Stockholm Design Lab reveals new “digital-first” branding for Ericsson

Stockholm Design Lab has rebranded Ericsson to better serve the Swedish telecommunications giant in the digital sphere. The project, which was revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, involves an optimised version of Ericsson’s logo, a new typeface, redesigned website and new colour palette. The rebrand coincides with a new digital-first strategy implemented by the 140-year-old technology company, which operates in the defence, radar, telephone and wireless technology sectors.

“The digital-first brand identity promises simplicity, trust, and enhanced productivity and SDL’s work is a response to the aim of making complexity a thing of the past with little space for ambiguity and meaningless decoration,” says Stockholm Design Lab founder Björn Kusoffsky. "The new brand identity focuses on functionality over aesthetics and aims to provide tools for simple communication and product performance, thus reflecting Ericsson’s technical expertise.”

Stockholm Design Lab tweaked Ericsson’s three stripe logo – originally drawn by Terry Moore of Allied Designers in 1982 and nicknamed the ‘sausages’ – to better align with the pixel grid, eliminating rendering issues. The identity also includes a new easy-to-read sans serif typeface (named Hilda after one of the company founders Hilda Ericsson), a suite of emoji-style icons and a high-contrast colour palette optimised for screens.

“Our approach to colour is born from digital interfaces and information design principles,” says Kusoffsky. "The tones we have selected are digitally native, internationally bright and rich in contrast. The accent colours are primarily intended to help guide the user towards key messages and interactions, rather than distract them through unnecessary decorative usage.”

As part of the project Stockholm Design Lab simplified the navigation of Ericsson’s website, streamlining the user experience and reducing text.