NuStaff: a post-MBO rebrand for a recruitment agency built on the right fit

NuStaff is a recruitment agency in Chepstow that has connected people with jobs across South Wales and the West of England for more than 30 years. After a management buyout opened a new chapter, the team came to us for a brand that matched the business they had become. We ran the discovery, built the strategy and messaging, designed a full new identity, and built the website, from the logo and palette to the brochure, cards, templates and the site the team uses every day.

The outcome

NuStaff had three decades of reputation and relationships behind it, and more than a hundred years of combined experience on the team. The brand showed none of it. The old identity was dated, and it made a trusted, established agency look like either a faceless corporate or a one-person operation. Neither was true.

After the buyout, NuStaff needed a brand that carried its history and its ambition at the same time.

Delivered:

A brand discovery workshop that set the strategy, positioning and values

A verbal identity: positioning statements, vision, mission, values and the tagline

A new visual identity: the NuStaff wordmark and puzzle-piece icon, a yellow-and-charcoal palette, and an Argent CF and Manrope typeface pairing

A full brand guidelines document

An eight-page brochure, business cards, email signatures, social templates and a presentation template

A new website, split cleanly into its two audiences: clients and candidates

A complete asset library the in-house team can run with

The result is a brand that looks as established as NuStaff is, and modern enough to win the next 30 years of clients and candidates.

The challenge

NuStaff’s brand had to do two jobs that usually pull in opposite directions.

Speak to clients and candidates at once. NuStaff sells to businesses and to the people it places, and the rebrand had to appeal to both without watering either down. A brand that impresses an operations director can easily feel cold to a warehouse temp, and the other way round.

Honour 30 years without looking dated. The equity was real: long client relationships, some running beyond 20 years, and a reputation for turning down work that does not fit their values. The new brand had to feel fresh without throwing that history away.

Stand out in a crowded market. Local and national agencies compete hard for the same roles. NuStaff wanted to win on authenticity and service, not by shouting the loudest.

Our approach

We started with a discovery workshop to get the real story out of the team, from the founding in the early 1990s to the way they work today.

It gave us the strategy.

Positioning built on the fit, not the volume. Most agencies compete on how many CVs they can send. NuStaff competes on sending the right few: hand-picked candidates, personal introductions, and a willingness to turn down clients who treat people badly. That became the spine of the brand.

A name and a mark that carry the idea. NuStaff is about the right fit between a person and a role, so the icon is a puzzle piece with the ‘Nu’ set inside it. Simple, human, and true to what they sell.

A tagline that says it in four words:

Right people. Right results.

It speaks to clients and candidates at the same time, and it holds the whole positioning in one line.

Type that balances heritage and now. Argent CF, a confident display serif, carries the 30 years of trust. Manrope, a clean modern sans, keeps it current. Together they read as established and moving forward, which is exactly where NuStaff sits.

A palette with warmth and weight. A bold NuStaff yellow for energy and optimism, grounded by charcoal and a calm grey range. Confident, without tipping into corporate.

The website

The identity needed a home online, so we designed and built the NuStaff website. It leads with the tagline over real people at work, and splits straight away into the two audiences: ‘Apply, find your perfect fit’ for candidates, and ‘Hire, find your perfect candidate’ for clients.

The same system runs through the whole site: the puzzle mark, the yellow, Argent CF for the headlines and Manrope for the detail. Clients and candidates each get a clear route in, a proper place to browse jobs and services, and a site that finally looks as capable as the team behind it.

The brand in use

A rebrand is only as good as the everyday it has to survive. NuStaff’s identity was built to work everywhere the team shows up: the brochure that walks a client through the offer, business cards that make a first impression, a ‘Candidate Passport’ for people starting a new role, branded workwear, signage, email signatures, and social and presentation templates the team can use without a designer.

Every piece runs on the same simple system: the puzzle mark, the yellow, the serif-and-sans pairing, and ‘Right people. Right results.’ NuStaff looks like one company whether you meet it on the website, in a brochure, or on a sign at the warehouse gate.

What it does for NuStaff

NuStaff now has a brand that matches the business: established, warm, and clearly a cut above the volume agencies it competes with. It speaks to clients and candidates in the same breath, it carries 30 years of trust into a new chapter, and it gives the team the confidence to show up, online and off, looking like the company they have quietly been all along.