What it had to solve
Insurance companies overlook the very people they cover, in Zurich's diagnosis. The insurer had redefined its purpose and value proposition around customers and, chasing its aspiration to become one of the world's most responsible and impactful companies, needed an identity built for that shift.
How it works
The 'Safe Space' created by adding functionality to the brand's lettermark is accompanied by a bold shape language across digital channels, an 'inclusive colour' palette drawn from photography to bring real lives into the brand world, and a new typeface system pairing heritage and expertise with a forward-thinking mindset.
What it did
The material reports no metrics; the identity launched inside the organisation first, as step one of a plan to kick off a new conversation about how insurers engage customers.
Background
In November 2020, 72andSunny Amsterdam unveiled a new visual identity for Zurich Insurance Group, the product of a new creative and strategic relationship won in a competitive pitch that kicked off days after lockdown was declared in both Amsterdam and Zurich — and was run entirely remotely, with the two teams never meeting in person.
The identity's heart is the 'Safe Space': functionality added to Zurich's Z lettermark so it holds room for people's ideas and dreams about the future. It is the graphic form of the brand promise — an insurer that makes space for what customers are actually planning — paired with a bold shape language for digital channels.
Rounding out the system, a new 'inclusive colour' palette drawn from photography lets Zurich bring people's real lives into the brand in striking ways, and a new typeface system bridges the company's heritage with a forward-looking posture. Chief customer officer Conny Kalcher framed it as the foundation for evolving the entire Zurich customer experience.
Why it lands
The 'Safe Space' turns an insurance abstraction — protection — into literal graphic space.
Inclusive colour borrowed from photography pulls real customers into the brand world instead of models.
The lockdown pitch itself proved the relationship's premise: trust and openness, built remotely.
What you can take
A lettermark can carry the strategy: give the logo a job — holding people's plans — and the rebrand explains itself.
Since then
The identity rolled out internally as the first step of the journey, with customer-facing work to follow under the new relationship.
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