Brand strategy, naming assistance and visual id for Search Party, an edit house based in Peckham

Background:

Pete is a freelance editor who had built a strong reputation for imaginative and dynamic edits for advertising and artists, working with clients like Adidas, Nike and artist Marco Brambilla. He recently teamed up with another editor to grow the company and felt that it was a good time to create a distinct entity for their output and break away from his own name and gain more flexibility. 

The Challenge:

Pete was struggling to get started, wondering what to name his company and what to do with his brand. He wanted something that would align with his main audience, creatives that value innovation and pushing boundaries. Pete needed to align his new company with this audience, express his values, and feel authentic. With the expansion of his company he intended his brand to help him gain the trust of bigger budget creative. He wanted a brand that was flexible, with creative elements that were open to interpretation, and could be used across various platforms. He wanted a name that broke the mould for editing companies and a brand that looked playful but conveyed an unquestionably trustworthy company in its tone of voice.

Solution:

Brand Strategy:

We started with strategy, interviewing Pete and working towards a verbal definition of his brand, clarifying who his audience was and what their drivers were for doing the work they do and their values. We also defined exactly what Pete was delivering, what he valued in the work he does, what made him different from his competitors, and what kind of personality he felt his brand should have. Off the back of our discussion, we were able to succinctly summarise his core message, to a three word statement: “Explore, deliver, delight”. This work turned into the blueprint for his brand, influencing his verbal and visual communication. Through this we challenged each other and eased any of his concerns as we approached the design stages.

Naming:

The most challenging part of this project was finding the name of the company. Some favourites were ‘Joyce’, ‘Super Position’ and ‘Sopa’. With over 200 long lists at one point we collaborated on finding a name, eventually, Pete settled on Search Party, his own suggestion.

Visual Identity:

We used Pete’s brand strategy, and newly created name, exploring ways to convey it visually. Aiming to create a set of tools and guidelines for its use across different media. We explored various creative ideas that could reflect the different facets of the brand, ideas like, ‘Radical Pragmatism’, ‘Evolution = Pragmatic Creativity’ and ‘Open Mind Open Heart’. Our favourite centred on the insight that ‘Curiosity is human nature’. The icon of a vase was suggested for a logo, a form that’s been in existence for millennia, and one that flows between pragmatic and utilitarian to highly formal, like Search Party itself. It worked metaphorically as a symbol for editing – the container of content – as well as being a non-sequitur breaking Search Party out of the tropes of other editing companies.

Further exploration brought new visual elements and played with the idea of using typography and layout which referenced vernacular signage, again coming from the core creative idea of ‘human nature’ – the essential, naive and direct ways that vernacular signage is created to grab attention mirrored the pragmatic approach that Pete works with. The use of vernacular also juxtaposes his rich editing work and taps into an irony that would appeal to his particular audience. Certain elements were developed from this theme, like an ultra condensed version of Brush ATF, pairing it with arial mono to create a stark but expressive style.

Results:

Pete was thrilled with the final outcome, as it aligned with his main audience, expressed his values, and felt authentic.  The brand was flexible, open to interpretation, and could be used across various platforms, providing a cohesive and consistent identity.