Refinery creates new image for Lenz & Staehelin

The law firm Lenz & Staehelin has completely revamped its website. "Our design no longer reflected our self-image as a company," says Heini Rüdisühli, partner in charge, explaining the motivation for the project. "We wanted to put more emphasis on our innovative strength and the values of the law firm."

The Zurich agency Raffinerie was entrusted with the conception and implementation of the new appearance. The lynchpin of the designers' considerations was the logo - and with it the challenge of making it suitable and unmistakable for digital implementations. "We decided to officially use the already well-established abbreviation 'L&S' for the first time," says the agency. On the one hand, the new logo symbolizes the unity of the firm with its offices in Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich; on the other hand, it also graphically implements the unchanged slogan "The world's Swiss law firm." The circle in the new logo represents the globe, the squares stand for the Swiss coat of arms.

Inspired by Sophie Taeuber-Arp

The goal was a modern interpretation of the Swiss graphic tradition. For this, the agency was inspired by the works of artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp, an important pioneer of concrete art. Raffinerie developed a flexible graphic system from the basic shapes square and circle. This gave the various internal competence centers their own animated sub-branding.

The new house typeface is called "Circular" and comes from the Lineto typefoundry in Zurich. "Circular subtly picks up on the geometric design language and at the same time has a very human feel," says Raffinerie, explaining the choice.

Renunciation of models

The imagery was created in close collaboration with fashion photographer Markus Pritzi. For once, he did not have professional models in front of the camera, but the Lenz & Staehelin team. "Our colleagues are the foundation of our firm," says Rüdisühli. "Only with them could we convey the authenticity we were aiming for and a touch of humor."

Colorful website

Also the Website has been almost completely redesigned, both visually and in terms of content and tonality. The main colors blue, turquoise and orange stand for different sections and are intended to facilitate orientation. Vertical "scrollytelling" is intended to encourage users to discover the diverse content - for example, the newly designed "Insights" and "Stories" sections. The "Careers" section also offers interesting content and a simplified application process, as Tino Gaberthüel, Partner and Head of HR in Zurich, explains: "Our new website is designed to further strengthen Lenz & Staehelin's appeal to the best students and employees."

Responsible at Lenz & Staehelin: Heini Rüdisühli, Benoît Merkt, Thierry Calame, Fedor Poskriakov (National Management Committee), Nina Isabel Koch (Project Manager National MarCom Team), Corina Schnyder, Natascha Kühne, Lara Schönmann, Jasmine Gay, Coralie Balfroid, Iman Yazli (National MarCom Team). Responsible at refinery: Adrian Goeppel, Christian Haas, Claire Hulla, Daria Lötscher, Lukas Fust, Mattia Dellamora, Meret Fischli, Michèle Gutmann, Pascal Arnet, Reto Ehrbar, Sarah Dietrich, Simon Meier. Other partners: Snowflake (website), Ink! (text), Markus Pritzi (imagery), Sandro Diener, Anoush Abrar (portraits).