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You may have noticed already that we recently rolled out our new branding. With a whole new suite of colours, new logo and typefaces and positioning to match, we’ve fully refreshed our brand in line with our business and where we are today.
As a business, we know the importance of branding and the difference it makes. But also, as a business, we know how difficult it is to carve out the time to work on your own business. After 7 years, we loved our brand, but we’d also left it behind as we grew, and the market shifted.
A brand is, essentially, your first impression as a business and what shapes peoples perceptions of you. And we wanted to change how we were being seen by others. A strong brand tunes into your emotions, it attracts the right people, and it empowers your business. At The Mark, we love crafting impactful and beautiful brands that not only help businesses achieve their goals but also help them differentiate themselves in todays fiercely competitive markets. Our approach is rooted in authenticity and we strive to accurately reflect a company's personality and values in every project we undertake. We believe that a brand should be memorable for all the right reasons, highlighting the unique qualities and strengths of a business without resorting to empty marketing slogans or gimmicks. Rather than being a mere window dressing, every aspect of a brand should serve a purpose and contribute to the overall message. Our goal is to create brands that resonate deeply with audiences, much like meeting a new friend who you immediately feel a connection with.
We wanted to show people that while the core of what we do is centred around great design, we do more than just pretty. We create effective brands, websites and identities for businesses across the globe. The people we work with are growth minded, hungry, humble and smart. Knowing who you are and who you are speaking to sets the strategic direction for the design.
We started with our own internal brand workshop, mapping out the future of what we wanted to be as a business. We looked into our four pillars: Vision, Mission, Purpose and Values. Here’s what we came up with:
Our Vision: Make a positive impact.
Our vision is to harness the power of branding as a force for good. Crafting authentic, human-centric brands that forge deep connections, drive progress, inspire action, and make a positive impact.
Mission: Craft powerful brands.
By leveraging our expertise, we craft authentic, human-centered brand experiences that empower our clients to reach their full potential. We prioritise people and cultivate meaningful relationships based on trust, connection, and shared values. We promote brand loyalty, advocacy and growth.
Purpose: Take people further.
We put people at the center of everything we do and use branding to drive positive change. Our purpose is to create human-centric brands that connect with their audiences and take people and businesses further.
Our Values
We pulled together all of our thoughts, our musings and our ideology from these sessions to create 5 core values that really underpin every piece of work that we do as a team.
Discover
We’re always looking forwards. To the next step, the next innovation. New techniques, new technologies and new ways of doing things. We’re always looking to learn and discover.
Design without Boundaries
We look to push the boundaries and challenge expectations in the world of design. We believe in taking risks, experimenting with new ideas and breaking away from traditional methods to produce exceptional work.
Do Good Work
We strive to create exceptional work all the time, no matter the type of project. Our process begins with thorough research, allowing us to tailor our work to meet the unique needs of each project and achieve outstanding results.
Be Nice
People are at the very centre of what we do. In our dynamic and creative industry, we embrace all ideas and perspectives, treating everyone with respect and ensuring that everyone’s input is valued.
Honest
We’ll always be honest. About our capabilities. About what’s best for you. If it doesn’t sit right with us, we won’t move forward with it.
The Design
Our business really is all about helping other people, other businesses move forward and it was paramount that our new brand reflected this.
With these in mind, our Senior Designer Jack took the lead on designing the new brand. Our new brand went beyond the logo, and encompassed building a whole suite of assets and developing a new tone of voice that elevates what we do. Here’s some of the design thinking behind our new brand.
A brand is a complex entity made up of various tangible and intangible elements that work together to communicate an overall message. Among these elements are fonts, colours, logo, photography, and wording. As a business that exists to help other businesses, we wanted our logo to be subtle and nimble, focusing on highlighting our clients instead of ourselves.
We opted for a creatively enhanced wordmark that can be used with or without our icon device. After much design experimentation and iteration, we developed our icon device, which features a simple but unique arrow that embodies progress, momentum, and success. This versatile symbol can be used in a variety of ways to effectively communicate our message of helping to take people further. For example, we use multiple arrows against an image of someone achieving a goal to convey our commitment to helping people succeed. We also incorporate the arrow into our wordmark to create a memorable and unique logo that communicates our message. Another creative use of our arrow icon is to turn the arrows towards each other, forming a stylised letter X that conveys the message of "hitting the mark." This unique application of the arrow symbol allows us to add depth and meaning to our brand message while maintaining consistency and recognition across all our communication channels.
Furthermore, we utilise the arrow within the letter K of our logo to reinforce our brand message of moving people forward. By using a simple and universally recognised shape, we're able to communicate our underlying message while creating a distinct symbol that people can associate with us and we can use flexibly. Ultimately, our mission is to help businesses and individuals achieve their full potential, and our icon devise reflects this commitment to progress and success.
Another strong visual element to help rienforce our message of Taking People Further, is the use of people photography, testimonials, and language. At the heart of our brand are people, and we wanted to highlight the genuine and authentic connections we've built with clients, as well as what our business is focused around. To achieve this, we showcase the people we've worked with, testimonials, how we've helped them, and communicate our desire to help even more people in the future. We utilise images featuring individuals who convey specific emotions such as passion, excitement, or determination, as we aim to associate these feelings with our brand. It’s carefully crafted to bring these messages to the forefront, emphasising our commitment to helping people achieve their goals and reach new heights. By focusing on the human element of our business, we create a brand that is relatable, trustworthy, and engaging.
The use of colour was paramount to creating our identity. It serves not only as a carrier of symbolic meanings but also as a tool for designers to convey specific messages. A well-designed colour palette can significantly enhance a brand's overall image. We think reaching your full potential, whether it's on a personal or business level, is exciting. To capture this feeling in our brand, we have created a versatile and bold colour palette. Each colour has been carefully selected to ignite excitement, make key information stand out, or be used in a subtle way to support other areas of communication. Our colour palette is a crucial part of our brand, helping us to communicate our message with authenticity and beauty. As designers, we have a genuine fondness for colours, which also drives us to incorporate vibrant and visually appealing hues in our brand's visual elements.
In essence, our brand is constructed by amalgamating various distinctive elements. These elements could be in the form of captivating images of people, coupled with an arrow pointing towards progress. Alternatively, it could be a minimalistic yet compelling people focused text utilising our beautiful font, Lausanne, set against a striking background. Even just our logo paired with our tagline can effectively communicate our message. It is imperative to align all these components with our brand's core purpose to ensure a coherent and potent brand image that resonates with both our existing and prospective clients.
Building a strong brand requires a continuous effort to ensure it remains relevant and resonates with a businesses target audience. It needs to be flexible enough to adapt to changing trends and customer needs. Crafting our brand, based on our purpose in the world and our teams values means our brand is engrained within us, as designers, problem-solvers and marketers. It’s who we really are and it showcases what we really do. We can help you achieve this too. Dare to go further.
