British Steel is set to reinvigorate the steel industry in the UK with a new outlook and a new brand. How has this evolution arisen and what does the future hold? Brittany Golob reports

The Tata Steel logo stamped into the long bars of steel produced at its Lincolnshire production facilities caused physical weaknesses to form in the steel. The brand was actively harming its final product. Steel workers would round the sharp corners of
the logo to reduce stress and the possibility for weak points. But now, a new era in British steelworks has dawned with the birth of British Steel. The company is not a revival of its predecessor – which died off in 1999 when it merged with a Dutch Company to form Corus Group – but a rebirth of the country’s heritage of steelworks. The new brand emphasises strength, the production process and the workers at the heart of the industry.

The design history associated with the name British Steel is renowned. With a logo developed by famed illustrator David Gentleman, the 1969 mark was a triumph of British design. It was created in such a way that it could be replicated by steelworkers on site with just the tools available on factory floors. And it lived for 30 years as one of the most recognisable British brand logos.

The new British Steel, harking back to this history with its name, though wholly new, pays that same attention to the steelworkers themselves and to the process of making steel products. “In their previous brand, they weren’t allowed to show steel in it’s molten state,” says Andy Clayton, brand director at Ruddocks Design, the Lincolnshire-based brand agency tasked with bringing British Steel – now owned by Greybull Capital – back to life. “They wanted to focus on the end products, but one of the most interesting parts of [the process] was that molten steel.”

The orange glow of molten steel that is the heart of the process lends its colour to the new logo in the form of a burning orange. That is complemented by a steely grey that comprises the majority of the logo. Those colours pervade across signage, web design and other materials, including the photo library used throughout the visual system.

The photographs used by British Steel are a mix of old and new. Some date to the Tata days – when restrictions limited what could be shown in photos – but impart the emotion that Ruddocks wanted to achieve. Some are newer and do depict the process of working with molten steel. Photographic portraits help British Steel project itself as a personable, approachable organisation. “It was just a case of continuing with that depth of field and focus on those realistic and natural looking faces. People build up relationships within the industry and people buy from people and that’s what we wanted to emphasise more than anything else,” Ian Cant, creative director at Ruddocks says.

“This brand is still much more about stability and longevity. What we really want is for this to be successful in the long term. This brand will develop and it will evolve, no question.”

The workforce was the reason behind the brand’s font, as well. The chosen typography has rounded corners. The bars of steel that comprise the ‘B’ in the new logo also feature rounded corners. This was a design decision intended to give strength to the steel products. The previous logo’s sharp corners were a point of physical weakness, so Ruddocks gave steelworkers a strong, and physically robust new logo.

The resulting brand is representative of the steel industry as the steel industry wants to be represented. “This is about progression and the future and a new dawn,” says Cant.

Ruddocks ensured that the people of British Steel were the core of the new brand, not simply the creative work. That ethos is in line with the values of the new organisation. The values British Steel espouses are pride, passion and performance. A spokesperson from the company says, “This is more than just a logo. It underpins what we stand for as a business.” The company has focused on its employees and the heritage of steelworks and steel manufacture in Great Britain.

But, it also recognised that a strong brand was the way to build reputation, particularly as a new company in a challenging sector. The spokesperson adds, “In a competitive marketplace it is crucial that we have a strong visual identity and that our brand is synonymous with world-class steel and world-class service. Our logo is striking and strong, one we think that sets us apart from our competition and we’re already seeing positive responses from our customers.”

The brand also had to be a rallying point for employees who had faced job uncertainty in the months during which Tata Steel closed its UK facilities. In a heritage sector, where workers identify strongly with the trade, rather than the company for which they work, a people-driven brand is an asset.

For Ruddocks, this meant research was key before any designs were committed to paper. It visited the facility and ran internal workshops with employees across the production process and from the director level to the shop floor. It also took pains to ensure that employees were kept apprised of the progress of the brand and how it would ultimately be expressed strategically and visually. “You could see that morale was getting a lot better and it seemed like they were begging to take ownership of what they were creating with us,” says Clayton. “It was really important throughout to have that level of engagement and communication with the staff across all levels.”

Moving from a restrictive brand system that even limited the portrayal of the key part of the steel production process to an employee-driven brand helped motivate the staff and build morale.

“Everyone knows that in the last few years, there was a bit of uncertainty for the staff. So they wanted to engage them to make them feel part of the team, to feel they have ownership of the brand and ownership of the organisation, which is something they never really had before,” Clayton adds.

The brand launch focused on signage across the 15 or so sites run by British Steel and on materials for salespeople from day one, as well as the website. The site takes inspiration from the 45 degree angle of the logo’s B and deploys photography, as well as the signature orange and grey, throughout.

Implementing the new brand is still a work in progress, though the timescale for development was short. “For a project of this nature we normally would be looking at a longer than what we had,” Cant says. But the team was able to turn out a successful launch in only a few months. Clayton says one of the biggest tasks before the launch was the development of brand guidelines which included everything from advertising to signage and from vehicles and promotions.

And ultimately, what matters is the reception to the new brand, and the brand’s longevity. “When a new brand is launched, it’s out there for everyone to see and give an opinion on it. But ultimately, it’s the time that will be its real test,” Cant says. Timelessness was important for Ruddocks, and for the communications team at British Steel. The company is redefining the steel industry in Britain and for a company in that position, it’s brand has to represent it for the long term.

“It’s still very much in its infancy and this brand is still much more about stability and longevity. What we really want is for this to be successful in the long term and this brand will develop and it will evolve, without question,” Cant adds.

And employees have been receptive to it, from the director level at Greybull Capital, to the steelworkers in Scunthorpe and Teesside. The brand’s flexibility meets the company’s requirements throughout. Its considered design meets the physical needs posed by the steel industry. And its positioning meets the objectives of the company as it plans out the next era of steel in Britain and of British Steel.

It’s impossible, however, to fully separate the British Steel of 2016 with those that have come before it, with the same name or different. The sector has a storied history in the UK and relies on the people working in it to succeed. Its unique character has resilience, strength and steely resolve. And now, it has the brand with which to meet that high standard.

Peer review
Kat McCord, creative director, Thackway McCord

If British Steel is so keen to signal that it is a new, different company, not connected to the British Steel of the past, why didn’t it choose a different name? Conversely, if it is going to call itself British Steel, why not embrace David Gentleman’s iconic 1969 symbol? Had Ruddocks taken this classic mark and implemented it, embracing the new digital landscape, it could have signaled the re-emergence of a stronger, better company and British industry. North’s work for the Co- operative rebrand comes to mind in this instance.

The new British Steel brand is, to quote the website Brand New, ‘fine.’ I usually come out of the gate loving a rebrand, be it the controversial Wolff Olins 2012 Olympics mark or DesignStudio’s Airbnb. I prefer not to take part in the online takedown of every new logo that is launched, however, in British Steel’s case, it is a missed opportunity to reestablish a classic brand.