The company has developed and built presses for more than 160 years, and in 2006 obtained its independence from the MAN group, with a new major sharholder, Alliance. MAN retains a smaller shareholding and the revitalised press builder has announced plans for an IPO.
Today, manroland is global market leader for web presses and a close second in sheetfed presses. Every third newspaper sold around the world is produced on a manroland press.
With independence in 2006, the company was for the first time free to focus its energy and resouces entirely on serving the printing industry without constraints.
In a statement, manroland says the changes to its name and logo show the company's new direction and graphically indicate its independence from former parent, MAN.
The changes went far beyond the cosmetic, says manroland; the entire brand was taken apart, rearranged, and put back together as a new entity.
New brand values
Brand values were realiged, whilst retaining the positive experiences customers have had with manroland for so many years.
"We want to be reliable and groundbreaking, but also incorporate new experiences we have learned during the short time we have been independent," says manroland in its statement.
"We want to be determined and inspirational. These are values that will characterise our dealings in the future and embody our increased corporate latitude.
"Our brand core experience: manroland, the high-performance business partner."
New logo
"Building on the strong awareness and the great respect the brand enjoys, a dy- namic word brand has been developed," continues the statement. "With modern typography and a purposeful colour scheme in grey and blue, this word brand harmoniously combines tradition and innovation.
"Moreover, for the first time, the names of the companies that merged in 1979, MAN and Roland, are incorporated in the form of our new name. Not separated, and equal: manroland.
"In the logo, the respected and internationally known brand name has been rejuvenated in its typography and colour scheme. The logo is the principal element of our appearance and followed by the claim WE ARE PRINT® – an essential image bearer.
"The new manroland logo is a word brand with optical emphasis on the 'o', symbolising the globe and also inferring the shape of a printing cylinder. This makes manroland also optically what it is: the Global Player in printing."
New layout
"Printing is the art of applying color to a substrate so precisely and in such perfect register that the expression and power of thoughts, words and illustrations are enhanced. The new manroland layout follows this philosophy in a unique manner.
"The idea behind the layout is based on a control strip that printers use to achieve perfect color balance during printing: the media wedge. Together with the logo and the house colours manroland blue and manroland grey, the manroland media wedge, also in specially defined house colors, forms the basis for the design of all manroland communication media. Here the media wedge can be depicted in full or parts of it can be separated and used as design elements," the statement continues.
New advertising media
The new appearance of manroland is being applied in all media, from flags and banners to new ads and posters "This will start at drupa with ads and posters that communicate our new name and logo," explains Thomas Hauser, executive vice president of Corporate Marketing and Communications at manroland.
"Here we focus on two fundamental strengths of our company: tradition and Innovation. In a second phase, image themes will follow that reflect our new self-confidence and make it clear that we are the benchmark in Print.
"A relaunch of our product brochures was also especially important for us. Besides the design as such, we have concentrated on clear structuring of the contents."
Fresh start
Concluding its statement, the company says, "manroland is known as a high-performance and reliable partner for printing systems and printing solutions.
"The new appearance confirms this positive image. It conveys strength and determination, and its aesthetics go beyond traditional press building, proving our strong identification with the printing industry and our enthusi-asm for it.
"The first public presentation in the new corporate design will be at drupa 2008. It is the foundation stone for a successful future.
"The redeveloped corporate design is a stable platform for a modern, creative and impressive appearance with which manroland will substantially differentiate itself from its competitors," the statement concludes.
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