Cushman & Wakefield is a global commercial real estate services firm whose visual identity has evolved through two significant corporate milestones: a 2013 brand refresh and a 2015 merger with DTZ that produced a streamlined new logo. The company was incorporated in New York in 1917, and its brand celebrated 100 years in 2017 before the firm was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018.[1]
Design and History
In September 2013, Cushman & Wakefield initiated its first global brand refresh in the firm’s nearly 100-year history. The changes included a complete refresh of the company website, an expanded color palette for company communications, and a new globally licensed font. According to Celine Clarke, then global head of corporate communications and marketing, the visual identity change was a direct result of defining the company’s culture: “We took the business approach of being simple and disciplined and applied it to our visual identity.”[2]
The more consequential visual change came in September 2015, when the merger between Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ closed on September 1 of that year. The combined firm adopted the Cushman & Wakefield brand and unveiled a new visual identity and logo.[3] Liquid Agency was hired to design the new brand identity, taking into account the legacies of both organizations while creating a more contemporary platform.[4]
Liquid Agency’s approach was deliberately evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The final solution extracted and simplified the essential elements of the two logos, which included a globe, buildings, and a square. The globe shape was eliminated, and the icon instead focused on the building shape. The typography was made lighter and more elegant, and the color scheme was updated to use the brighter DTZ red. The wordmark color changed from dark blue to a light gray, which the agency described as more neutral and sophisticated.[4] The updated logo retained but streamlined the geometrical building shapes while introducing DTZ’s corporate red, and the neutral gray lettering was chosen because brand advisers believed it would “work better in a global context.”[5]
The project was completed in one month through close collaboration between Liquid Agency and the management teams at both DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2015 logo retained the building shape from the earlier Cushman & Wakefield mark, which had combined building forms with a globe element. By removing the globe and focusing on the building geometry, the new identity simplified the visual message to emphasize the firm’s core real estate focus.[4]
In early 2025, Cushman & Wakefield launched an updated brand identity that embraced a modern indigo-dominant color palette while retaining the iconic red as a secondary accent. According to the firm’s regional communications, the indigo palette was chosen to symbolize trust, innovation, and leadership, while the red accents preserved legacy and boldness. The refresh also continued the use of the “Edge” element, a bold diagonal flooded with brand colors, described as adding a dynamic and contemporary touch to designs. The rollout was designed to be gradual and environmentally conscious, minimizing waste by using existing collateral before introducing new materials.[6]
The firm’s global purpose, “Better never settles,” was introduced as a guiding principle and brand campaign. In March 2025, Cushman & Wakefield launched an institutional communication campaign in Milan built around this message, describing it as “a corporate culture increasingly oriented towards a constant commitment to continuous improvement aimed at creating sustainable value for customers, people and communities.”[7] The Better Never Settles brand campaign was launched in Greater China in June 2024 and later won the Gold Prize in the Integrated Marketing category at the 11th Phoenix Tree Digital Marketing Awards in 2025.[8]
Typography and Design
The 2015 logo update introduced lighter, more elegant typography compared to the previous wordmark. Liquid Agency evolved the lettering to be thinner and more refined, and changed its color from dark blue to light gray.[4] The 2013 brand refresh had already introduced a new globally licensed font for company communications, though the specific typeface was not publicly identified.[2]
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