In a challenging market, maintaining a strong and clearly-articulated brand is more important than ever. Davis Langdon decided to implement an international brand programme whereby we revisited our branding globally with a view to moving towards rationalization of our brand. For a considerable period we have been much more than a quantity surveying firm. However, the range of our service offerings currently indicates that we have become a leading global construction consultancy. Our brand identity reflects and recognizes this different positioning.

We are therefore pleased to announce that, as of early 2009, we globally  launched a new and evolved visual identity, which will be introduced gradually over the coming months. This development was completely managed in-house by our business development team with cost neutrality our guiding principle. In fact, the market has helped to create an even
greater reason for establishing a strong and clearly-articulated brand, with the change in brand providing a great opportunity for us to discuss the services that we can offer with our clients. Our core values, and our  determination to offer clients the best possible service, remain unchanged. This reflects our confidence in the future, despite worldwide tough economic climates.

One of the most exciting aspects about this project was its global nature. Every part of Davis Langdon & Seah has participated in and adopted the change since the end of January 2009, bringing about a far more harmonious identity and giving us an even better platform for global working and client development.

So what has changed?

At the heart of the change is the new mark which will bring with it a whole suite of new design elements that can be used to express the new brand identity. The current mark was designed prior to the internet age and over the years has presented various challenges in application. We have also suffered from poor visibility as a result of the proportions between our name and the mark. Most of our competitors are also predominantly ‘blue’ in terms of their colour palette and this has meant that we have struggled to ‘stand out’ in our market. The new brand identity is a big step forward and reflects the global board’s desire to have a look and feel which is ‘allied to good design’ and differentiated.

More about Davis Langdon

Davis Langdon, formerly known as Davis Langdon Farrow Laing and established in 1922, is a global construction consultancy firm with over 100 offices and 5500 staff worldwide. Our service lines are quantity surveying, cost management, engineering services, building services, project management, legal support, valuation services and specification consulting. We specialise within the following sectors, i.e. retail, public, education, commercial property, hotels, sports & culture, infrastructure, engineering, industrial and mining.

We are proud to have contributed to significant fixed capital investment projects in South Africa, including the 2010 stadia infrastructure, aviation and public transport projects, port, petro-chemical, mining and commercial property projects across Africa with particular emphasis on South Africa. In line with our commitment to investing in Africa we have a new office in Maputo and are in the process of connecting our existing JV links in Nigeria
and East Africa into business units of Davis Langdon. Our commitment to exemplar service delivery to our clients across South Africa and Africa remains constant.

Corporate social responsibility is an area close to our hearts and involves charitable giving, involvement with key social projects on a pro-bono basis, sustainability and health and safety. We are currently ISO9001:2000 accredited and are in the process of obtaining ISO14001 (international specification for an environmental management system) accreditation to enshrine our environment, health and safety policies and to enhance sustainable living for the benefit of all. Our advocacy in sustainable development includes being a founding member of the Green Building Council of South Africa, presenting at their inaugural conference on the “cost of going green” and publishing of the Davis Langdon Quick Guide to emerging green design attributes.

We are proud to have moved to Level 4 contributor in terms of the DTI Codes of Good Practice. We see our year on year improvement as a  journey and not a destination in our BEE commitment.

Our focus is on providing ‘solutions’ rather than individual service lines and we will be moving towards Davis Langdon as the master brand.