Verso Paper Naming and Corporate Identity

As part of a massive corporate restructuring, International Paper announced the prospective spin-off of its $1.5 billion Coated Papers business. To prepare for and affect the best possible outcome for the stand-alone business, IP desired to take steps toward developing a brand identity for the new company.

Objectives for the project were to: create a vision of the business as a stand-alone brand apart from IP; create a name consistent with the existing Coated Papers positioning, brand strategy, target market segments and product offering; address immediate communications needs while considering long-term impact to the business; begin to articulate the potential customer benefits of the business; differentiate the business from its competition; and contribute to IP’s reaping of a higher return in the sale of the Coated Papers business.

Perdue Creative was hired along with a competing agency to develop name concepts for the new entity. Verso, a name proposed by Perdue Creative, was selected for its meaning in the publishing world as “the other side of the sheet.” Speaking to commercial printers and catalog and magazine publishers, the name Verso promised a devotion to this industry, and suggested “the other side” of the company formerly owned by International Paper.

Having named the new business, Perdue Creative was then tapped to give it a face in the form of a corporate logomark and visual vocabulary. When the business sold to an independent investment group, Perdue knuckled under to launch the new spin-off with business communications systems, sales collateral tools, a direct mail brochure to customers, as well as a Webcast video unveiling to customers and employees of the company.