Rebranding an agency brand
The process of rebranding our own agency brand
Everything is a bit different when you do your own rebranding. (Yes, a few deadlines were pushed. And yes, client projects often took precedence in the end.) Nevertheless, we have tried to stick to our normal branding process (which we also follow in our customer projects) as much as possible.
Throughout our rebranding process, we developed a new brand strategy, brand identity, and website. While this is a process that we’ve gone through in numerous customer projects, it’s harder to see the full picture when you’re looking at yourself.
But we have made it! So let’s take a deeper look at the past months.
The process
Discovery and Strategy
Before the pencil hit the sketchbook we went through an intense discovery and strategy process. Sitting down and being honest about our own business, where we’re headed, and how we want to be seen was definitely one of the hardest tasks.
We went through various interviews and workshop formats such as the “brand sprint” or the “moonshot”. To ensure brand alignment and avoid “forcing” the developed positioning, vision, mission, values, and personality top-down, we held virtual “culture breakout sessions’’ in each unit and shaped aspects together.
All team members made their own connections to the company values, described the agency brand as a person (mostly as a woman), and told their very individual story of &why. This way we made sure each team member was an active part of the life we injected into our brand. We didn’t want to reinvent our agency — we wanted to focus and streamline what we already are. And you know, it feels like we did.
Brand Design
After reflecting on the heart, mind, and soul of our business, we got started with the visual and verbal identity of &why. We focused on what would best represent our new positioning and came up with a concept that is bold, ambitious, experimental, quirky, friendly, and ready to grow with us into the future.
Trademark
While maintaining minimalism and clarity, the &why trademark has the quirky elements and hidden details that we strive to achieve in every single project. Its edges embody the progress we wish to achieve and make it feel just a little more dynamic than your usual geometric sans wordmark.
Color palette
Our new brand colors are fresh and vibrant and represent the overall vibe of our company. While coral red and bright blue stand out for innovative and bold ideas, the beige, mint, and emerald serve as pauses — the serious moments where we need to tone it down a bit.
Font
Our typegame is brave, modern, and playful. It doesn’t hide that bit of nerdiness that’s in us and every now and then it’s even a bit quirky because you know, that is who we are. At its core though, it’s simple and strong.
Graphical element
Our graphical element describes how we perceive ideas, concepts, and projects: As multiple facets with many different ways to approach them. It also conveys our values, as we think it’s better to stand for something passionately than to be everything to everyone. So the rotated square emphasizes our commitment to finding the extraordinary within the normal and to pushing for bold and disruptive ideas where we see the potential for meaningful change. When used, our square serves a purpose and interacts with the content or user.
Photography
Since our team and culture is the greatest value of &why, we want our people to stand out and become part of the new brand identity. The biggest goal was to create an authentic portrait of each person, which reflects their individual character. And while authenticity is important to us, we also wanted to celebrate our people a little.
Website
Armed with our bold (yet nascent) brand, we completely redesigned our website. Going through countless iterations, our main goal was to communicate our expertise, our way of working, and our company culture. As with every agile project, our website continues to be a work in progress, but for now, we’re super excited about the result. We implemented a whole range of interactive micro-conversations with the users while also toning it down whenever necessary. In our opinion, the result screams personality. It allows for free exploration wherever it feels right and our talented devs made sure it really does feel good to explore. Why don’t you check for yourself: www.why.de
Internal Launch
Before our big launch day, we held a little pre-launch session where we showed the whole team the new positioning and branding in it’s (almost) final glory. That way, we made sure everyone was on board and had some time to get used to the new identity.
Let’s be honest though, everyone likes a little surprise gift. We prepared “&why party boxes” for each team member — which was a great opportunity to put our new brand to work and get everyone involved with the new identity. Also, the creative team just really wanted to finally design some onboarding kits.
We filled the box with an assortment of little helpers you need for a formidable launch party: Plantable seed confetti, a paloma limo (named after our famous in-house paloma bar), &why stickers, a personal note from each team-lead for their teammates, sparklers and a branded jute bag to show off outside, in the real world.
So here we are.
Right now, our excitement covers the exhaustion. The rebranding took us more than a little sleep and certainly challenged us in new and unique ways. However, our brand now feels more like who we are: bold, ambitious, and friendly, without being afraid to be quirky now and then.
With our new positioning and brand identity, we are embracing the things we are: critical questioners, strategic thinkers, and strong personalities with a deep passion for digital solutions. As we continue to grow, we are thrilled our new brand represents not only who we are now, but who we want to become in partnership with you in the future.
