launched to staff in February 2012 in several locations with a live feed of the chairman and various others explaining the logic for the new identity and their vision of the Group’s future. Long story short, the staff loved the work. As one said: “I was so proud to see the company look like this. My heart swelled.” The story of integration and the fresh identity have also gone down well with business customers and analysts. Best proof of this is that one of the other big regional players has also asked for our help.