BALCONY & EASYFIX
Overview
Balcony (Croso) is the product name of a range of stainless-steel balcony fittings. 'Balcony Shop' offers modular parts for railings, in materials such as stainless steel, zinc, aluminium and duplex. 'Stainless Steel Handrails' is the online shop targeting consumers.
The client wanted a new company name, fresh branding and a complete website overhaul for one of the UK's leading stainless-steel manufacturers.
The Brief
Balcony, as we call them, came to us needing assistance to create a brand identity to re-launch their two companies: Balcony Shop UK and Stainless Steel Handrails. However, after the first meeting, it was clear that the current branding wasn't strong enough to meet the ambitions of the Managing Director and the brand needed re-developing and redesigning from the ground upwards.
The MD was adamant he wanted a clear correlation between both companies to be recognisable as being part of the same group. Though, most importantly, he wanted the companies to stand independently. The new brand had to be eye-catching in order to stand out from all their competitors, but refined and sophisticated to reflect the company's German/Danish heritage
The Deliverables
The first thing we agreed was that the company names needed to be changed from Balcony Shop UK to Balcony UK, and Stainless-Steel Handrails to EasyFix Balustrades. The companies were part of the UK branch of Croso but separated from the Croso brand, so we wanted to convey that both Balcony UK and Easyfix Balustrades were run in the UK by more than just a small team.
The next step was to come up with a brand identity that would work across both companies, yet still work independent from each other.
The new design allowed us to create clear and visually appealing brand architecture, with both brands interlocking with each other.
The Brand Mark
The brand mark is made up of two elements from both brands. The 'B' within Balcony and the 'E' within EasyFix shows the perfect connection, unity and togetherness of the companies through the symbols.
The two links from both brands brings the companies together, while also establishing uniqueness between the brands. The curves, angles and contouring of the symbol reflect the materials used, which are carefully formed and shaped to create a seamless, beautifully crafted end-result.
The brand mark has the flexibility to be coloured to create a clear differentiation between the brands while simultaneously linking them together through shape and form.
For the logo type we used a fixed width uppercase typeface. We felt this would create a clean, modern look for the identity. The curved corners of each character softens the abrasiveness of the identity whilst providing it with a professional, confident look and feel.
We introduced a colour palette which consisted of three colours. The palette chosen was to be simple, allowing the products and photography to take centre stage. The use of secondary tonal colours was introduced to compliment the main colour palette. These colours would be used as secondary body copy, background elements, watermarks and key lines to reflect the intricate details of the product.
With the new brand identity in place, our next challenge was to carry this across all routes, including marketing and touchpoints across both companies.
Websites
Along with the new brand came a brand-new bespoke website and a CRM System for Balcony UK, to be followed later by a completely new web build for EasyFix Balustrades' eCommerce website and a 3D Planner to visualise architectural designs.
