Putting down roots and spreading wings
When research giant Markinor embarked on a brand rejuvenation exercise, they approached REX to help them establish a branding platform that would give visual expression to the company’s mantra of ‘roots and wings’. With a primary identity and new logo already in place, and people committed to being flag-bearers of the new brand, the organisation was well-positioned to roll out a visual identity that would encapsulate its vision and unique culture.
The visual identity needed to generate a dynamic language that would give expression to the ‘roots and wings’ mantra. This language is invaluable in projecting the company’s brand image to the world and to its own people. It is the voice of the company and makes what it stands for, believes in and strives for tangible to others. From an internal perspective, being surrounded by a tangible brand expression serves to remind the company how it would like to be perceived and thereby influences the way in which its people do things.
REX’s first challenge was to unpack what ‘roots and wings’ meant to Markinor. Although the mantra is used by the business, there was no clear, coherent and universally accepted idea of what it meant. Our task was to make the mantra come alive by imparting meaning to it that Markinor people could recognise themselves in and come to proudly own.
In the process, we discovered that roots represent the company’s proud history, its entrenchment in Africa and the fact that it is attuned to its clients and the world around it. Wings on the other hand symbolise Markinor’s commitment to excellence, the inspiration of achievement and the importance of dreams.
In searching for an appropriate symbol to visually represent these ideas, we turned to Markinor’s core business, which involves turning raw data into business intelligence – drawing information from the sub-Saharan landscape and, through the application of intelligence, transforming it into something meaningful. To REX, this was strikingly similar to the way a flower uses its roots to draw raw material from its environment and then transforms this into something intelligent and sublime, and flower therefore became the perfect symbol to represent Markinor’s ‘roots and wings’ ethos.
Drawing on this parallel and the fact that research is the art of science, REX created a new brand identity that visualised a metamorphosis from raw data into business intelligence. We used the building blocks of raw code and punctuation marks from the research metrics. When bundled together loosely, they are nothing more than a circle, a full-stop, a forward-slash and a colon. But when one adds intelligence, the building blocks can be combined and transformed into the artistic representation of a flower. From a defined set of basic visual elements, an infinite number of visual objects can be created.
The visual elements have been used to create information symbols, interior signage and directional signage within Markinor’s space. The floral forms adorn the newly renovated interior of the company and live across all of the brand’s interfaces. They give immediate expression to the essence of what the company stands for – a unique place that brings thinking and intelligence to what would otherwise be an impenetrable code, and in so doing delivers a clear message of how this company turns raw data into something sublime in the form of business intelligence.
