Overend & Associates: Identity and branding
In early 2016 Karen Overend left her partnership in New Zealand’s leading legal firm Duncan Cotterill to start her own company – Overend & Associates. Her goal was to establish a firm with a straight talking, pragmatic approach to property and construction law. Simon Inc created a brand positioning platform for them which distanced them from other legal firms in the country. The visual identity aimed to challenge stereotypes of how a legal firm should look and feel, focusing on aligning them more closely with the sector they were operating within.
Together with Karen we defined how they speak as a brand, with a range of positioning statements to form the basis for their communications. We designed a bold, clean and contemporary identity with a robust tactile quality based on the weathered steel construction of their own architecturally significant office building, and extended that identity across a suite of branded launch materials and comms.
The visual identity and tone of voice speaks directly to their target market - construction companies, architects, property developers - helping Overend & associates to quickly establish themselves within a specialist niche of the legal sector.