Corporate Design for an HR Start-Up: SiebenWunder Embarks on a Successful Future with Customised Brand Look [Success Story]

Colours play a major role in e-commerce. Successful companies and brands deliberately choose to use blue, orange or yellow in their corporate logos. Just like shapes, marketing claims and faces behind the company, they reflect the company’s identity. Apart from that, they also trigger emotions – and this is exactly what a brand has to accomplish in order to appeal to users, to convince and to retain them. This makes it all the more important for a company just starting out to find the design that suits its philosophy and corporate values – a corporate design (CD) that creates identity and recognition value.

Find out in our new success story how the HR start-up SiebenWunder from Jena managed to find its corporate design.

Corporate Design – Identity at First Glance

»Identity« refers to the totality of an individual’s essential characteristics. It expresses itself through both external and internal characteristics, thus creating recognition value and ideally increasing memorability.

In 2017, the HR start-up »SiebenWunder für smartes Personalmanagement« (»7 Wonders for Smart HR Management«) was faced with the challenge of turning its already defined corporate values into a digital as well as analogue appearance that is fully in line with its corporate identity (CI).

The corporate design (CD) forms the face of the company. Unlike with humans, it can be designed in a controlled manner right from the start. However, it is not only important to reflect the corporate character in line with the CI, but also to stand out in the industry market without scaring customers off – and who would be better suited to create a fitting creative concept than experienced brand design experts?! The SiebenWunder success story shows what is important in this regard, what the CD comprises and how you can show who you are right away.

Corporate Design – Smart Look for a Smart Start-Up

SiebenWunder stands for expertise, professionalism, modern customer-centric working methods and not least for the passionate spirit of the founders of the HR start-up from Jena. SiebenWunder also stands for regional solidarity because the name refers to the wonders of Jena (side fact: Ara, Caput, Draco, Mons, Pons, Vulpeca Turris and Weiglana Domus).

With the values defined, the task was to transfer them into a visual concept that would be convincing and move away from the fairytale notions that the name might mistakenly evoke. A look & feel was required that

• is suitable for both digital channels and print media
• strengthens brand presence and acceptance, helps to acquire new customers and increases customer loyalty with the right shapes and colours
• helps to build loyalty among the company’s own employees

Based on the defined corporate characteristics, the dotSource design experts initially created a concept featuring surprisingly fresh and modern colours as well as elegant and customised shapes in the logo, typography and key visuals that served as eye-catchers. In addition, the experts developed a clear information architecture and navigation structure for SiebenWunder’s homepage, which specifically focuses on the content.

Corporate Design – Getting Rid of Boring Industry Clichés

Not only does the brand design use colours that differ from the simple ones customary in the industry, but it also leaves a pleasant and professional impression on all channels with its appealing and elegant look. Thanks to the scalability of the concept and the comprehensive documentation of the style guide, SiebenWunder will also remain flexible in the future, allowing the company to open up further communication channels.

 
In the end, the new branding was implemented on relevant print media such as business cards, letterheads, etc. to ensure that the company got off to a successful start.

More details on the creation of the brand design concept for the HR start-up from Jena can be found in our new SiebenWunder success story.