Brand Refresh
Following Wärtsilä's new company strategy in 2022, the brand needed to evolve alongside it. Rather than a full rebrand, this project focused on uplifting and enhancing the existing visual identity. This includes sharpening what already worked while introducing new elements to support the company's expanding communication needs. I worked closely with the brand team to define and roll out the refreshed identity across typography, colour, grid, and iconography.
Year:
@2022
Industry:
Maritime & Energy
Client:
Wärtsilä Oyj
Video : Jennifer Carp
Business Problem
Wärtsilä's new strategy called for a visual identity that felt more current and confident, without losing the equity built into the existing brand. The core brand elements (the logo and primary colours)were strong and recognisable. So the challenge wasn't to replace them but to refine how they were expressed. At the same time, teams across the business increasingly needed more flexibility in how colour was used. for example, in product identification, colour-coded data, and chart reporting, which the existing primary palette alone couldn't support.
What was done?
Typography: A new typeface, Noto Sans, was introduced to bring a more contemporary, distinctive voice to the brand's written communication, replacing the previous system typeface across brand materials.
Colour system: The primary brand colours were kept largely intact but uplifted in tone and application. To meet the growing need for colour beyond brand expression, a new infographic colour palette was introduced, a set of supporting colours designed specifically for product identification, colour-coded results, and data visualisation in charts and reports, without diluting the primary palette's role as the face of the brand.
Grid system (Omnigrid): The existing structural grid, Omnigrid, was retained in its core format, with one key update: corners were softened from sharp to rounded, bringing it visually in line with the refreshed identity.
Iconography: The icon set was softened from its former industrial, sharp-edged, and bulky style into a lighter, more approachable style with subtle curvature, while still keeping the Wärtsilä's technical, engineering-driven character.
Throughout the process, I worked in close collaboration with the wider brand team, aligning on design direction, testing applications across real business use cases, and ensuring the refreshed elements worked consistently across both local and global markets as they rolled out.
Collaborators & Approvers : Annelie Sundfors, Jennifer Carp, Marianna Vento, Virva Äimälä, André Snåre, Kaj forsström, Ritva Seppänen
Impact
This brand refresh project translated Wärtsilä's 2022 strategy into a visual identity update grounded in evolution rather than reinvention. By keeping the logo and primary colours as anchors and refining typography, colour system, grid, and iconography around them, the refreshed identity gave teams more flexibility for practical, data-driven use cases while staying recognisably Wärtsilä. The result was rolled out through brand guidelines and templates, supporting consistent application across local and global markets.
