We are really excited to share our new brand identity with everybody. It has been a real passion project for us over the last few months and, as a result, I'd like to share with you some of the drivers and inspiration behind our new look.
Cambridge Healthcare Innovations v CHI
Our company name is still Cambridge Healthcare Innovations Ltd., however, our customers call us CHI, we call ourselves CHI, and let's face it, it is a lot easier to say over the phone. We wanted to reflect this in our logo and while we don't have any plans to change the legal name, we will start to refer to ourselves exclusively as CHI from now on. To avoid any confusion with our legacy customers and partners, the full company name will be displayed in certain places for a few months.
Camhi.co.uk v CHI.uk
As part of the rebrand, we also wanted to redesign the website from the ground up. And because we were moving to the new abbreviated company name, the old website address didn't make sense. In addition, it is really nice and short.
The new site follows a fairly typical website structure - a bit about us, the underlying science, the products and then the blog. Over time this will expand to include a careers section, more data on performance, and a deeper dive on product features and benefits.
The new logo
We worked with an amazing brand designer called Dan Gould to come up with the new company and product identities. It's so rewarding working with a designer that really gets into the culture and ambitions and then extracts the right information to inform their choices.
So what does the logo represent?
- Inhaler engines harness the movement of air and the shape of our logo is an abstract representation of swirling air
- We place a lot of emphasis on data. We like to test, and we use that data and our analysis to base further decisions on. The three lines (or ribbons) that make up the logo are an abstract representation of a simple form of data presentation - the bar chart
- We also believe in robust engineering principles and precision. As a result, the logo is made up of strong lines
- For the three product logos we wanted to continue a theme from the main identity and the 'ribbons' provided the perfect opportunity. As you can see, the first letter of each word is recreated using the ribbon while also suggesting the movement of air.
A broad colour palette inspired by nature
Anybody who knows David Harris, one of our founders, or maybe follows him on X (@cyclefornature), will know that he is obsessed with nature. His enthusiasm is infectious and it doesn't take long after joining the team to start developing a passion for it. As a result, we wanted the colour palette to be inspired by the natural world. For example, the purple is inspired by the Pasqueflower.
The traditional way of approaching brand design is to pick a single corporate colour and to use it exclusively. In more recent times we've seen new identities come to life where the shape stays the same but the colour palette can change - the best example of this (and often an unpopular choice) is the London 2012 Olympic identity. While many people didn't like the shape, it was one of the first identities where the emphasis was on shape and a broad colour palette, rather than a single colour. The English Premier League and Apple are also two other noteable examples where they play around with colour in certain situations.
While purple is our primary colour right now, we do expect to display our logo in other colours depending on the setting.
Our new identity represents a new stage in our journey
We have some very exciting news to share with the world over the coming months. As such, unveiling the new brand now feels like a particular poignant time. We can't wait to share all of this with everybody and that all starts with our striking new look.
We hope you like it. We do.
