How do you build your image when you are a start-up and you are constantly evolving?
By definition, a start-up company is fast-moving, especially in the field of technology. In this context, to build a solid brand image, collaborating with designers is particularly valuable. Here are some examples of companies and designers who have succeeded in this exercise.
First of all, there is a myth that needs to be dispelled immediately: in the tech sector, visual identity is ‘secondary’ and start-up founders are impervious to it. Of course, their priority is elsewhere: “As engineers, we tend to focus first on the technical points. We first try to make technology viable,” admits Damien Loterie, Head of Readily3D, which manufactures 3D printers specialising in the creation of biological tissue. But all of them are aware of the importance of design in their communication and their products and seek from the outset to translate their identity into image. “For my co-founder and I, it was clear that having beautiful visuals would be critical to our success. It was important to give a professional image from the start,” says Erick Garcia Cordero, co-founder of REA, which detects premature births at an early stage by using a new generation sanitary pad.
For a young company design is indeed key. It makes it easier to understand the product and/or the technology: “When you’re in ‘deep tech’, design is essential to help investors understand your idea when you pitch it,” notes Erick Garcia Cordero. Above all though, it helps to establish credibility, as Sarah Klay, a designer for About Blank who worked with REA on its future logo and website, points out: “The tech sector is marked by strong visual communication standards. These provide clues that unconsciously play on our perception of the quality of the product and also on its state of development. Apple, in particular, has brought a very high level of attention to detail, which explains why we want to trust their brand. Today, in this sector, rigorous design contributes to building credibility.”
A system rather than a fixed identity
It remains to be understood what visual identity is in an era of permanent communication where new social media — and therefore new standards — are regularly emerging. Designer Ilina Catana (Catana Studio) collaborated with Readily3D. The result of her work is manifold: a new logo, website, product and interface design animation, formulation of new product names… The expert likes to use the term ‘system’: “Today visual identity goes far beyond a logo. It is a real package that must be flexible to meet the multiple needs of a start-up in its development. Visual identity must be able to adapt to printed and digital media, objects, flyers, etc.”
The other challenge is to make this system adaptable to the developments of the company itself, a start-up being by definition progressive. To do this a designer needs to understand a brand’s deepest identity. Thus, for Readily3D, it is the technology’s principle — tomographic 3D printing using light beams — that inspired the logo and the visual identity, rather than the product itself, “because it will evolve further, and if, at the moment, we are focusing on bio-printing, in the future, our product could be adapted to other markets”, says Damien Loterie. “Being a designer means detaching oneself from what is produced in the here and now, it means envisioning the future and opening up”, adds Sarah Klay. The same approach was taken by REA, whose new logo is reminiscent of a stylised pad and the female body. It reflects both the digital and biological identity of the company.
Sometimes the challenge is to identify and highlight the features of the technology that will be most important to customers. Designer Patrick Donaldson (Shapeless Design) spent a lot of time talking to entrepreneur Juan Troncoso Pastoriza, trying to identify what makes his company special. “It was a real challenge. Juan’s start-up makes a secure solution for inter-company collaboration on sensitive data, which enables each participating company to gain valuable information, without having to share its data in the open. How do you translate such a concept visually? The solution came from a consistent comment from potential customers: ‘We don’t want to move our data’. Yet, the company does not need to move its customers’ data in order to function! This small technical detail is actually decisive. We worked on that.” Tune Insight thus shaped its communication concept around music, “because one of the analogies often used by its founders is that of a conductor leading several musicians, who together generate music that is more valuable than that of a single musician,” explains Patrick Donaldson, who initially offered two other concepts to the start-up.
Identifying the very essence of the project
“Understanding the company, getting to the essence of what defines its project but also knowing where it wants to go is the main challenge for a designer”, Ilina Catana summarises. This process involves a lot of discussion to clarify “the mission, vision and values of the company”. This fundamental basis will allow the designer and the start-up to “speak the same language”. Ilina Catana asks start-ups to clarify their message, even how their product works, their market positioning and their development strategy. “We emerge with a better understanding of who we are, and a greater focus on what we do,” adds Loterie. These fundamental questions can also lead to some serious soul-searching. When discussing ideas for a new logo and website with Sarah Klay, the REA team found itself challenged about the target audience for its product. “Ultimately, designers are the first people to test the concept of a product for everyday use, they become its first users in a way,” explains Erick Garcia Cordero, for whom the work had an impact on the product: “REA and About Blank worked on a first scenario of real use of the product. This raised questions and challenges, because in the medical sector, every step is subject to regulation. This exercise was important for our team as it served as a basis for defining a ‘minimum viable product’.”
The most fluid and transparent communication possible is therefore crucial for successful collaboration between start-ups and designers, as is the integration of the designer as early as possible in the process and “in all aspects of the communication”, Sarah Klay stresses, however diverse they may be. It is important for the company to understand the designer’s expertise, their working method and the information they need to move forward. In turn, it is important that the designer understands any ‘pivots’ or new choices the company might make.
Impacts: recruitment, positioning, clarity
REA has not yet implemented the new website designed by About Blank. However, the mock-ups developed proved to be decisive in the recruitment of new employees. “About Blank was able to grasp our development potential and show what the company could be in the future, which convinces very experienced people to come and work with you,” explains Erick Garcia Cordero. This has had a significant impact when you consider the war for talent that is currently raging in biotech start-ups. A thorough rethinking of one’s visual identity also has a direct effect on the commercial approach. “We created our new design around the idea of high technology and exclusivity. From the name of the product to its design and the new logo, everything contributes to presenting our product as a new, high-tech product offering exceptional performance,” says Damien Loterie. This identity is consistent with Readily3D’s current approach, which is aimed at customers who are already very experienced in 3D printing and are looking for cutting-edge equipment.
But the fundamental effect of working with a designer is the fundamental clarification of the company’s message. Clarification that obviously helps the technology to be adopted because “no one adopts a technology that they don’t understand”, Juan Troncoso Pastoriza reminds us. Not to mention the fact that sometimes the decision-makers are not the end users, and it is they who must be convinced first. “Tune Insight enables organisations to collaborate securely on their confidential data, for example to give hospitals faster access to existing research on Covid and rare diseases, but also in many other areas such as cyber defence, insurance and banking. While specialists understand very well the challenges and benefits of our technology, others do not yet see the strength of our solution. The role of a designer is crucial because it allows us to talk to everyone, from users to decision-makers and players in other fields who could soon be affected by our solution,” points out Juan Troncoso Pastoriza.
Beyond facilitating the adoption of a technology, helping people understand how it works is now a societal issue, at a time when the transparency of algorithms is becoming a political issue, and when AI is being criticised for its opacity. This role of technology translator is taken very seriously by designers, some of whom see it as a real responsibility. “The strength of design is to popularise. That is to say, ultimately, to raise awareness,” concludes Patrick Donaldson.
Camille Andres
