Work. Connect. Live.

WeWork set out to change what an office could be: a place where independent businesses could work, meet and feel part of a larger community. We worked with founders Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in those early days, helping give their vision a recognizable identity while the company was still taking shape.

Over about a year of close collaboration, we spent many meetings with the founders understanding the different parts of that vision and exploring how they could fit together. They were thinking about three connected ideas: We Connect, a platform that would allow members to connect with one another; WeWork, the shared workspace; and WeLive, a concept for a residential community.

Strategy was a major part of the process. We had to consider how a digital platform, a place to work and a place to live could belong to the same brand. Each served a different purpose, but all grew from the founders’ ambition to bring people together. Our challenge was to find a clear way to connect those ideas while giving each room to develop.

At the time, shared offices were still unfamiliar to many businesses. Some companies taking space in the buildings preferred that their clients did not know they were working from a shared office. That made even the branding at the entrance a subject for discussion. We considered how the WeWork logo should appear when someone entered the building, and how the shared brand could sit alongside the identities of the individual businesses inside.

As WeWork considered offices in a Los Angeles building, we also explored how the identity might appear as signage atop a high-rise. These were practical questions about introducing a new concept, from the experience at street level to the way the brand could be seen on the skyline.

Alongside that strategic work, we developed the visual identity. We replaced an earlier illustration of a man striking a computer with a hammer with a clear WeWork wordmark. The identity drew on the character of the interiors, bringing their mix of familiar textures and modern lines into the way the company presented itself.

We explored different frames and how the logo would sit within them. In one approach, a fine rectangular border held the wordmark above the line “A physical social network.” Other studies used circular, hexagonal and more decorative frames for membership badges. We considered the placement of the logo alongside the surrounding words and shapes, exploring different expressions of the same identity.

We established basic rules that connected the identity across locations, giving the team a shared visual language while leaving room for each space’s character. From printed materials to signage, the brand needed to feel like it belonged to the place and the people using it.

Our discussions also extended to the everyday experience of working there. We talked about WeWork Market, then an early concept for self-service shelves where members could choose a snack and scan it themselves. It brought the conversation down to a simple moment in someone’s working day, alongside the larger questions about the company and its community.

We also explored ways the community could recognize the people and businesses within it. Ideas included community awards and an award for environmental responsibility. We discussed how the awards could be structured and what the physical trophy might look like, considering how the idea of community could take shape in an object someone would receive and keep.

Those explorations were part of the broader work of understanding the founders’ vision. Our conversations moved between the company’s different concepts, the experience of arriving at a building and the small details that could give a community its character.

The identity we created gave WeWork a recognizable foundation in those early days. It was one piece of a much larger story, developed through close collaboration with the founders as they imagined how people might connect, work and live.

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Services: Brand strategy, Brand identity