With over 50 years as a leader in innovation, Microsoft continues to deliver on their mission of empowerment by building technology that fundamentally shapes our world. With the introduction of AI, the ways we work and create are yet again changing: but, its full potential for the world around us is building in real time. We’re working in partnership with Microsoft to help them continue to build their legacy by shaping their brands, campaigns, and creative to reinforce their leadership position and drive the next era as it unfolds.

Microsoft’s launch of the Copilot+PC in 2023 marked a pivotal shift in personal computing–and technology overall. The first of its kind, this class of Surface PCs would put the power of AI directly in the hands of customers around the world–with Copilot built into the devices themselves. We developed the brand identity to help signal the shift and capture this everyday power, through the idea of illumination.

As the first touchpoint in our partnership, it helped the Microsoft brand move into a creative space that felt more contemporary and innovative, yet still aligned to the human-centricity and optimism that is core to their equity. The process was highly collaborative and established our way of working to be deeply rooted in co-creation: hosting workshops across London, New York and Seattle to work side-by-side on the development of the brand from start to finish.

From then on, Microsoft’s impact in the era of AI only continued to deepen–from consumer LLMs and workplace productivity, to security and sustainability. Building on the Copilot+PC brand work, we then developed a robust, shared set of creative principles that could be leveraged across the entire Microsoft brand world. This expression system helps signal the presence of AI and reinforces their category-defining, human-centric approach: impacting pivotal rebrands like Microsoft Security, to iconic campaigns like their 50th anniversary, and even the launch of Microsoft AI.

As a mission-driven company, Microsoft believes that technology should fundamentally be in service of people: powering the ideas, ambition, and curiosity that we all share. That purpose is no different when it comes to the role of AI: and in a world that’s becoming increasingly more exposed to–and wary of–the technology’s potential, their human-centric point of view is more important than ever. A critical goal of our work was to ensure their purpose remained clear and consistent: from broad high-level topics like sustainability and accessibility, to more focused conversations like creativity in advertising and film.

With each team and piece of work, whether a sprint or brand creation, the ongoing partnership is built on a foundation of ongoing collaboration. The work happens at speed, across timezones and geographies.

Through a regular rhythm of daily shares, collaborative workshops and lively Teams channels, we’ve been able to function as an extension of Microsoft’s internal teams. This close and continuous way of working has allowed us to not only root our relationship in co-creation, but also to continually build and iterate alongside teams as they develop new products and features: as we did to create the brand identity for the Copilot consumer app.

In nearly two years of working in partnership, across over 78 different workstreams, we’ve helped Microsoft’s ambition come to life across business units and in real time: collaborating with different teams across the organisation and driving change across the ecosystem. And as the landscape of artificial intelligence–and its impact on our lives–continues to evolve and shift, our ongoing work together is helping protect a legacy of human-first innovation and cement Microsoft’s place at the forefront of the AI era.