The new brand strategy and Brand Experience System combine global consistency with the flexibility required across different markets and business areas. This preserves the iconic strength of the ZEISS brand while creating a system that accommodates diverse requirements and contexts.

Trusted collaboration
instead of centralised control

A brand identity that works across so many business areas, regions and interests cannot be created by a single department in isolation. Close, trusted collaboration with ZEISS’s Brand, Digital and strategic Business Units was therefore at the heart of our work. Our aim was to reconcile the differing interests of stakeholders across the organisation and bring them together in a shared strategic and creative direction. 

We supported the process not only through design, but also as a strategic sparring partner right through to implementation. The goal was to embed a consistent understanding of the brand across the organisation, so that it no longer needs to be renegotiated at every turn.

Principles, not rules – for business units
and customer segments alike

For marketing and communications teams, the greatest challenge is rarely creativity itself, but translation: how can a brand idea be applied appropriately to a specific context without having to consult the corporate branding team every time? 

We therefore translated »Seeing Beyond« into an actionable design principle. Given the diversity of ZEISS’s business areas, imagery alone has limited potential as a unifying element. Instead, we focused on distinctive identity features: a bespoke typeface whose design principle is derived from the element of light, and the »Spatial Layout« principle, which creates relevance, movement and depth through proportions, overlapping elements and cropping.

Scalable and AI-ready

In practice, this means that a team in medical technology and one in consumer markets work with the same principle, but apply it in different ways. Every execution remains recognisably ZEISS while being tailored to its respective customer segment – without requiring central approval for every individual implementation. This reduces rounds of consultation and gives local teams the confidence to apply the brand correctly and independently.

A key driver of the Brand Evolution is that the principles derived from the identity were designed from the outset to be applicable to AI models and interfaces. For CMOs and brand teams, this means the brand can remain consistent even as content, interfaces and interactions are increasingly generated or supported by AI – a standard that traditional, purely graphic guidelines cannot deliver.

Beyond: the design system
as a shared platform

A principle only makes an impact when it becomes part of everyday work – not when it sits in a PDF that nobody opens. That is why we worked with the ZEISS Digital teams to establish Beyond, a digital design system that gives marketing, communications and product teams worldwide central access to design principles and resources. For the first time, it brings two previously separate systems – Online and Product – together on a single platform. Designers and developers can work collaboratively to evolve the brand across digital touchpoints, from websites to software interfaces.

Governance that teams actually use

For CMOs and brand leaders, the practical benefits include faster time to market for new digital applications and a robust foundation for applying the brand consistently across a wide range of requirements. Individual design solutions have become an operating system for the brand – one already designed to support ZEISS as it navigates an increasingly digital and AI-driven future, with clear principles instead of ever-growing rulebooks.