Mash Creative were commissioned by ICON magazine to ‘Rethink’ the Royal
Mail identity as part of the magazines ongoing feature.
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To move forwards, sometimes you need to look to the past. Brand identities
seem to have a habit of becoming too complicated over the years. We wanted
to take the Royal Mail logo back to basics while retaining key elements of the
original, thereby creating a design that would remain fresh for years to come.
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The plan was to strip away anything that made the logo fussy or could be
deemed unnecessary – very much a “less is more” style approach. The key
elements of our Rethink include a redrawn and simplified crown, an updated
logotype, removal of the rectangular holding devices and a softer colour
palette. The overall layout and proportions of the crown and type remain
pretty much the same.
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Our starting point was the crown, the current logo is based on St Edward’s
crown, but our research showed not only that it is inaccurate in shape but
also that the jewels on the arches are too prominent. We asked ourselves:
“How much can we remove from the crown element without it becoming
unrecognisable?” We decided that losing the jewels on the arch altogether
would simplify the shape and allow the logo to be scaled down without
any loss of clarity. The final crown shape is a truer representation of
St Edwards crown.
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The current logotype is starting to show its age. We wanted one that could
grow old gracefully, so we designed our own font called RM Regular. This is
a simple, clean & legible sans-serif type that complements the crown marque.
We initially tried the type in upper case but eventually decided on title case,
which not only looks better but was more in keeping with the existing
identity. The letters R & M maintain some of the same characteristics of
the existing logo to show evolution.
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The decision to use one prominent colour instead of several was a fairly easy
one to make. Influenced by the colour scheme adopted by the GPO (General
Post Office) around the time of the Second World War, we finally decided
a palette of faded red and parchment. This simplified colour scheme looks
soft, modern and distinctive.
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Mash Creative would like to say a special thank you to Shazia, Jon and the
team at  ICON magazine.