A selection of articles from the national and international press written about BFK and our work for our clients.
All content remains copyright of its original authors.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 Martin Crotty argues that branding, despite popular perception, isn't a cosmetic exercise but one that has to involve a fundamental rethink of the underlying business to work. "It's not a sticking plaster solution. You have to make fundamental changes across the business if a brand is to be a success."
Sunday Independent, 25 July 2010Thursday, March 1, 2007 'Thinking Design' summarises our design philosophy in BFK. This means really understanding the client's business, its brand and the issues that face it. It's also about being able to think about long-term development, not just about short-term tactical solutions, and creating identities and communications or packaging that deliver differentiation, relevance and consistency over the long term. Thirdly, 'Thinking Design' is about delivering solutions that work.
How often a company freshens its design is not relevant. Timing depends on events within the company, the competitive environment and the market. When something happens that matters, then communications should change to reflect that. There are two occasions when change shouldn't happen, but when it sometimes does. One is when a new managing director decides to put his personal stamp on the corporate identity. Another is when a new brand manager does much the same for a product brand. Design on a whim is never right.
Business Plus, March 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 UCD president Hugh Brady has been on a mission to revamp the college along corporate lines since his appointment two years ago. One of the many things to get overhauled was its logo and now BFK has just won an Irish Design Effectiveness Award for its work on the project.
How effective has the new logo been? Well, CAO applications were up 10% in 2006 after a 4% fall in 2005.
Business Plus, January 2007
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 University College Dublin yesterday unveiled its new crest as part of a €30,000 rebranding of the university. Following 'extensive' market research among students, staff, graduates and the outside community, the university said it had decided to adopt UCD as its name. This means the prefix will now be used before all academic and research unit names.
The introduction of the crest – including a harp on a green background with the word Dublin and three flaming castles – coincides with an ongoing restructuring of the college. This partly explains the relatively low cost of the rebranding.
"The university is saying clearly that the name by which is is known is UCD," it said in a statement. "The inclusion of the UCD name helps to create a 'master brand' that replaces the multitude of individual identities that had grown up over the years."
The old crest, based on the original heraldic crest bestowed on the university in 1911, will be used for ceremonial purposes.
John Downes, The Irish Times, 23 August 2005
Thursday, August 4, 2005 It is known as University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin and Belfield, but from here on it will simply be called UCD. The country's largest university has rebranded itself as part of a strategic planning process to position it as one of Europe's top 30. The move means the end of up to 60 confusingly different logos used at the college and the UCD prefix will appear before all academic and research unit names.
Reflecting its new confidence, the university will sport a refashioned crest after market research among students, staff, graduates and opinion leaders found there was low association between the existing crest from the 1940s and the university's name.
The new image retains the harp and the three castles representing the capital, and introduces the words 'UCD Dublin' to reinforce its sense of place. However, gone from the crest are the Irish and Latin mottos and shamrock, which it was felt made for too cluttered an image.
Katherine Donnelly, Irish Independent, 4 August 2005