At Stahl, we know better than anyone that what’s on the surface can make a big impact. When we launched our refreshed visual identity over a year ago, we understood that it would not only send a clear signal to our customers and peers, but would also have an important influence on our own people as we navigated change.
In the last year, we have seen that change in action. As part of our strategic repositioning as a pure-play provider of speciality coatings for flexible materials, we welcomed two new companies into Stahl: ICP Industrial Solutions Group in the US, and Weilburger Graphics in Germany. We also divested our wet-end leather business to meet evolving market demands and focus our investment on our core expertise.
Throughout this process, the refreshed Stahl brand has been a guiding representation, not only of our more focused portfolio, but of the overarching purpose that guides us: Touching lives, for a better world.
Combining heritage with ambition
Stahl’s strategic repositioning is the latest chapter in a long history that started nearly a century ago in Peabody, Massachusetts, when Harry Stahl established a leather finishing company for the tanning industry. Today, we maintain his founding spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation by evolving our business to deliver speciality coatings with a lower environmental impact, to elevate consumer experiences and preserve our planet for future generations. We wanted our refreshed branding to communicate both this rich heritage and these strong ambitions for the future.
Our dynamic logo achieves this. It features a word mark defined by strong lines and condensed boldness that connects us to our visual history, while its elegance and sophistication speak to the speciality business and premium solutions we offer to our customers. The Stahl “S” emerges subtly from its overlapping lines, representing the invisible layer that we add to consumer experiences: a unique fingerprint with which we touch their lives.
A point of connection for diverse teams
This new branding unites all Stahl employees under one logo, but it also unites us in a shared experience of brand transition. Our new Stahl colleagues are not alone in their shift to a new company identity, as even long-time team members are adjusting to the new brand and positioning.
To me, this presents exciting opportunities for connection as we move into the next phase of our growth. As a unifying image for the whole company, it connects all of us as we move forward into this new chapter of Stahl’s history.
And, as a representation of our core purpose, the brand offers us a compass on this journey. Whether our colleagues work in research and development or accounting, at one of our Centres of Excellence or at our head office, our refreshed branding and purpose are a reminder of the lives they touch with their work and the impact we make together.
* The audio recording of this article is AI generated