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DHL

Accelerated by design

DHL Case Intro: Fast paced video scenes show package deliveries in daily urban life and a yellow DHL delivery van on a scenic coastal road, overlaid by a centered DHL logo.

About DHL

DHL Group, with its brands DHL and Deutsche Post, is the world's leading logistics service provider. With around 600,000 employees in more than 220 countries and regions, the company connects people and markets. True to the purpose of “Connecting people, improving lives”, DHL combines global trade flows with digital innovation and environmental responsibility. With the promise of “Excellence. Simply delivered.”, the brand realises efficient and future-proof logistics solutions for an increasingly connected world.

Uncomfortable Truth

Old school brand management no longer works

The reality in large organisations is paradoxical: In the age of AI and Canva, where theoretically all employees can work with brands, they must nevertheless be 100% consistent at all times. While complexity is growing exponentially, brand management is also demanding faster and more efficient work. Hardly any brand feels these challenges more acutely than the global titan DHL with hundreds of thousands of touchpoints. In response to this new reality, Strichpunkt, in collaboration with DHL Group Brand Management, established a dynamic brand operating system as early as 2017 that turns employees into brand ambassadors and replaces complicated brand guidelines with a dynamic, easy-to-use brand hub. With our DHL Next Level Branding launched in 2026, we have further reduced complexity and made the DHL brand more user-friendly and accessible.

DHL statistics collage overlaid on photos: Millions of customers, hundreds of thousands of touchpoints, 600,000 employees, 5 independent business units, in 220 countries and regions
Illuminated Post Tower (DHL headquarters) at dusk by a river with reflections. The yellow DHL logo shines at the top of the circular skyscraper.

Complexity as a constant

The impressive key figures are backed by an operating force that is second to none. For the brand, this means that its identity must resonate on every continent and in every sector. Scalability is not a just a bonus - it is the foundation of global trust.

A smartwatch displaying a DHL notification next to a DHL cargo plane, both set against a yellow background. Between them is the text “A wide range of touchpoints” accompanied by a double-headed arrow.
Our Approach

Empowerment instead of control

Brand policing and rigid guidelines are a thing of the past. The future will include flexible brand operating systems that empower employees and turn potential sources of error into co-creators who create on-brand designs and strengthen the brand. Creative professionals also benefit from the user-centred branding approach. The foundation of DHL's holistic brand operating system is a brand strategy that provides direction. The modular design system is consistently designed with accessibility and intuitive use in mind, enabling global scaling with maximum creative diversity. Employees will find lean guides with video tutorials and smart tools such as the Illustration Creator in the DHL Brand Hub, accessible for every employee. The final stage of empowerment is the integrated Layout Creator. As an intuitive, AI-powered tool, it translates users input into error-free, 100% brand-compliant layouts in a matter of seconds.

A staged model for empowering DHL brand users: A defined brand personality forms the basis for a modular design documented in a brand hub. The final stage of empowerment is the Layout Creator.
Smiling DHL employee with braids in red and yellow uniform and beanie in front of a yellow DHL delivery box.
Graphic illustrating DHL’s tonality as part of the brand personality: a red silhouette of a person on a yellow background, accompanied by the tonalities "Energetic," "Focused," and "Bright."

Focused emotion

A clearly defined brand personality together with tonality intuitively conveys the look and feel of the company. The "Focus on you" visual style clearly brings to life the superpower of global logistics – the people who make it happen.

A yellow DHL delivery van is on a steep coastal road by the sea. A DHL delivery person walks on a sidewalk with a package. Text overlay: “Users don®t want to know how their brand works. They want to work with it.”.
Overlapping elements of the modular DHL layout system: a photo of a woman, a red pin icon, the text "The world's leading logistics company," and the DHL logo
Animation of a modular illustration system: Three illustrated women whose heads, upper bodies, and lower bodies swap dynamically

Creativity without barriers

All design building blocks are engineered for maximum combinability – no complex rules, no frustration. This modular toolkit unlocks room for creativity and perfectly reflects the dynamism of a brand that is constantly on the move.

