It’s always the right moment
When you move to a new house, you paint the walls. Maybe you remodel the kitchen, and furnish everything to ensure your house becomes a home. Once you live in your new home, you open all the windows now and then to let in some fresh air or give a wall a different color. After a while, if you have accumulated too much stuff, you do a Marie Kondo.
With a brand, it’s not much different. Most people really think about their brand identity when starting a business or organization. But there are many more times in the life of a brand when it is necessary and usefull to look at it again with fresh eyes. If you maintain your brand regularly, it will remain a good fit to what you do. And it will remain relevant to your customers or users.
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Workshops
2019-present
It’s always the right moment
When you move to a new house, you paint the walls. Maybe you remodel the kitchen, and furnish everything to ensure your house becomes a home. Once you live in your new home, you open all the windows now and then to let in some fresh air or give a wall a different color. After a while, if you have accumulated too much stuff, you do a Marie Kondo.
With a brand, it’s not much different. Most people really think about their brand identity when starting a business or organization. But there are many more times in the life of a brand when it is necessary and usefull to look at it again with fresh eyes. If you maintain your brand regularly, it will remain a good fit to what you do. And it will remain relevant to your customers or users.
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Workshops
2019-present
Four reasons for a brand workshop
A new start for KVAN
KVAN, the Royal Association of the Netherlands Archive Sector, was formed in late 2020 from a merger. The new organization needs a fitting visual identity and a clear message to tell members and prospective members what they have to offer.
Taking decisions
There had been a lot of talk, but it was time to make take some decisions. APPR, The Branch Office, asked me to develop an online workshop for KVAN’s board plus several key stakeholders. Together we evaluated everything that had already been discussed and researched about the brand and made choices. We sharpened the brand strategy. We looked at key messages for all audiences. And we created a digital mood board together in order to explore the desired visual look.
In a few hours we reduced months of discussions to some clear choices. A designer can now design a fitting visual identity and the website. And KVAN can move on.
New target groups for Silbersee
Silbersee, a company under the artistic direction of opera singer Romain Bisschoff, creates performances on current themes together with other makers. Silbersee wants to reach a younger audience with these performances. But they are in competition with many cultural events. So it is crucial to make it very clear what makes Silbersee special and why you really should come to listen and watch.
A shared vision
In the summer of 2021, we worked together in an in-depth two-day workshop with the entire company to develop a shared vision of what Silbersee is and what the goals are. In a farm barn in the countryside we discussed the brand identity and communication with different audiences. And together we created an inspiring manifesto befitting such an artistic and activist organization. Afterwards Silbersee elaborated on this with a copywriter so that it is now clear to everyone immediately what they are and what they do.
Should you name opera or not? Opera has an elitist sound and what Silbersee does is not traditional opera either. We ended up with ‘rooted in opera’. A down to earth description that fits Silbersee.
Engaging all employees in a changed Allard Pierson
Mergers are never easy. People who have worked somewhere for years suddenly have to identify with a new organization. Easier for some than others. Since the beginning of 2019, the Allard Pierson Museum and the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam have merged under the name ‘Allard Pierson’: the museum and knowledge institute for the university’s heritage collections.
A joint manifesto
A workshop actively engaged about 50 employees in the new brand. They worked in groups on the messages of the new Allard Pierson brand for different target groups. We then worked on a joint manifesto for the Allard Pierson. After the workshop, the manifesto was developed by a copywriter and by design firm Thonik into an inspiring video about the new Allard Pierson. Which, as befits scientists, did not become concise, but is balanced.
Afterwards, 80% of the employees indicated in an anonymous survey that they found it meaningful to be involved with the new brand in this way.
Clearing sub-brands of LCG
Many rapidly growing companies suddenly find themselves looking at a jumble of brands and sub-styles after a few years. So did LCG, Lean Consultancy Group. Now that the company was making plans to expand abroad, it was time to take a critical look at this organically grown structure.
First, a clear picture of LCG and its surroundings
First, we needed to have a clear picture of the LCG brand and all its products and services. Only then can we start making choices for brand architecture. In a workshop in 2019, we explored the environment in which LCG operates and investigated their brand identity. We determined mission, vision, brand essence, values and brand promises. And we looked at the messages from the brand for all audiences.
In a second session, we discussed brand architecture using a number of scenarios. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario. Finally, this enabled LCG to make an informed choice for a monolithic brand. This choice allows the investment of all energy and budget in one brand whose activities reinforce one another.