Manyone turns skin cells into brand design for LEO Pharma
When a pharmaceutical company's visual identity has remained largely unchanged for more than a hundred years, updating it is as much a question of what to remove as what to introduce. LEO Pharma is one of the world's largest companies focused exclusively on medical dermatology. The company, founded in 1908, had recently adopted a new corporate purpose — Together, we reach far beyond the skin — but its existing brand expression no longer reflected that shift. On top of that, its visual identity predated the digital platforms where the brand also needs to function. Manyone was assigned to modernise the identity without erasing a heritage that stretches back to a Copenhagen pharmacy in 1908.
“We've carefully kept and updated what is key to the LEO Pharma identity, took out elements that were outdated or not fit for the new brand, and we introduced new elements that helped make the new expression better reflect who they are and what they will become.”
Jonas Smedegaard Buus, Global Partner and Head of Brand at Manyone
Skin cells through a microscope, rendered in watercolour
Manyone developed a new visual identity system for LEO Pharma covering logo, colour palette, typography, imagery, and iconography.
The most distinctive element in the new system is a set of supergraphics derived from human skin cells and dermal layers as seen through a microscope. Rather than rendering these scientifically, Manyone interpreted them using a wet-in-wet watercolour technique — an approach intended to connect the brand's medical focus to a more human, tactile register.
"The supergraphics represent the beauty of innovation, science, and biology key to medical dermatology," says Jonas Smedegaard Buus, Global Partner and Head of Brand at Manyone. "We're using human skin cells and layers seen through the microscope, interpreted with the wet-in-wet watercolour aesthetics to both own the expression, infuse it with a human touch, and turn it into a dynamic brand identity cornerstone."
The supergraphics function as a flexible brand element that can be applied across touchpoints without relying on a single fixed composition. The identity also includes an updated version of LEO Pharma's original 1911 logo — adapted for digital contexts while retaining its lion mark — alongside new colour, type, and iconography systems. The overall layout direction favours clean, uncluttered compositions with consistent spacing and alignment.
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