In the right direction

Developing a brand identity is often about taking back power – the kind of power that defines your business and what it stands for. This was certainly the case for specialist insurance company Compass. While the company offered a highly specialised and professional service to the insurance industry, its brand was not enjoying the kind of recognition it deserved. A lack of brand equity created a gap where a strong, unified identity should have been. And as with many other things, when it comes to branding, you are better off defining yourself, before others do it for you.

Our starting point was to uncover the real value that the company was offering clients  – value that lay in expertise and partnership. Compass is the go-to point for brokers and clients looking for specialist insurance; they facilitate the end-game, acting less like an insurance company and more like a consultancy. So we dropped ‘Insurance’ from their name and developed the ‘Enabling Opportunity’ positioning.

Next, we designed an essential, sophisticated, yet contemporary identity that would reflect the company’s professionalism and quiet confidence. Subtle calibration marks on a luxurious white paper stock reflect the measured way in which Compass analyses risk in order to identify opportunity for its clients. The new identity presents an interesting new balance struck between something elegant, something ambitious, and something new. The word mark is contemporary yet understated, the colour palette is mono yet is moves – all of which reflect only what is essential. The bespoke identity elements speak for a company that has redefined itself and discovered how to use its quiet confidence to attract its relevant target market.

When Motor Underwriting Agencies (MUA) began it was the first specialist underwriting agency for the motor insurance industry. In 1988, this was very significant, as no-one had ventured into the territory of insuring niches before. And so it was that MUA made its name almost exclusively from providing classic and executive motor vehicle insurance to a highly affluent niche market. But times change, and with new leadership and an expanded product offering, MUA was ready for a purposeful make-over.

In partnership with us, MUA embarked on a journey to discover, or rather re-discover, a new brand character which more accurately reflected their services, their operating model and their vision. The challenge was twofold: firstly, MUA needed to change the perception that it only offers executive and classic vehicle insurance; and secondly, it had to challenge the notion that it only serves wealthy male customers. The new brand identity had to attract a new target market, while not alienating the existing one. Further to this, the new brand had to deliver breakthrough with brokers, who play an integral part in the business’ process.

To redefine a brand, one has to go back to its origins and make a contemporary translation of the existing or pre-existing values, and to make it relevant in its current context. Through this process the company character and culture was defined, which will take the brand into the future. The individual now becomes central to MUA’s philosophy – and in adopting this philosophy, MUA has gained a competitive edge, offering a concierge service in the insurance sector.

Having crystallized MUA’s new brand image, we set out to implement the new visual identity for the company at various important touchpoints. This involved re-designing everything from stationery, calendars, brochures, to the newsletter email and website.

Translating a company’s vision into a unique and tangible brand is an exciting and rewarding process – it is a substantial but simple process. Substantial, because without understanding the core fundamentals, no brand promise can be made with integrity. Simple, because providing a new lease on life shouldn’t be made more complex than is necessary.

Since its inception in 2003, Liquid Chefs pioneered a new brand of bar culture in South Africa as well as in other parts of the world. Now this cult-cum-company has embarked on a daring initiative to launch an exclusive digital network of like-minded people. Tailor-made for young tech savvy trendsetters, the online network, “MiWorld”, will connect members both physically and digitally and steer them to various MiWorld locations.

Liquid Chefs engaged with us to bring the online platform to life and create the virtual and physical spaces. The first step was to conceive an overarching brand identity-mechanism for the “Mi”-brand trilogy that is derived from the term ‘multimedia interactivity’. The MiWorld concept was brought to life as an interactive website with a contemporary brand identity – and the experience was extended further into the interior design of each of the venues, as well as in the various marketing materials.

With three different MiWorld venues in the making – MiBar, MiLounge and MiCafé – we experimented with ways to differentiate the locations but still connect them under the MiWorld brand. Using the subtleties of visual language, we established continuity through the use of a wordmark – a logo which doesn’t have a symbol. The wordmark creates a visual link between the venues, while still identifying each as a separate and uniquely-themed entity.

The design team created a multi-coloured logo which is made up of vivid splashes of colour that look as if they’ve been spontaneously thrown onto a canvass. The splashes of colour represent a connected network of people and the vibrancy of MiWorld nightlife. The primary brand mark and avant garde colour palette are defining features of the website (mi-world.co.za), and will be replicated in various forms on all the marketing materials such as invitation cards, email invitations, food and cocktail menus, etc.

As designers, we are not only creating the look and feel of the tangible elements of a brand – we are engineering perceptions and establishing an emotional connection between the brand and the end consumer.  MiWorld is both a sophisticated and seductive concept, and these are the qualities that we sought to convey through creative brand design.

Seeking the essence of Africa

The design fraternity is still grappling with the question about what defines ‘African design’. Theories about and we seem no closer to a consensus, but perhaps that’s because we’re asking the wrong question.

By Rudo Botha, REX

You’d think that, as a designer based in Africa, it would be easy to come up with an answer to the question “What constitutes African design?” But you’d be wrong. It’s a question that keeps getting asked, particularly as Africa seeks to shake off the externally-imposed definitions of the developed world and redefine herself on her own terms. But picking apart the finer nuances of how the West perceives Africa and how Africa would like to portray itself – and what role design plays in such a portrayal – is not an easy task.

