Brand strategy — why we KISS our clients
Before you get too excited, it’s an acronym. It’s one of the rules that defines our agency’s approach. A firm reminder to ourselves that when brand strategy or design processes get complicated, to... Keep It Simple, Stupid.
We’re pretty good at KISSing. We’ve developed a distinctive house style based around it. Every project we do is built on a bold idea, executed with elegance and the confidence to remove what isn’t necessary. The result? Simple, striking work every time. It’s what captures the attention of new clients, and it’s what keeps them coming back. Nobody forgets their first KISS.
But simple work is easy to create, right? Wrong. Here are three companies who have taken one element of simplicity – colour, or lack of – and extended it into their brand.
Uber
They’re not everyone’s favourite company. After their stock took a ten billion dollar hit, one of the ways they worked to improve their brand image was by visually saying less. But what they did say was clear and much more confident. All of their brand marks (or logos) are now either black or white. No shades of grey. No ambiguity. By doing so Uber repositioned themselves as dependable and reliable.
Squarespace
Uber rebranded from a crisis. Squarespace refined their branding to increase market dominance. They allow the creativity of their customers to provide the colour and rhythm in their marketing. The steady, dependable heartbeat of their brand is rooted in the tightly controlled colour palette. Squarespace occupy the role of expert facilitator, but with an edge. Their dynamic, cubic playfulness serves to support their bold, monochromatic confidence, not the other way around.
The most beautiful example of their brand execution is No. 6 in their company values:
Rabbit Coffee
Here’s an example of a smaller business using simplicity to create a big impact. Sure, they’ve adopted the same colour palette as the other two case studies, and they’ve done it flipping well. I’ve saved this one for last for two reasons. One, simplicity is amplified when it’s built on a powerful idea (in this case, the rotated R to create a rabbit). Two, nothing else is necessary. Adding anything more will immediately dilute its power.
So as you can see, simplicity is not black and white. To make something appear effortless takes a huge amount of work and experience. Looking simple without looking boring is, in fact, a unique and rare skill.
If you’re looking to streamline your brand messaging and design output, talk to us.
ALSO, we love to KISS.
credits
Uber — Wolff Olins
Squarespace — https://brand.squarespace.com/
Rabbit Coffee — The Click