Westmarq

The challenge: turning a forced change into a defining opportunity

When the surveying arm of Legal & General (Legal & General Surveying Services) was acquired, the business had to consider how it moved away from a brand it had traded on for over 20 years. Under it, they had built strong relationships with banks and mortgage lenders, and earned the trust of the risk and sales teams who relied on their expertise. But the Legal & General name would only be available for a short time, and the business wanted to take the opportunity to rebrand as a route to reinforce both legacy values and new thinking.

At the same time, the market was changing fast. Technology, automation and AI were reshaping property valuation, yet ‘traditional’ surveying providers were looking slow, cumbersome and hard to distinguish.

This was never just a name change. It was a chance to reposition the business, creating an independent brand that carried forward decades of trust while showing lenders a more agile, technology-led partner.

The solution: building a brand with somewhere to go

Our starting point was to get under the skin of what made the business different and understand where they wanted it to go next. This wasn’t about becoming another challenger brand but to continue to be seen as the partner lenders could turn to for a clearer view of what was happening in the market and what it meant for them.

From this strategic foundation, we researched and worked with the management team to come up with a new distinctive and ownable name: Westmarq. Then we built a brand around the name, creating a clear proposition and messaging framework before bringing it to life through a new visual identity, complete with tone of voice and brand guidelines.

We wanted it to feel modern and digitally native without looking like a start-up.

A dynamic graphic W mark became the centrepiece of the identity, representing the sharper decisions Westmarq helps lenders make, while a vibrant RGB palette, contemporary typography and architectural imagery created a visual language grounded in the world of property, pressure-tested against the realities of its market and audience.

The result: a new brand with heritage behind it and ambition ahead

The new Westmarq brand is much more than a replacement for Legal & General Surveying Services. It gives the business a new position in the market and a new way to talk about what it can offer lenders: human expertise and smart technology, working together to make lending decisions smarter and faster.