World Rugby
Powering a new tournament for women’s rugby
Background
Following the success of the Women in Rugby ‘Team Powered’ campaign, World Rugby returned to us with a new challenge: to create a brand for a new kind of tournament within women’s rugby.
WXV is a new global women’s 15-a-side tournament set to revolutionise the international rugby landscape. The three-tiered annual competition is paving the way for all unions to springboard into a higher competitive space than ever before, giving women’s rugby the platform and exposure it deserves.
Brand strategy
Given its global recognition and success, we leveraged the ‘Team Powered’ campaign idea to become the strategic core of WXV. The objective of the work was to grow the game through making it a family affair; one focused on pure entertainment with a globally understood narrative that’s fun and celebratory.
Brand identity
The brand identity brings ‘Team Powered’ to life through a compelling expression of connected energy that flows through the entire system: the energy that drives the sport and brings people and fans along for the journey. The logo is built with a ball between W and XV, demonstrating dynamism that characterises the game. The colour palette is lively and vibrant, elevating the ‘Women in Rugby’ palette for this new audience.
Brand expression
Introducing motion principles also brought the entire system to life. Leveraging the illustration style by Xoana Herrera from ‘Team Powered’ solidified this connection with the original campaign, and our photography style brings fans deeper into the story. We also codified tone of voice principles, to ensure the verbal identity was structured yet flexible for diverse audiences. Our low and high frequency scale celebrated different moments in different ways, to ensure the system was easy to use.
Results
Launched in October 2023, WXV has begun to revolutionise the women’s international rugby landscape, providing for the first time a meaningful pathway for all unions and a competitive springboard towards an expanded 16-team Rugby World Cup in 2025.
Special thanks
Client
James Ralley
Namu Desai
Miri Keck
Suzi Murray
DesignStudio
Vinay Mistry
Charlotte Francis
Rosh Kumar
Sam Cornwall
Adam Witton
Connor Bannister
Leah Ratcliffe
Emily Jones
Jonathan Reed
Collaborators