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Design agency DrawHistory rebrands, reveals new hires

Strategy and design agency DrawHistory has rebranded, as well as adding staff and revealing a new purpose statement to reaffirm its remit to tackle social issues.

The agency has unveiled its new positioning statement, in which its rebrand is rooted: “Designing new futures for people who need tomorrow to be better than today.”

Old Logo / New Logo

DrawHistory has also unveiled its new logo, as well as growing its roster with key hires from Google and Wikipedia, and announcing expanded services into social research, community engagement, and public relations.

Founder Jeffrey Effendi returns after a stint at Google, while Kosta Lucas comes on board as head of community, Essie Zar joins as head of brand, and Christine Garcia arrives as head of comms & PR.

The rebrand took place after extended consultation with stakeholders, including Alex Anderson, a brand and innovation strategist who has worked with the Obama White House, NBA and Twitter, leading the rebrand.

Anderson said that brands he works with have to have a purposeful kickstart and the intention to improve.

“I certainly would love to only work with brands that I personally align with. But a tension remains, and likely always will — there has to be a purposeful catalyst to kickstart purposeful thinking within an organisation where it might not have existed before,” Anderson told Mumbrella.

“Often, it comes down to intention: Do I believe that this company is hoping to improve their organisation, their products, or the world at large?”

Head of community Kosta Lucas, and head of brand Essie Zar, and returning founder/chief of innovation Jeffrey Effendi.

Also speaking to Mumbrella, DrawHistory chief of strategy, Angel Chen, said the team looked across the globe when deciding on who to work with for the rebrand.

“This last year has been pivotal for many people. We wanted to make sure that any strategic partner we chose could identify deep cultural insight into where things are moving, but also honour the real human challenges we find ourselves needing to address,” he said.

“Having founded a creative initiative for nonprofits, Good Measure, Alex has heart for this work.”

Chen also said the rebrand doubles down on the independent spirit and being purpose-led.

“Being an independent agency has fuelled us to ‘zig’ where people conventionally ‘zag’. The idea of being wholly purpose-led when we started years ago felt daunting, but we now see more commercial players pursue similar paths to build equity,” he said.

“The idea behind the rebrand is actually about doubling down on that spirit — that we recognise smaller teams with more evocative values can drive riskier, bolder, and more vibrant work.

“A part of this rebrand is about identifying and partnering with the businesses and nonprofits who believe that playing it safe only gets us so far.”

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