WeWorkhorse: Franklyn’s future-facing, vibrant rebrand for WeWork puts character and customer first

“WeWork has always been a design-driven company,” Franklyn’s Creative Director & Co-founder, Michael Freimuth, tells us, “with very intentional choices when it comes to architecture, interior design and customer experience,” contextualising the NYC-based creative studio’s brand overhaul of workspace giant, WeWork. “However, we felt like this hadn’t really been carried forward as much in some aspects of its visual identity,” Freimuth continues, “and the wordmark in particular,” illuminating the systematic and visual changes Franklyn made to better align with the company’s design-driven DNA. “The original mark hadn’t been given much consideration from a craft perspective,” Design Director Jelle Maréchal recalls, noting that, despite its charm, the mark’s overall construction didn’t live up to WeWork’s functionality and thoughtfulness. “The kerning was inconsistent, and the curves were wobbly,” Maréchal remarks, “almost as if it had been scanned from an old newspaper,” resulting in inconsistent and lacklustre appearances across small or digital applications. “Overall, it felt like it was from a different era. This refinement and consideration felt almost necessary, and we were happy to oblige,” he adds, speaking of Franklyn’s intention to realign the aesthetic and conceptual identity of the coworking brand with its leadership in the space. Indicative of the level of care WeWork offers its audience – likewise, mirroring the brand’s emphasis on detail and functionality shared with Franklyn – the identity saw a change from Aperçu Pro to bespoke typeface, WeWork Serif, crafted in collaboration with California-based design studio A+. “WeWork has a lot of equity in that serif ‘look’ of the logo,” Maréchal clarifies, becoming a synonymous, marked voice within the brand. “Redrawing the mark not only inspired us to expand it into a full-fledged typeface,” he continues, “but perhaps more importantly, allows WeWork to infuse its voice throughout messaging and communications,” doing so in a subtle yet ultimately affecting way.