Craft’s rebrand roots recruitment in cultivation and natural growth — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Recruitment brands tend to announce themselves through a familiar visual vocabulary: bold primary colours, geometric shapes standing in for diversity, and playful palettes that signal approachability over authority. For Craft, a global creative talent consultancy that has spent a decade connecting design studios with senior creative talent, this visual shorthand had become a constraint. Their previous identity, while well-recognised, struggled to hold its own in boardroom conversations about creative leadership appointments.

Sundry, the Los Angeles-based studio founded by Dave Rax, led the rebrand alongside a distributed team spanning Valencia, Copenhagen, Paris and Berlin. The project needed to address a specific tension: 30% of Craft’s work now focuses on senior appointments, yet the existing brand felt, as Founder & Managing Director Dan Crowder puts it, “too juvenile” for these conversations. The consultancy’s podcast on creative leadership, its series of design events, and its expanding influence demanded something that could signal care and competence to the senior creative leaders they work with daily.

The strategic foundation emerged through the concept of cultivation – the intentional process of turning potential into progress. This idea gave the team a through-line that could extend beyond a single visual device into typography, colour, motion and verbal identity. At its centre sits a bespoke floral motif: four ‘C’s united as a symbol representing Craft Cultivates Creative Community. Photographer Paula Codoner, based in Valencia, captured flowers chosen for what they represent – resilience, transformation, creativity, collaboration – elements that mirror what creative teams need to thrive.

The typography became what Rax describes as “a deliberate lever” in shifting perception. ABC Arizona, a condensed serif from Dinamo, handles headlines with what he characterises as “subtle flared details that provide enough character and sophistication without tipping into ‘old school stuffy serif.’” The typeface needed to perform across multiple contexts, from bold standalone messaging to layouts where it integrates with the floral elements without competing. Fort Condensed from MCKL takes on the functional work: job specifications, role details, salary ranges, dates – moments where clarity matters most. “The tension between the two helps Craft feel elevated and mature, but still human and supportive,” Rax notes. “Very much reflective of how Craft shows up and operates as a business.”

The colour palette deliberately distances itself from the bright, playful tones common across recruitment. Richer, earthier tones signal Craft’s evolution while keeping the brand warm. Layouts expand with generous spacing and confident use of scale, designed to feel like moments coming into bloom. The system is intentionally flexible – it can sit quietly and support content when needed, or become more expressive in hero moments.

To extend the visual language beyond photography, the team developed what they call “textural petals” and “digital blooms” – abstracted forms that create depth and movement across static and motion-led touchpoints. The technical process involved building a consistent set of base forms that could be manipulated, with texture, colour and even photography mapped onto them. “From there, the real craft came through manual manipulation, warping and layering the forms in Photoshop, refining the dimensionality before adding movement through motion in After Effects,” Rax explains. This hybrid approach gave the team far more control over folds, structure and blooms than earlier generative experiments had allowed. Once established, the system became remarkably flexible – forms could be rotated, colourways switched, different textures mapped – providing a broad library of assets while reserving photography for key visuals and hero moments.

Motion follows the same principle of looking to nature for behaviour. The movements are unfurling, gentle sways and subtle oscillations – what you see in plants and petals coming into bloom. “It wasn’t about zippy, shouty or overly kinetic movements,” Rax shares. These principles appear across social templates for role announcements, reveal moments where typography grows into place, and throughout the digital experience. Good City, the Copenhagen and Paris-based digital partners, translated these principles into layered interactions and masked reveal techniques across the website, from hero module interactions to footer motion reveals.

The verbal identity, developed by Berlin-based copywriter Louie Zeegen, needed to mature the brand’s tone without losing energy. The challenge lay in avoiding language that simply doubled up on the visual system. “We were mindful of not veering too floral with the language,” Zeegen explains. The solution emerged through a personality framework called the Bright Pathfinder – built around the balance of care, competence and curiosity that helps people discover and navigate new paths. “This personality gave us the ability to mature the point of view and attitude of the brand without losing its sense of energy and dynamism.”

The globally distributed team itself became a reflection of Craft’s own ethos. Partners were selected from Los Angeles, Valencia, Copenhagen, Paris and Berlin – each chosen for their distinct skills rather than geographic convenience. Since launching from Manchester in 2014, Craft has expanded to London, New York and Leeds, placing hundreds of creatives and building teams across freelance and permanent roles. The rebrand positions them for the next chapter, with a visual and verbal system sophisticated enough for senior creative leadership conversations while retaining the warmth that defines how they operate. The cultivation concept provides room for the brand to grow over time, with colour, composition, typography and motion all reinforcing the same strategic idea without relying on a single hero asset to carry the weight.