Our work in Brand Identity
Brandtone ? a brand for emerging markets
30 August 2010
Brandtone, a start-up company, has launched a pioneering mobile marketing campaign solution for FMCG products in emerging markets. Initially working with major brands in South Africa, Brandtone is expanding into the emerging markets of South America and Asia, and is also working with emerging brands in Europe. Brandtone's target clients are multinational consumer brand companies. As a business-to-business (B2B) service, Brandtone works on behalf of those clients by creating and delivering mobile-based marketing campaigns. Their innovative end-to-end campaign offering positions them as the potential market leader in this rapidly evolving space. Our role was to create a corporate brand identity that would enable Brandtone to communicate effectively with both Western and emerging market companies and to form the basis of a powerful global B2B brand.
We worked with the Brandtone management team to clarify the company's vision, values, corporate personality and market positioning. We created a vibrant B2B brand mark using strong typography and a bespoke graphic icon that symbolises the partnership of the consumer and the FMCG brand on the one hand and that of Brandtone and their client on the other.
We designed Brandtone's visual language to facilitate the company's growing communications need across digital and print media. It is flexible in application, so as to relate to both the European corporate sensibilites of its direct clients and to the more dynamic approach needed in emerging markets. The striking colour palette of rich red and burnt orange captures both the entrepreneurial spirit of the Brandtone team and the vibrant energy of those markets.
Labels: Brand Identity | Brandtone | Service
Irish Stock Exchange brand identity
10 May 2010
The Irish Stock Exchange's vision is to be the leading European specialist exchange business and the most agile market operator for, and in partnership with, Irish and international capital market participants. We have created a comprehensive brand identity system for the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) designed to support their key strategic objectives.
Daryl Byrne, Head of Strategy Planning & Brand at ISE says "BFK understood the complex strategic issues at the heart of our branding brief and distilled those into a powerful, consistent and flexible identity system that equips us to deliver greater consistency in all of our interactions with our customers and stakeholders, and facilitates our business development objectives."
The centrepiece of the new brand identity system is our updated brand mark which presents a modern face for an organisation with over one hundred years of history. We have given more emphasis to the ISE name and we have redefined the castle element from within the existing crest as the basis for the new modernised crest symbol.
Our new brand identity system also unites the previously disparate
identities of the ISE's three markets under a unified brand architecture. The markets were renamed and
rationalised as part of the branding project. Their new marks strongly
associate them with ISE and better communicate the breadth of the
exchange's offering.
In what is a rarity now, this new brand identity is not being rolled out
on a phased basis. Everything is being switched over on Monday 10 May
2010. Our project management expertise and processes ensured that over
140 discrete rebranded instances (everything from signage to stationery)
were completed on schedule.
All thirteen of the ISE's listing rule books have been redesigned and republished. Initially, they will be the most prominent examples of the new ISE brand patterns––a unique suite of visual iconography that forms an integral part of the new corporate identity system.
We have created a comprehensive suite of over eighty digital documents and forms. All of the various forms used by ISE clients now share common layout conventions, consistent structures and visual appearance. We enhanced the implementation of this suite of documents with on-site training for the relevant ISE personnel, giving them confident ownership of the digital assets they will be managing.
We also wrote and produced a detailed brand management publication that
records all of the decisions taken to date and gives guidance on how to
implement the ISE brand identity system in the future.
Labels: Brand Identity | Irish Stock Exchange | Financial
Brand mark for National Asset Management Agency
12 March 2010
The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is the Irish Government agency established "to address the serious threat to the economy and the stability of credit institutions in the State generally and the need for the maintenance and stabilisation of the financial system in the State...".
In essence the National Asset Management Agency is a State agency with a commercial remit to acquire loans from banks and other participating institutions and to hold, dispose of, or develop the property assets related to these loans so as to achieve the best possible return for the State over a period of seven to ten years. Thus NAMA is essentially in the property business while also having a significant role in relation to the stability of our financial institutions.
In order to fulfil this weighty and economically important remit NAMA needs to be perceived to be connected to the State, but not part of it. It needs also to reflect the core values: strong, fleet-footed and discrete.
To reflect these and other attributes we created a direct, striking and effective corporate identity mark combining a unique harp symbol with the organisation's name.
The logotype uses the complete name in preference to the acronym NAMA, so as to better communicate the full weight and authority of the body. The typographic treatment contributes to the appropriate corporate positioning by using a contemporary serif typeface. The stylised modern gold harp reinforces the organisation's nature as an agency of the Irish state.
Overall this corporate identity mark is formal and understated and in keeping with the nature of this agency.
Labels: Brand Identity | National Asset Management Agency | State
NetAffinity loves hotels
17 December 2009
NetAffinity is an established software company that now specialises in online hotel marketing and in the provision of hotel booking engine systems for independent and group hotels in Ireland and across Europe.
NetAffinity recognised the need for a new brand identity that would communicate its new specialist offering, that would raise its business profile and that would position the company as a bespoke supplier to the hotel sector. Through a series of workshops we worked closely with the NetAffinity management team to define the brand essence and refine and agree brand positioning options. We conducted one-to-one brand perception research with past and existing NetAffinity clients. We brainstormed with our client to develop a new tag line.
This process was designed to achieve the best possible solution—one that would meet our client's needs, would exceed their expectations, and would result in the creation of a new identity that communicated values of sophistication, professionalism, quality and elegance.
The chosen design solution is based around a symmetrical arrangement in which the symbol is underscored by the NetAffinity name. The symbol is devised from a series of strands that emanate outwards from one focal point, reflecting how NetAffinity filter the best information and data for their clients and provide the best possible solution. Both the bespoke typography and subdued colour palette directly convey NetAffinity's positioning.
Another component of the brand mark is the tag line 'We Love Hotels'. This short, quirky statement is seen as the signature of the company and is used to communicate their passion for what they do and for the market they serve. This component of the identity is interchangeable, working as part of the identity or as a stand-alone design embellishment, as required. We used a very different typographic expression for the signature.
The result is a brand identity that is instantly recognisable, relevant and memorable. Net Affinity have now rolled out their new brand identity across a wide range of materials including their web site www.netaffinity.com
In July 2010, eighteen months after the launch of the new identity, the value of brand for business-to-business development is stressed by Michelle Conaghan, Head of Client Services at NetAffinity "...the branding is working really well and we're constantly getting compliments on it. Business is also really good, we're signing lots of new clients..."
Labels: Brand Identity | NetAffinity | Service
A professional start-up
27 November 2009
Martlett is a unique start-up company specialising in IT consulting for lawyers and will advise its law firm clients on the selection, installation and deployment of administrative IT systems. BFK were charged with the task of producing a comprehensive brand identity to reflect Martlett's core values and service offering.
Key to Martlett's positioning is the need to be perceived as a trusted advisor to their clients—to be seen to be understated and professional, and to communicate excellence in IT consulting. Martlett will work closely with their clients so it was also crucial to demonstrate a close-knit interactive partnership.
In the chosen design route the core symbol acts a visual metaphor for the interaction between company and client, working together to achieve an excellent result. As the two parts of the symbol mirror each other they form a supporting loop. The typography offsets the symbol and is based on clean, contemporary forms. Colours featured in both the symbol and type are cool and subdued—underpinning the ethos of subtley and professionalism as outlined in the original brief. In addition to identity design this project included design of a stationery range and the identity will soon be applied to Martlett's new web site.
Labels: Brand Identity | Martlett | Service
