Gore

Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Video, Summary, Credits

Gore is a global technology leader. The company has built a legacy as an innovator with purpose, solving complex challenges through the application of advanced materials. With its unique lattice structure & culture, sustained beliefs & values, Gore built its business on the market-changing applications of the ePTFE and other polymers across industries from aerospace to medical, telecommunications to textiles, including GORE-TEX.

With a go-to-market strategy that saw its regions and divisions operating autonomously, as well as a product-first mentality, awareness of Gore’s original purpose-driven intention had waned. As a result, there was a lack of clarity around the master brand. At the same time, a number of core challenges needed to be addressed:
• An over reliance on heritage was making visuals and communications feel dated
• Divisions and regions operated in silos, impacting the go-to-market strategy
• Customer relationships were transactional and focused at the product level
• Gore’s culture of freedom and belief in the individual made it difficult to execute top-down enterprise decisions

After arriving at a brand promise—Together, improving life—we collaborated to develop a robust visual & verbal identity system that unified the enterprise under “One Gore”. Recognizing the equity and heritage in the existing Gore logo, originally hand-drawn by one of the founders, we used its “alar” shape as the foundation for the new corporate identity system. We also developed a nomenclature, messaging framework and brand voice grounded in the GORE brand, as much more than visual changes were needed to communicate “One Gore” internally/externally. We also designed a new brand center and strategic communications.

Qualitative and quantitative research to understand brand perceptions and associations had revealed a deep hunger, both internally and externally, for a cohesive master brand. The team’s work accomplished this, through a combination of comprehensive visual and verbal systems that unified the global organization as well as its business units:
• The brand was rolled out to more than 10,000 employees across the US, Europe and Asia
• Over 100 print, digital and environment templates have been translated to English, German, Chinese and Japanese and are in use across Gore markets.