BGO

BGO, formerly known as BentallGreenOak after the merger between Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak Real Estate in 2019, is a real estate investment management firm with 27 global offices and more than $80B in assets under management.

After the completion of the merger, its leadership team set the organization on a trajectory of unification into a single culture and of further distinction within the marketplace. The decision was made to shift to a master brand architecture and officially move to the name BGO. Already utilizing the acronym as a symbol within its current identity, the new name would allow the organization to:

• Maintain the significant amount of brand equity it had accumulated
• Ease its burden on brand management
• Make a transition that is easily understood by the market and investor base

Building upon significant growth and with a strong brand position in the firm’s main markets, BrandingBusiness was brought in to develop a corporate visual identity to support BGO’s global brand transformation.

The design team at BrandingBusiness began by developing a new corporate logo for BGO, taking leadership on a journey and showing them a range of opportunities from evolution to revolution. Ultimately the team landed on a design that took the firm confidently forward while referencing its storied (and passionately regarded) legacy.

BGO’s refreshed corporate logo allows the firm to own the acronym, collectively utilize a universal symbol for its growth story across business units, and take a stance that embraces change and a readiness to lead the way forward. A range of symbolism is captured within:

• A literal green oak tree references the business’ namesake
• A leaf shape represents the firms approach to ESG and progress
• The corner of a building is a secondary read, affirming the firm’s real estate core

Primary business units are brought together under the new master brand model, each able to utilize their own identity while maintaining consistency with the corporate brand.

With the firm’s new corporate logo as the foundation, BrandingBusiness then set to work on developing a comprehensive, flexible visual identity system inclusive of colors, typography styles, photographic styles, and graphic devices that further distinguish the brand within the competitive set. This culminated in a brand guideline that incorporated the new master-brand identity architecture for current and future sub-brands and offerings. These assets empowered BrandingBusiness and the in-house BGO team to implement the brand across a range of print and digital applications.

BGO’s sustainability practices, social responsibility efforts, and employee resource groups are all a part of the program it calls BGO Inspired. Taking cues from the new brand color palette and design approach, BrandingBusiness created the new BGO Inspired logo by marrying a consistency with the corporate logo and the spirit of energy and diversity that BGO’s employees bring to the program.