Client
ASHA & Co.
“To get to the moon you have to reach for the stars”
In Spanish, the proverb goes: “En casa del herrero, cuchillo de palo” “In a blacksmith’s house, the knives are wooden.” In Arabic, it is said: “at the potter's house, water is served in a broken jug.” In other words, the specialist is too busy doing what they do best to do it for themselves. To debunk this cliché, and hopefully to provide some helpful insight for our clients, we have included our own rebrand as a case study.
IDENTITY – IT’S NOT JUST THE LOGO
Although the word ‘brand’ is derived from the traditional way of marking ownership of property, its usage has now come to embrace a host of complimentary elements spanning everything from the colour of the logotype to the tone of voice used in a tweet.
The ingredients that we put together to make a meaningful and successful brand cannot simply be snapshots of an organisation. They should combine to become a truthful expression of all that the organisation represents and would like to be. They are like the genetic code of an organism that works to give life and personality, determines behaviour and shapes character.
OUR IDENTITY
BRAND ARCHITECTURE
As a creative agency, we are involved in a wide variety of activities and initiatives. Often, these activities lead to the creation of products or programmes. We’ve established a brand architecture to show how these relate to our core brand.
OUR MASCOT
Dare To Be Better
We wanted to create a symbol that would convey a sense of our approach and act as a call to action for ourselves as for our clients. This could be used to sign off a variety of communications - from posters to presentations. We chose the robin for its plucky, determined character. ‘Dare to be better’ is a mantra that anyone could live by.
THE ROOST
Having established the robin as our mascot and the embodiment of our ‘Dare to be better’ spirit, we chose The Roost as the name for our collaborative studio space. It is here that we can gather, together with our associates and clients, to develop our creative thinking in a relaxed, open environment. The Roost is a place where ideas can come to life and from where programmes such as PEEL can be run. It made sense to create a mate for our robin as the symbol for the sub-brand identity.
We wanted the brand identity to have a timeless quality. We chose elegant, classic fonts for our typography and we wanted to compliment this with a suite of illustration. To bring some of our thinking to life we have made use of imagery from the golden age of etching and engraving. These convey a sense of adventure and pioneering spirit where we need it.
A secondary colour palette helps us bring the content from our ASHA & Co Papers to life. By creating an abstract, animated illustration for each title, we can bring another dimension to our ‘Further Reading’ section.
Bringing the basic elements together in various applications requires a disciplined approach, usually working with a detailed brand guideline to ensure cohesive and coherent delivery.
The presentation deck is usually the first interaction your client will have with you after the welcome elbow bump. It’s important that these assets are beautifully built and run seamlessly. Approved templates should be used across the organisation using consistent imagery, tone of voice, colour palette etc. Photography style is an important consideration if staff profiles are to be shown.
BASIC ELEMENTS
The basic elements of a brand – logotype, colour palette, typography, imagery and so on, are the important visual cues that, when used consistently, provide the platform on which campaigns can be built. We have created a simple illustration style to help us bring our ASHA & Co Papers to life. These elements can be animated to create extra impact when used online.
PRODUCTS
A successful brand is one that can be embraced by all levels of an organisation. Thoughtfully created products are a way of naturally promoting your brand and ethos to a wider public. Working with other partners, we’ve created a limited edition set of our own. Check for availability in our shop...
