Post by Erëza Vela

The story of rebranding the Energy Community 🎨 I’ve rebranded public institutions, private companies, and products before. But rebranding an international organisation — with countries, institutions, and people all deeply connected to its identity — was a first for me. And this time, I didn’t have a team to share the load. It was 20 months of steering the process myself, step by step, while balancing the expectations of many different voices. We started at home. Our staff — the first audience, many identifying strongly with the old brand — were invited to react to the first proposals, even casting their votes in an internal process. Once we had a clear direction, I moved outward: presenting the design to the European Commission and our 9 Contracting Parties. Every conversation meant refining, listening, and sometimes defending the decisions we had made. For the first time, we created a separate visual identity for the Energy Community Secretariat, something that needed to be justified in detail. The same process followed for the Regulatory Board. And then came the part that only those who’ve done a rebrand truly understand: the implementation marathon. Dozens of templates — legal documents, presentations, website pages, signatures, social media — all designed, tested… not working quite right, redesigned, tested again, and finally rolled out. This year’s 20th anniversary added another twist: everything had to exist in two versions — with “20” for 2025 and without for future use. Twice the work, same deadlines. It was long, sometimes messy, occasionally exhausting — but it worked. And I’m proud. Lessons learned: • Involve people early. • Be transparent about why you make certain choices. • Build more time into your implementation than you think you’ll need. Since March this year, the Energy Community has steped into its next chapter with a brand identity that reflects both its history and its future — and I’m glad I could be the one to guide it there 😊

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