Nokia: Lippincott Crafts a Tech Titan’s Bold New Era

It’s often said that the most powerful brands are not just remembered, but reinvented. Enter the legendary Nokia, an icon of the mobile world that once held sway in our hands. In recent years, it’s been on a transformative journey that Lippincott has expertly steered, rebranding and reshaping Nokia’s narrative for the digital era. Join us as Christina Clemente delves into their evolution, the brand’s resurgence, and its crowning moment with a 2024 Design Gold Award.

By: Lippincott

Nokia was once in the pockets of over a billion people worldwide. But over the past decade, the brand has evolved, transforming into a leader in B2B networking technology. ​

Despite this evolution, most people have continued to see Nokia as a mobile phone company. ​

Enter Lippincott. We partnered with the brand on a full-scale transformation, fusing the brand’s rich heritage with a bold, digital-first identity fit for the future. Today, the networking technology Nokia pioneers is becoming increasingly valuable to the digitalization of every physical industry. Think retail, supply chain, mining, and beyond. The next industrial revolution is expected to unleash the potential of digital like never before, bringing together innovations in the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence to enable fully remote, connected, and smart operations. For enterprises and governments alike, this means massive gains in productivity, safety, and sustainability.​

In short, now is Nokia’s time to unlock its next stage of growth. First, Nokia needed to gain recognition as the B2B technology innovation leader it already is. One that enables customer and partner ecosystems to create the digital services and applications of the future, demonstrating what’s possible when the world acts together.​

As a partner to Nokia through every significant step in its brand journey for the past 15+ years, Lippincott has seen Nokia’s evolution firsthand. Now, we were tasked with driving re-appraisal for Nokia as a B2B brand and helping the company accelerate its next growth phase.​ Working closely with the Nokia team, Lippincott got to work by distilling the company’s ambition into a brand positioning that reflects the valuable role Nokia plays: pioneering the future where networks meet the cloud to accelerate the impact of digital in every industry. We further articulated Nokia as a strategic collaborator and a distinctly human brand with a new purpose: “At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.” This purpose comes alive in a fresh new logo and visual identity designed to signal change and help existing and prospective customers see Nokia in a new light. ​

We built the identity to echo Nokia’s rich heritage as the inventor of essential technologies while giving it a fresh, contemporary, dynamic feel to represent the Nokia of today. This meant simplifying the geometry of the original logo and striking the right degree of visual evolution so the iconic logo, unchanged for more than half a century, was still instantly recognizable. And, to visually represent Nokia’s purpose, the logo’s individual letters were abstracted so they only read as ‘Nokia’ when they act together. ​

The new digital-first identity goes further with a kaleidoscopic color palette and bold imagery that cuts through the industry’s sea of sameness. The logo’s N, O, and K letterforms have been repurposed as bold graphics across all content, so every communication from the brand is distinctively Nokia.​

The new Nokia was revealed to the world on February 26, 2023, through the brand’s exhibition at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Nokia’s presence proved to be a hit, with Forbes referring to it as “the most flash-worthy news at MWC,” setting the stage for an uber-successful launch week, with the new Nokia receiving 1.7 billion impressions and 500k engagements globally across social media channels.

Designers: Lee Coomber, Louise Cantrill, Timothy Stewart, Ariel Chan, Kannie Lam, Josh Grazier, Vimmi Sveinsson, Carl Baldwin

Lippincott is a global creative consultancy specializing in brand and innovation. We have a passion for solving our clients’ toughest challenges with a proven combination of strategic rigor and design excellence. A pioneer since 1943, we have shaped some of the world’s most iconic brands and experiences. From Coca-Cola to Samsung and Starbucks to Delta, our work drives growth and adds meaning to customers’ lives. Our partnership with Oliver Wyman allows us to integrate deep industry, risk, and operational expertise to deliver end-to-end solutions. Together, we create new possibilities for our clients to thrive in the future.

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