Andrew McClellan

Olympus glass has framed the world through a viewfinder for more than a century. The irony was striking—surgeons, pipeline engineers, even planetary scientists relied on the same precision optics every day, yet in the United States almost no one outside those fields knew.

Whenever I’d ask someone about “Olympus,” they’d inevitably lifted imaginary camera to eye. That narrow fame became our quiet crisis. Concentrating equity in one beloved product left the wider company exposed.

As co-creative lead with creative director Peter Quinn, I orchestrated strategy, verbal identity, and design across medical, industrial, and imaging teams. The mandate: broaden the halo without dimming its photographic glow. We found a unifying promise in three words: True to Life.

From that promise we built a cross-sector identity system—voice guidelines, a reveal-frame graphic that turns blur into clarity, and a sector palette that lets surgical teal sit confidently beside industrial charcoal. Product launches, trade booths, and LinkedIn carousels now spoke the same language.

“True to Life” did more than refresh color swatches; it reminded everyone that the romance of a photograph is the same romance that saves a life or prevents a disaster—light bent accurately in service of humans.

Ask a room today what Olympus makes and cameras still come first—but scopes, scanners, and probes follow in the same breath. The halo didn’t move; it grew. That, to me, is the clearest picture we could have hoped to capture.

Team

Andrew McClellan
| Creative Director

Peter Quinn
| Creative Director

Erin Miller
| Art Director

Sharon Duke
| Designer

Greg Fisk
| Designer

Christoph Green
| Director

Frank Hamilton
| Photographer

Betsy Borrelli
| Managing Account Director

Paul Vosloo
| Internal Communications

Caroline Judge
| Account Director