Lessons from RIBA’s Rebrand — Architecture’s Old Guard Is Reinventing for the Digital Age

In 2025, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) unveiled a comprehensive rebrand led by Johnson Banks — its first major identity update in more than two decades. It wasn’t just a new logo; it was a recalibration of how one of architecture’s oldest institutions communicates in a digital-first world. The new identity pares back ornament in favour of clarity: a simplified crest, a confident sans-serif wordmark, a restrained colour palette, and a system that translates seamlessly across print and screen. RIBA’s intention was clear — to preserve its heritage while projecting relevance to a new generation of architects, students, and clients engaging with the profession online.

For design studios, the message runs deeper than visual aesthetics. It signals that even legacy organisations must rearticulate who they are and how they appear in a world defined by search, scroll, and screen. A brand that once relied on institutional weight now depends on usability, coherence, and digital expression. Smaller architecture and interior design studios face the same reality, just on a different scale. A beautiful portfolio alone no longer carries weight without clarity of message, discoverability, and a consistent digital identity. Like RIBA, practices need to balance legacy and innovation — keeping their visual DNA intact while embracing the modern tools and platforms that shape perception today.

At Principia, we see this as the evolution from brand to system. A successful digital presence now demands the same rigour that underpins good architecture: proportion, rhythm, materiality, and context. When these principles guide not just form, but communication, a studio’s digital identity becomes more than a website — it becomes architecture in itself.