Fighting friction - SKF
Full brand experience
The screens
SKF, one of Sweden's largest industrial companies, commissioned a full brand update centered on its distinctive 1908 logo—a mark the agency describes as iconic both within its industry and in design circles. Rather than replacing the mark, the brief was to refine and optimize it while preserving the character that has made it recognizable for over a century. The scope, as listed on the case page, covers brand strategy, brand identity, a custom typeface, a digital brand experience, brand voice, motion identity, iconography, 3D creation, an event concept, and brand implementation. The case is presented almost entirely through visual assets rather than written narrative: a sequence of brand identity films, typeface specimens, corporate design applications in webp and svg formats, and 3D/color imagery, culminating in a Vimeo-hosted film. This visual-first structure lets the refined logo, new display typeface, and motion system speak for themselves rather than being explained in prose.
The stated intent—refining a 117-year-old logo 'carefully and lovingly' rather than reinventing it—is a harder discipline than a clean rebrand, and worth featuring for that restraint alone. Backing that conservative logo work with a custom display typeface and a full motion identity shows the team built new expressive range around an asset they deliberately chose not to disturb. The sheer breadth of deliverables, from iconography to an event concept, points to a genuinely unified system rather than a single new asset.
SKF is one of Sweden's largest industrial companies, and the case page identifies it specifically through its 1908 logo, calling it an icon within its own industry and among design audiences. The page does not detail SKF's specific product lines or customer base beyond this heritage framing.
This work was produced by NORD ID, a branding agency with offices in Stockholm and Copenhagen. Featuring the SKF identity so prominently on their own portfolio suggests a specialty in comprehensive brand systems—strategy, custom typography, motion, and implementation—for established, heritage-driven companies rather than single-touchpoint campaign work.
