+1000% Grant applications
Winner Transform Awards
From blank page to NYSE closing bell
A prize is only as powerful as the brand behind it.
The most important awards in the world are known instantly, by sight, by name and by what they stand for. That recognition does not happen by accident. It is built through clear positioning, a bold identity and the confidence to own your space.
Whether you are launching a new prize and need instant credibility, or an established award whose brand has not kept pace with your ambitions, the work starts in the same place: understanding what makes your prize genuinely different and building everything around that.
When awards and prizes rebrand
01 / A new prize needs instant credibility
You have one chance to make a first impression on the world’s best researchers, educators, artists or innovators. A strong brand signals that this prize is worth entering before a single award has been given.
02 / The prize has grown but the brand has not
The quality of your winners, your judges and your partners has grown. But the brand still looks like a committee designed it. A rebrand brings the identity in line with the reality, and opens doors to new entrants, sponsors and media.
03 / A new name or a new focus
A change in leadership, a merger of prize categories, a new founding body. Whatever the catalyst, a rebrand gives the prize a clean, confident signal to send to the world.
What we do for awards and prizes
Brand strategy and positioning
Defining what makes your prize different, understanding its purpose, its values and its place in the landscape, and making a compelling case for it to entrants, judges, sponsors and the media.
Brand naming
For new prizes, renamed awards and sub-categories. We simplify where complexity has crept in.
Brand identity
Logo, typography, colour and the full visual system. Built to work across ceremonies, digital, print and broadcast.
Tone of voice
How your prize speaks, from entry criteria to winner announcements to sponsor communications.
Digital
Website strategy, design and build, built around your brand and your entry journey.
Our work for awards and prizes has driven entry numbers, increased credibility and given organisations the confidence to stand apart in crowded fields. Here’s the evidence.
“Absolutely transformational.” Stuart Cowen, Chair | Grant applications increased tenfold | Quality of applications improved massively | Transform Awards Winner
A scientific grant-giving body whose brand no longer reflected the quality and prestige of the research it supported. Our brief: create an identity that would attract the world’s best researchers and a name that people could actually remember. We renamed them from Rank Prize Funds to Rank Prize and built the identity around sunlight, the common ground between their two scientific fields of nutrition and optoelectronics.
“I love our new branding. It’s allowed us to make an instant impact and reach audiences all over the world.” Vikas Pota, Founder
A new global prize celebrating the impact of schools on society, launched in 2021. Our brief: build a brand from scratch, with global credibility from day one. We defined a positioning built around impact rather than achievement alone, and created an identity that celebrates the ripple effect a great school has on its community. From a blank page to the NYSE closing bell in under a year.
“A powerful contemporary design which is perfect.” Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate
The Poetry Society asked us to create an identity for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, created by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and the National Poetry Competition. We used the crow image from Ted Hughes’ breakthrough collection: a bold, distinctive mark that has lasted.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work with new prizes as well as established ones?
Yes. Some of our best work has been building prize brands from scratch, where the brief is to create instant credibility for something that does not yet exist. The World’s Best School Prizes went from a blank page to global recognition in under a year.
How do you make a prize brand feel credible from day one?
Credibility comes from clarity: a name people can say, an identity people can trust and a positioning that tells entrants exactly why this prize matters. We do the strategic work first, so the creative work carries weight.
Can you help with naming as well as identity?
Yes, and often the two go together. Rank Prize was renamed from Rank Prize Funds as part of their rebrand, a small change with a significant impact on recognition and recall.
What results can we expect?
Rank Prize saw grant applications increase tenfold and the quality of applications improve significantly after their rebrand. The World’s Best School Prizes launched with immediate global reach. A well-executed prize brand consistently attracts better entrants, better sponsors and better media coverage.
