DewGibbons + Partners introduces Da Vinci-inspired rebrand

Brand communication and design agency DewGibbons+Partners, which celebrates its 21st birthday this year, is to mark its coming of age by relaunching under a new name: Free The Birds.

The multi award-winning practice headed up by Sara Jones, Nick Vaus and Paul Domenet will officially rebrand on April 30th. The name Free The Birds reflects its way of unpicking and unleashing client potential – a boutique approach designed to celebrate the essence of the brand and promote compassion, kindness and integrity at all times.

The agency’s relaunch follows a number of new business wins – including Bayer and Coty, which join longstanding clients Boots, Davidoff, Lindt, Marks & Spencer, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble – and a recent move to new offices in Old Street.

Other new clients include the Girls’ Day School Trust – a network of UK’s leading network of independent girls’ schools, which represents nearly 20,000 students – for which the agency has spearheaded an entire brand review for the trust since picking up the business in June 2017.

It was also recently appointed by Nestlé to undertake a new brand creation project, and by animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming as well as Lumenis – the innovative healthcare tech company based in Israel.

Recently, it won a Gold at the Pentawards for its work for Hello Day – in the Healthcare Packaging category, and two Bronzes at the same event – for Lenor Inspired by Nature (Household Maintenance Packaging) and Hello Day (Brand Identity Programmes).

The decision to rebrand the agency reflects the evolution of brand communication and design since its foundation in 1997 by former partners Shaun Dew and Steve Gibbons.

Free The Birds, inspired by a story about Leonardo Da Vinci, builds on the philosophy of Beautiful Thinking, which has always been at the core of the agency’s work.

Paul Domenet, Free The Birds’ Creative Communications Director, said: “Our philosophy has always been to create brand design with a brand idea built in.

With a clutch of new clients, we are moving beyond our core specialisms of beauty, health, luxury and lifestyle as we see a range of organisations recognise the importance of strategic design to gain differentiation in crowded marketplaces.”

Sara Jones, Partner at Free The Birds, said: “A diverse range of businesses both local and global are seeking design which goes way beyond aesthetics. Our clients don’t consider design a bolt-on, rather part of a strategy and ethos which leads the tone across all communications touchpoints, both internal and external.”

Partner Nick Vaus added: “Truly strategic design is much more than words and visuals. It answers company challenges and enables brands to fly. This has become increasingly important in a fragmenting media landscape. Our name change reflects what we perceive as a real renaissance in our offering with growing numbers recognising the need for design which incorporates brilliant brand ideas.”

Free The Birds offers design and communications services from brand identity to packaging, film, print and digital assets. “Sometimes entire categories need to be ‘freed’ from constrained, legacy thinking,” Domenet explained. ‘But our design is never beautiful just for the sake of it. It always has intelligence and an idea at its heart.’

Vaus added: “Brands say they choose us because we ‘get’ them. In turn, their audiences do too – whether they see them on the shelf or displayed on a thumbnail on their smartphone.”

‘Their energy, passion and strive for excellence are relentless. They marry a forensic understanding of how to build brands with an appreciation of all the complexities of being a global player in healthcare.’Heiko Petersen, Global Brand Director, Bayer

Cheryl Giovannoni, Chief Executive of the GDST, said: “The incredibly smart people at Free The Birds got us from the get-go. In a short space of time, they changed the way we looked, the way we talked and the way we tell our story.

They have played an instrumental role in helping us to inspire our 4,000 staff, the 18,000 girls in our schools, their parents and the 75,000 alumnae of our family of schools with the GDST spirit.  We now have a shared language around our purpose that is powerful and motivating.  They also happen to be lovely people to work with.  What more could a client ask for?”