Animation of design sliders: Transitioning from functional to expressive layouts and subtle to striking DHL branding
An older and a younger woman use a tablet at a wooden table, with a yellow DHL parcel in the foreground.
Comparison of DHL screens: The previous design – featuring red text on yellow – was not accessible, whereas the subsequent Next Level Branding design, with black text, is accessible according to WCAG 2.2 standards

Excellence for everyone

The distinctive “Delivery” font ensures outstanding readability thanks to its black colour and mixed-case styling. Together with high-contrast interfaces and rounded shapes, it ensures that the DHL brand identity is accessible to everyone.

Animation of the DHL typeface “Delivery” showing various weights and highlighting typographical details
Floating red game controller on a yellow background with bold fading text “play it red”
DHL Interface Design: Photo of a man with a smartphone and a yellow envelope next to various interface elements such as icons, buttons, and input fields
DHL Brand Hub and Illustration Creator: Notebook, tablet, and smartphone versions showcase the Brand Hub and Illustration Creator against a yellow background, framed by a red download and a tool icon.
Two people work on a screen with the DHL Layout Creator, customizing a vertical layout.
Yellow DHL Layout Creator start screen asking “What do you want to create today?”. Three white selection cards display options for “Single layout”, “Campaign”, and “Job Ad”, including illustrated icons and red call to action buttons.
10Âč⁔ àŸŸ 50,000

Masses of class

More than 100,000 brand-compliant layouts have been created with the DHL Layout Creator since 2019. The AI behind it creates 10Âč⁔ layout variations and presents the best-looking ones for use.

Screencast of the DHL Layout Creator: Step by step creation of a poster, from format configuration and editing text, icons, or images to the final PDF download.
The Impact

Efficiency Accelerated

Our brand design for DHL is much more than a distinctive, versatile brand design. Through radical simplification, it transforms up to 600,000 employees into style-savvy co-creators, while empowering design professionals to engage in strategic creation and visual diversity. The role of brand management is also changing dramatically: What was once “brand police” tasked with ensuring compliance with rigid rules is evolving into a dynamic enabler that empowers employees worldwide and strengthens the brand. In the first few years alone, the Brand Hub and Layout Creator were used to create more than 50,000 error-free layouts – in a matter of seconds, with zero friction and in compliance with strict accessibility guidelines (WCAG). In short, a future-proof, intelligent brand operating system that reduces costs, frees up the organisation and sustainably accelerates global brand growth.

DHL graphic on yellow with text “Accelerated By Design”: photo of an airport worker, the DHL logo, and red pictograms of a light bulb and a launching rocket.
An overview of over 20 DHL communication media showcasing DHL’s flexible design: advertisements, posters, web designs, magazines, and social media posts.
Three smartphone mockups showing DHL social media layouts: a staff photo with text “Instagram Takeover”, a portrait with “Delivered with Love” and tape with DHL logos over an airport scene.
Four smiling people in a meeting; a standing woman wears a DHL lanyard with an ID badge. In the background, a screen displays the text “Digitalization”.

With the refined design and our new Brand Hub, we have created a system that inspires both marketing and communications colleagues and occasional users within our company. Our brand is now more tangible, accessible and efficient than ever.

Thomas Clemens
Head of DHL Brand Management
Overview of the key elements and tools of the DHL brand framework: design elements such as photos in the DHL image style, icons, the "Delivery" typeface in multiple languages, the DHL responsive logo on a smartwatch, illustrations, and interface elements; applications including an advertisement, a brochure spread, and a webpage on a smartphone; prominently displayed in the center is the Brand Hub homepage on a laptop screen, with the Layout Creator open on a tablet alongside it.
Deep Dive

The DHL brand design live on stage

Everyone is talking about AI-powered brand management. Together with DHL, we demonstrate how it works – worldwide, with thousands of internal and external users, consistently and highly efficiently. In the 60-minute Deep Dive (free of charge and open to everyone), we present it together with the brand managers from DHL. Dive straight into the DHL Deep Dive: https://sp.design/en/insights/dhl-brand-design:-accelerated

Studio presentation: Two speakers before a yellow LED wall showing a DHL aircraft, logo, and “1 GLOBAL SCALING” text.

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