Mewa, a rejuvenation of a century-old brand

The Mewa group, Europe's third-largest textile service provider, has grown significantly in recent years. A pioneer in terms of the circular economy and the reuse of company textiles, which translates into the notion of "Textilsharing", Mewa has chosen the path of visibility for better recognition of its brand. The new visual identity was developed in collaboration with the Munich agency Martin and Karczinski. It was built around the concept of a family business, based on its values ​​and its tradition of innovation. All the visible elements of the brand, such as the logo, the typeface, the colors and the visuals, have been completely reviewed and aligned with the identity made up of values, a vision and a mission.

For Michael Kümpfel, Director of Marketing and Sales at Mewa: “The world in which we work has changed profoundly, and so have we! To develop our brand awareness, it was time to also evolve our image to ensure the future of our company. The group claims a centuries-old family history. The brand strategy also involves going beyond the position of “hidden champion” and giving the Mewa brand an assumed visibility with the public. Of course, we are proud of our roots. But this success encountered over the last hundred years is also explained by our constant questioning. What's new? Where are the potentials? What do markets and customers need? What will tomorrow's work environments look like? This is what we also want to tell in our brand story. »

“The shape expresses the very essence of a brand. Here we managed to connect the history of Mewa to the future and make its identity visible in the design”, notes Peter Martin, founder and CEO of Martin and Karczinsky about Mewa's new visual identity.

Clear lines for verbal and visual branding

The Martin and Karczinski agency received very concrete specifications from the management of the company. The aim of the new version was to design a brand that retains the essentials, evokes growth and at the same time expresses the environmental aspect of Mewa's service offer. “We didn't want to radically reinterpret the Mewa brand, but to evolve it so that its tradition and success story remain visible. It was also important for us to express in the design the clear orientation towards the future and the sustainability requirement of Mewa”, explains Simon Maier-Rahmer, creative director of Martin and Karczinski, who developed the new image. with his team.

The flower, the brand's pictogram, represents the values ​​of purity and hygiene, evokes the environment and sustainability and symbolizes development, growth, evolution and innovation. In order to develop this potential, the logo has been reworked and reduced to the essentials in formal terms. The new flower, with its noble and powerful appearance, becomes the symbol of conscious growth. Mewa's new choice of characters is reminiscent of crossed threads. The letters “M” and “W” follow in their orientation imaginary weaving threads. This element thus creates a link with the textiles that have contributed to the development of the company and still characterize it today.

Mewa also gave up on all-caps and opted for mixed typeface. “The capital letters stood for the abbreviation of the name that our founder, Hermann Gebauer, gave to the company in 1908: MEchanische Weberei Altstadt,” explains Michael Kümpfel. "Today, with our forty-five sites in Europe, we can proudly display Mewa as a brand and not just an abbreviation". The new in-house sans serif typeface was developed exclusively for Mewa in collaboration with TypeMates. Here again, the company has remained true to itself by combining innovation and tradition. The typeface is modern, clear and precise, while its name connects it to its roots. This new typeface is named after the founding family, “Gebauer”.