Studio Makgill rethink the funeral industry for Icon magazine

We’re used to seeing and showcasing rebrands for any number of companies and publications but as impressive as many of them are, it’s always great to see someone taking on something much more ambitious. As part of Icon’s excellent Rethink feature (which brought us Manual’s fascinating new proposals for US road signage), Studio Makgill took on the not insubstantial task of taking a fresh look at the one industry we’re all guaranteed to be a part of – death.

“Funeral Directors are often family run establishments hidden on the fringes of our commercial centres,” the team write on their website. “In most cases they are in uninviting, office-like spaces, daunting in appearance, and with imagery ridden with cliche and awkwardness. It doesn’t need to be like this.”

Their work for Neuma – an imaginary funeral directors named after a derivative of the Greek word for soul – retains the respectful tone which people rightly expect but refreshes the look and feel into a cleaner, modern identity that seems right and relevant, and updated for the digital age.