Believe in

“Devon-based design & branding agency biz-R has announced a complete relaunch after rebranding itself as Believe in. The company has also relocated to a new studio in Exeter.”

Contributed by Blair Thomson of Believe in.

Believe in change

After 14 years in business, biz-R as a name no longer represented who we are and said little about the business we’re in. So when we made the decision to relocate the business we knew that it made perfect sense to rename and rebrand the agency as part of our overall repositioning strategy.

Believe in naming

We spent around six months (on and off) brainstorming and considering a suitable name. It had to be right. It had to have an idea at its core. It had to communicate our brand. It had to provide a web domain name. Most importantly, it had to be creative, relevant and unique.

Much writing of lists and discussing followed (shortlisting stage below).

In August 2009 we looked to pursue the name ‘Make. Believe’. (to ‘make’ (create) and ‘believe’ (stand behind) — design and branding in a nutshell). Unfortunately in September 2009 Sony unveiled its new global brand message — make. believe : Sony.

Unbelievable.

As a response, we looked at simplifying to ‘Believe’, but felt this had too many religious connotations. Further investigation and experimentation uncovered an opportunity to create a more language-centric approach with ‘Believe In’. This provided us with the opportunity to extend the brand name by adding extra words – i.e Believe in design, Believe in blogging. Bingo!

Believe in identity

We knew that we wanted the identity to be simple and confident. That is our philosophy in general, so it was a natural direction. The name being a language-based approach answered it’s own brief. Let the typography ‘become’ the identity. Beautifully crafted and typographic in its entirety, keeping everything stripped back to its core. The aesthetic execution of the identity is all about the use of space, the grid and proportions. Over designing for the sake of design would simply form a distraction from the message and take from this strong communicative approach.

Believe in type

Selecting a typeface was fairly straightforward. We had been following the progress of a young Brighton based type foundry Colophon and were intrigued by their latest neo-grotesque font family Reader. Reader is based on an old letter the designers had found from the RSPB dating back to 1972 (whose original typeface is unknown). This regeneration of something old into something new, supporting new talent and a beautiful Swiss-inspired face formed the basis for perfect partnership.

We have customised the weight of the face for the main identity. We are in discussions with Colophon about creating a custom face for us along these lines for when we create unique extensions to the marque. Otherwise we use straight bold for everything else.

Believe in colour

Colour-wise we continued with our philosophy and went minimal with black, white, metallic silver and tones of grey. By following our simplistic approach we are allowing the message to communicate in its purest form. When used in conjunction with images, the elements compliment rather than fight for attention.

Believe in application

Since launch we have thus far produced:

Letter heads & compliment slips
Printed in 1 colour litho to both sides with Pantone® 877 and reflective silver foil blocking to the marque. All on 115gsm James McNaughton 100% recycled Cyclus offset. All printed by Kingfisher Printin Totnes, Devon.

Business cards, CD mount card & direct mailer
Specification: printed in 1 colour litho to both sides with Pantone® 877 and reflective silver foil blocking to the marque. All on duplexed Fenner Paper 100% recycled Colourset 270gsm Nero Black and Dark Grey — producing 540gsm. All printed by Generation Press in Poynings, East Sussex.

Silver foil label sheets — pre-printed with 4 individual extensions (8 up on laser compatible A4 sheets) from PCL Labels.
 Printed 1 colour digital at Kingfisher Print in Totnes, Devon.

Rubber stamps — Stamps Direct (with both black and silver ink pads)

Signs
Laser-etched onto black anodised aluminium and hand-coloured with custom stained hardwood backing board.

Sketch books
250mm X 250mm artist grade case bound books. Black cloth bound with silver foil blocking to cover. 
BySeawhite, Brighton, East Sussex.

Black C5 and DL envelopes (unprinted) — Antalis
Black parcel tape — online retailer

Additionally we have applied the identity digitally on:

— Individual screen wallpapers on every monitor and display in the studio
— Individual email signatures
— Updated website (complete new site to come later)
— All digital communication materials and templates