Amazon has rolled out its most extensive brand update since 2000, appointing design studio Koto to lead an 18-month refresh of its visual identity across its core brand and more than 50 sub-brands. The work spans 15 markets and touches services ranging from retail and logistics to streaming, groceries, healthcare and AI.
The company’s last major rebrand introduced the now-familiar “smile” logo—originally designed to represent satisfaction and a wide product offering. But two decades of rapid expansion have resulted in a fragmented brand experience across platforms, services and geographies.
Koto’s remit was to develop a brand system that could support Amazon’s scale while creating a more consistent experience across touchpoints. The smile has been subtly redrawn with softened curves, while a new typeface, Ember Modern, replaces the mix of legacy fonts previously used across different business units. The aim is to improve readability and maintain a cohesive look across packaging, digital platforms and physical assets.
The colour system has been refreshed to enhance consistency and accessibility across markets. The now refined "Smile Orange" replaces previous variations of Amazon's core hue, serving as a clear visual anchor for the brand. Sub-brands are assigned distinct yet cohesive colours, creating differentiation while maintaining unity. For example, Amazon Fresh uses vibrant greens to convey product freshness, while Amazon One Medical adopts a turquoise green inspired by medical scrubs. Prime’s blue has also been optimised for digital use, ensuring clarity across screens.
The project was awarded six months after Koto expanded its global studio model. While the agency has worked on identity systems for brands such as Notion and Airbnb.org, the Amazon engagement presented a different level of complexity—requiring coordination across multiple business units, markets and categories. Rather than reposition Amazon, the brief focused on building a flexible design system that could support the company’s pace of growth, streamline fragmented brand assets, and improve consistency across an increasingly diversified portfolio.
