Rain Bird

Overview

Market leadership has its perks—quite a few of them. The problem? Rain Bird was struggling to stand out in a sea of competition. In a market flooded with copycat brands and products, Rain Bird needed an idea equally capable of appealing to farmers, municipalities, and golf course superintendents as homeowners, landscape designers, and contractors.

We made it our mission to evolve this storied icon into a future leader, rising above the din of feature-based messages to launch a new, future-oriented dialogue influencing the way the world works with water. The answer? A brand rooted in reams of market research that determined there’s one thing on every audience’s mind: growth.

Core brand elements

We knew from the start that the Rain Bird brandmark was sacred—a 90+ year promise of quality stamped on every product before it came off the manufacturing line. So we focused our efforts on revitalizing the system around it, breathing new life into tried and true hallmarks of the Rain Bird brand.

A refreshed color palette remains rooted in Rain Bird’s signature green, expanding to capture additional hues found in nature. Refined type balances the intelligence reflected in each Rain Bird product and the good-natured character of their audience, inviting the brand to tell a multifaceted story suited for an increasingly complex industry. Photography is similarly refreshed by the addition of a bird’s-eye-view intended to highlight expansive impact without getting lost in the details that make it possible.

Visual system

Rain Bird’s core brand elements are augmented by a visual system grounded in the language of water. Each expressive texture illustrates the power and fluidity of nature a little differently, creating an expansive toolkit for the brand. Textures are complemented by a similarly flexible series of fine-line details and precision linework, an homage to the company’s engineering mastery. Together, they illustrate the balance between nature’s engineering and Rain Bird’s ingenuity, embracing the idea of making water work even better.

Verbal identity

With such a diverse audience, a well-rounded verbal identity is key to the evolved brand. The voice is intelligent but not inaccessible, good-natured but never goody-two-shoes—perfectly balanced, just like Rain Bird and nature. Messaging revolves around the brand’s indelible tagline, “The Intelligent Use of Water,” building new equity around the idea of growth and innovation. The identity is personable and human, sharpened by the wisdom earned after nearly a century of leading the way.

System flexibility

Irrigation might seem straightforward, but there’s a time and a place for every person, every product, and every story. The brand system is designed for maximum flexibility, featuring a verbal identity built to accommodate brand awareness goals, market-specific messages, and even product-focused sales tools. The visual identity is similarly versatile, capable of running the gamut from informational to inspirational without ever feeling like anything but Rain Bird.

After all, everybody’s future grows a little differently.