For years people have been pointing to ethnic prints, earthy colours and grungy textures and calling it African design. The implication is that for brands to be ‘authentically African’ they too need to contain these elements. It’s a patronising, narrow view and one that designers living in Africa, not to mention African brands, are understandably keen to rid themselves of. Africa encompasses so much more than a rural village, three huts and a couple of cows, and African design can be as aesthetically eloquent and internationally relevant as design arising from anywhere else in the world. (Just ask the growing number of design outfits that are doing work for international companies beyond our borders).

A question of style

Which brings us back to the original question. If African design is not those tired old so-called ‘African’ stereotypes (and I vehemently believe it is not), then what is it? Some suggest that its a slicker, evolved version of the ethnic prints, a coming together of the old with the new, a merging of the ‘traditional’ with the technological, or a look that retains the earthy tones but introduces a more refined texture. I’d have to disagree with all of these, and here’s why.

What each of these suggestions points to is style, the external graphic representation of a piece of work. So in asking “What is African design?” I think many people are really asking “What is an African style?” and for me, that question is as irrelevant as it is unanswerable.

Whether a brand identity ends up looking grungy, clean, corporate or ethnocentric does not tell you anything about how ‘African’, ‘American’ or ‘Swedish’ it is. Design is not about style; it’s about the value it has to contribute to a brand, or a community or a country. The way in which different people from different countries will go about solving problems through design will undoubtedly be influenced by their social, cultural, political and geographic context, but this has little to do with whether you end up with earthy tones and ethnic prints, or cool clean lines. In the same way, how a designer goes about devising solutions for a brand will be influenced by these same factors, in addition to the needs of the brand and the context of the company.

An African context?

So perhaps the question we need to be asking is ‘What is the African context that influences design?’ To some extent this question is answerable. Africa as a developing continent is characterised by enormous need and few easily-accessible resources. In many cases this informs ingenious design that makes use of what’s available to provide for basic, lower-tier Maslow needs. It’s an exciting, dynamic and survivalist space that breeds designs which are relevant, necessary and inspired by what is essential.

But the African context is neither isolated nor static. More and more it is connected to a global context, and it is continually shifting and evolving. Brand identities developed within this dynamic, multi-faceted and increasingly global context will reflect that. As a Johannesburg-based designer working on a brand identity, I draw on my personal context, the natural environment around me and the diverse cultures and people I come into contact with. I also draw on the international literature, brands and design examples I have access to and experience on a daily basis. All these things combine to add my own personal ‘flavour’ to a piece of work, nothing more. They don’t make it any more or less quintessentially African.

Going to the source

Most importantly, however, I look to the company for whom the brand is intended. This should always be the key source of inspiration and is the reason why brand identities can’t be boxed as either ‘African’ or not any more than the companies the represent can. We’ve developed brands like Echo, for the Wits Paediatric HIV Clinic, which are situated in a uniquely South African context but which don’t conform to African stereotypes. We’ve also developed identities for local companies that have a global reach. Merensky is a good example – its undeniably an African company, with roots deep in local soil, but its also an international corporate and as such its identity speaks a professional and high tech language. Similarly, Willowlamp sells its products to international buyers but it also has a proudly South African heritage. However, the brand identity reflects the essence of the company, and not where it comes from.

A different question

Whether brands look African is a question about the external, and it’s the wrong question to ask. What’s important is whether design produces something that is relevant and useful within the context of the brand. If the design solution addresses a problem that exists in an African context then I suppose you could say the design was African. But most often the context can’t be easily pinned down, no matter what the geographical location of the designer. I believe we have Google to thank for this, because the world really is interconnected. Different designers can be influenced by the very same stimulus on any given day. So designers are not immune to the ‘global village’, which blurs the lines defining African, European and Asian stereotypes in the first place.

And I believe this is a good thing. Shouldn’t it be more important that design is relevant, useful and innovative? Does it solve the problem it was presented with? Is it relevant enough to compete both locally and on a global stage (if those are requirements of the brand), given that the world is now a global village? Does it possess enough essential value to speak to a universal audience while still retaining a flavour that people from its own context can recognise? These are the questions we need to be asking –  not whether it pays homage to someone’s idea of an ethnic eden, a waking giant or a dark continent.

We don’t have to ask whether a new kind of African design identity or language exists, because it is no secret that exceptional work, work that can stand independently and proudly on any stage, is being hatched right here in the cradle of mankind, so to speak! Discussions on what such work looks like will remain subjective and will always be limiting to our export product. On the other hand discussions about its value or relevance are much more interesting and hold greater potential for us as Africans.

Perhaps we should remind ourselves that excellent design works, for as long as it is a product of human creativity, is always something very personal and is something in which the origins of the creator or their context will be visible. So the really astute design critics should be able to recognise the African identity of the valuable work that originates from this continent, be that geographically or due to the influence of the creator. If I could write the script, there would be great design product lined up on a neutral, international stage, and the most relevant piece of work would be measured against both the objective and context that called it into being. Then we’d see who can hazard a guess at its origins. Just for kicks.