TBWA Finds Disruption In Imperfection

As agencies race to embrace the possibilities of AI, TBWA Worldwide has taken a deliberately different approach to its own identity.

Its new global design system, Design by Disruption, looks backwards as much as forwards. Rather than reinventing a business built on decades of disruptive creative thinking, the agency has drawn more visibly on that heritage, using analogue craft and human imperfection as a counterpoint to an increasingly polished, technology-led visual culture.

The identity is intended to better represent the wider TBWA collective, which includes TBWA\Chiat\Day, adam&eveTBWA, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, TBWA\HAKUHODO, and LOLA, among others.

Created by DXD under the direction of TBWA chief design officer Bruno Regalo, it is the first public expression of the agency’s new Visual Brand Soul philosophy and introduces a more distinctive, flexible visual language.

Hand-crafted iconography, expressive brushwork, and intentionally imperfect finishes put evidence of the human hand at its centre. Ink drops, spray, pen strokes, and handwritten words bring a sense of disorder to an otherwise elegant system, drawing on art as another expression of TBWA’s long-standing Disruption philosophy.

Regalo explains why the agency chose evolution over reinvention, what it means to design for a global collective, and why analogue expression may become more valuable as digital perfection gets easier to achieve.

Creative Salon: Why is now the moment to evolve the identity?

Bruno Regalo: The world didn’t need another agency rebrand. So for us, this couldn’t just be about changing how TBWA looks. Over the last eight months, we’ve become a much stronger and more creatively diverse Collective, with DDB and MullenLowe joining us. The identity needed to reflect that new reality. We stand on the shoulders of giants like Bill Bernbach, Frank Lowe, and Lee Clow. That legacy isn’t something you redesign. You build on it. The opportunity was to take that spirit and make it feel relevant for who we are today and where we’re going next.

What was the brief to Design by Disruption?

The brief was actually very simple: don’t invent a new TBWA. Express what TBWA has become. We started with the philosophy, not the visuals. What should a global creative Collective feel like today? How do you create something recognisable around the world without making every office look exactly the same? The goal was one shared visual language with enough freedom for every agency and culture to make it their own.

How did that evolve in development?

The more we worked on it, the more we realised we didn’t want to create another set of brand guidelines full of rules. People don’t fall in love with brand guidelines. They fall in love with brands and how those brands make them feel. So, we kept the core building blocks of TBWA, but made the system much more expressive, flexible, and alive. It’s a framework people can play with, not a rulebook they’re afraid to break.

What do you hope this evokes?

Confidence. Personality. A little bit of chaos. We talk a lot about breaking conventions for our clients, so we should be willing to do the same with ourselves. I wanted the identity to feel human and expressive rather than perfectly controlled. There’s always been a pirate spirit inside TBWA. The challenge was finding what that spirit looks like today.

What were the biggest challenges?

You’re always your own toughest client. And when your client is a company full of some of the best creative people in the world, everyone has an opinion. There were a lot of passionate conversations, which is exactly how it should be. Presenting it at our Global Management Meeting in LA was probably the most nerve-racking moment. You’re putting something in front of hundreds of people who will have to live with it every day. The response was incredibly positive, which was a great moment for the team.

How flexible is it?

Very. Around 20 per cent of the identity is intentionally left open for local expression. The backslash is probably the clearest example. Every market can create its own. Especially now, when technology can make everything look perfect and increasingly similar, local culture and individual expression become even more valuable. We’re a Collective, not a network. I think the system should celebrate that difference, not erase it.

Why the focus on analogue?

Because perfect is becoming easy and the new convention. Technology can now give everyone beautifully polished execution. What it can’t automatically give you is taste, judgment or a point of view. So we deliberately went in the opposite direction: human hands, imperfect, analogue craft, mistakes, texture, personality. When everyone can make something perfect, imperfection can become incredibly powerful and the real disruptive language.

Where will it live?

Everywhere TBWA lives. Our offices, website, presentations, social, events, swag. But the exciting part is that we don’t completely know what all of it will look like yet. The system was designed to keep evolving as different offices and people make it their own.