We successfully launched our new brand identity this past October after scores of meetings and workshops, many discussions and brainstorming sessions, and hours of just plain hard work. Our mission was to get across the message that Mimas is an organisation of experts doing quality work that is of measurable value to the wider academic community and beyond.

Our new identity is underpinned by a new strategy (PDF), an important part of an ambitious step-change for our organisation. We're very proud of our new look and identity, finding that it complements our role in supporting the advancement of knowledge.

But it's almost January 2010 – another new year – and what better time to reflect on our accomplishments and look forward to the year ahead.

"Powering knowledge"

In June 2008, we enlisted the help of True North, a talented Manchester-based branding agency to rebrand Mimas and help us develop a robust new identity and make it clearer 'who we are', 'what we do' and 'why we do it' – something very important to us, as we strongly believe in sharing the benefits of our work with our communities – as well as sharing how working with us benefits our communities.

The visual makeover – new logo, colours, strapline (powering knowledge), website and promotional materials – followed in the wake of lots of consideration of how to communicate in new and different ways both to existing as well as potential stakeholders, partners and collaborators.

But this has been about much more than a new visual 'façade'. We feel that we've developed a new identity that represents Mimas as an organisation – an organisation of experts.

And key to this new identity is our new website. It's helping us communicate our outputs, successes and innovations in a whole new way – and it's where we hope to continue featuring and highlighting our work and its broader impact.

Unveiling the new Mimas brand

We officially launched our new brand identity on Thursday, 15 October 2009 at the Internet Librarian International conference in London. A fitting place to speak to old friends, make new acquaintances and spread the word about the new Mimas.

And best of all, we invited people to celebrate our launch with cupcakes – treating visitors to a selection of blue-themed frosted treats which went down a storm.

We also had a very special giveaway for delegates – our little blue notebooks, which people found really useful and fun, not just as gift, but as a souvenir of the day.

Our expert staff members also deserve recognition for their hard work on a very busy stand, answering questions and explaining to delegates what Mimas is all about and discussing our plans for the future.

Overall, the launch was a huge success, as Caroline Williams, Deputy Director of Mimas, enthuses:

"At ILI 2009, there was a real energy and vibrancy around the new stand. It was as if people who already knew Mimas stood back and took a fresh look, and many others approached us for the first time."

New direction – bright future

Of course, launching a new brand identity is nothing novel – many organisations go through this type of rebranding process – however, we're aiming to make our efforts count by pursuing a new direction to the next phase in our organisation's history.

Describing the impact we hope to make now and in the future, Keith Cole, Director of Mimas, says:

"With millions of users, our ultimate task is to maintain quality services for them on behalf of funders such as JISC and the ESRC. But at the same time we need to able to adapt to and predict rapid change in our evolving digital world.

"Our new identity will enable us to build on our academically focused applied research activity and so develop our position as a Centre of Excellence based at The University of Manchester."

We know that the year ahead will be a challenging one, and we expect to encounter many bumps and hurdles along the way.

But with our new mission to power world-class research and teaching, we look forward to the opportunities to use our expertise wisely in helping institutions add value, and, especially in these difficult economic times, save time and money.