# Enel new logo (2016)

> Enel launched a new logo in Jan 2016, designed by Wolff Olins. Jan 2016: Open Power identity (Wolff Olins): sun-tree symbol + blue italic Enel replaced by lowercase gradient cursor-trail wordmark.

## Key facts

- Brand: Enel
- Launched: Jan 2016
- Studio: Wolff Olins
- What changed: Jan 2016: Open Power identity (Wolff Olins): sun-tree symbol + blue italic Enel replaced by lowercase gradient cursor-trail wordmark.
- Why: Enel rebranded around its Open Power strategy of opening energy to more people, new uses and new technologies.
- Industry: Energy
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/enel-2016/before.jpg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/enel-2016/after.png (after)

## The rebrand, explained

Enel, Italy's largest power company with operations in more than 30 countries, had used a logo designed by Bob Noorda for 18 years. Its new strategy, Open Power, meant opening energy to more people, new uses and new technologies, and positioning the group as sustainable and innovative in a digital, participatory era of energy.

Wolff Olins led the creative work, with Huge and Saatchi & Saatchi among the supporting agencies. Global principal and creative director Chris Moody said the team began by visualising kinds of power, from kinetic energy to physical phenomena to data-driven systems, and put a cursor at the heart of the brand: the starting point of an energy always moving, visually echoing the filament of a light bulb. Enel said the many colours reflect the range of the energy spectrum, the multi-faceted group and its growing diversity of services. Moody called the identity intentionally experimental, encouraging people inside and outside Enel to play with the cursor, and argued that dynamic identities were no longer only for broadcasters and tech start-ups.

Enel's own communications team gave the case in an interview with Ninja Marketing. The world had become more interconnected and fast, the company said, citing live concerts on Periscope, electric cars and drones bringing internet access to Africa, and all of it needed energy. Open Power meant opening the company to people, partners and technologies, and the cursor emerged from looking at how energy and movement appear in nature. The argument is a period piece now, but it explains why a utility wanted to look like a tech company.

Ahead of the launch, the logo disappeared from Enel's social channels, replaced by a different colour each day. The identity was presented in Madrid in January 2016 with a new website, and the online overhaul rolled out over the year. Enel's director of communications Ryan O'Keeffe credited Wolff Olins with articulating the strategy with elegant simplicity and pushing the group to be agile.

For a utility, it is daring, and the cursor is a real idea. But the multicoloured, endlessly variable system feels more like a tech platform than an energy company, and replacing a Noorda mark with something this loose sacrificed authority for energy. It was bold, if a little anonymous.

In short: A blinking cursor for a power company.

## Sources

- https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/25-31-january-2016/wolff-olins-turns-to-cursors-for-energy-company-identity/
- https://www.enel.com/company/stories/articles/2016/08/new-era-new-energy-new-enel
- https://gdusa.com/wolff-olins-dynamic-cursor-energizes-change/
- https://www.ninja.it/enel-cambia-logo-visual-identity-intervista-a-isabella-panizza/

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Enel new logo (2016)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/enel-2016/, last updated 2026-10-20.