Solventum

A global brand activation for 3M’s new healthcare spin-off

When companies evolve through mergers, acquisitions, or spin-offs, corporate signage must keep pace. Often, time is critical.

This was the case for 3M Group whose healthcare spin-off Solventum led to us working on a major multi-continent corporate signage rollout.

The new corporate signage identity for Solventum, the new healthcare spin off from 3M Group, created for a new global rollout.

Requirement

A rapid transition across nearly 50 sites globally

Working across nearly 50 sites, the core purpose of the rollout was to remove existing 3M branding and replace it with the new Solventum brand, an identity created from a merger of the words “solve” and "momentum".

With the new brand in its infancy, we worked alongside their project management team to strict, newly conceived brand guidelines to ensure rigorous adherence to their new design styles.

This is always a major challenge for any brand activation specialist, because the execution of a brand identity hasn’t been through the usual time-served tried and tested rollout programme that helps identify engineering or installation issues.

However, our expertise in design implementation and project management allowed us to navigate these early-stage brand execution challenges seamlessly.

Solution

Bringing the Solventum to life in the workplace

Aside from their main corporate signage, our work involved wayfinding signage, as well as internal reception ‘place-making’ and wall graphic signs. We were also contracted to paint certain walls with the new signature Solventum green and neutralising those red 3M painted walls.

This is another frequent consequence of this type of brand activation - extending the makeover to internal spaces to ensure a complete visual immersion in a new working cultural environment.

Another key element of the project was the repair and making good of building surfaces where the previous 3M logo had been in situ. Again, this is one of the unseen aspects of corporate signage installations that, naturally, goes unnoticed - because the client wants all previous evidence of the former brand neutralised.

Outcome

“Solventum is another great example of how we can bring our brand intelligence and engineering know-how to creating a seamless evolution from one brand to another, based on site surveys and forensic technical asset audits, before embarking on the actual corporate signage rollout.”

Paul Shilling
Group Managing Director, Pearce Signs