Insight Sherpas
Branding
Brand Strategy
Social Media
Pitches & Presentations
Website Design
Insight Sherpas were looking for a fresh new brand to launch as they moved their business forward into a substantial growth phase. Elements of their original branding had become irrelevant and no longer expressed the customer journey, business mission and values. They felt it needed an injection of their warmth, energy and personality and a move away from their existing corporate look.
They were looking to maintain elements of the branding such as their name and its reference to skillful navigation but wanted to relaunch with a confident, professional new brand. They were also keen to arm their growing team with all the brand elements they needed to create on-brand, cohesive client pitches and presentations.
The Brief
After 7 years with our existing brand, we were looking for a completely new update and fresh approach. KICO worked seamlessly with our branding consultant to really bring the essence of our brand narrative to life. They expertly interpreted the brand values and skilfully created a superb graphic representation that communicated and reinforced our brand perfectly.
KICO were a joy to work with – the process never felt difficult or complicated and they listened carefully to everything we were trying to say and then created some clear choices for us to work through together. I am particularly grateful for how well they have equipped us to ensure our brand is consistent at every client touchpoint. They worked directly with our web designers on our website, as well as providing a wealth of assets, stationery, templates and guidelines for the team to use – They’ve made it super easy for the whole team.
Our new branding has been a step-change for our business. Our clients have been very complimentary, and it has generated a quite unexpected energy and confidence internally as well. It’s given the whole team a renewed enthusiasm and motivation for our next phase of growth. It’s been as life-affirming as a Gok Wan makeover, but without having to take our clothes off…
Sarah Alexander - Chief Executive, Insight Sherpas
The Solution
The dream team for this project consisted of KICO, Ruth Anslow (Branding consultant) and Nordic Creative (Website development).
We began the process with a full-day workshop with the Insight Sherpas management team to deep dive into the values, mission and ambitions of the business. The wealth of information gained from this day was then distilled into their new brand messaging and strategy. Ruth expertly crafted the brand proposition, personality and mission statement. This strategy created the perfect foundation to begin work on the creative development.
We began with the logo, using the existing brand name: Insight Sherpas. A ‘Sherpa’ (male) or ‘Sherpani’ (female) is a mountaineering expert who skilfully leads and guides people through dangerous/difficult environments.
This role is at the heart of what The Insight Sherpas do and how they do it. We took inspiration from Sherpas and their environment to create the logo and brand mark.
The brand mark is inspired by a mountain range. It is constructed of five triangles/mountains. The ‘mountains’ are layered up, to give the icon a sense of depth. The triangles also create arrow shapes which reference forward motion and direction. The furthest mountain/arrow slots on top of the first mountain which refers to the Insights Sherpa’s way of fitting in and becoming part of a team.
Navigating heavily inspired the visual identity. We decided to visually interpret the Sherpas expertise using aerial views of different terrains showing how a bigger picture view can reveal pathways and routes through even the most difficult terrain.
The nature images were combined and contrasted with images of consumers to bring their clients customers to life and creating a feeling of connection to them in pitches in presentations.
The colour palette is inspired by mountain terrains, nature and bright outdoor/active wear. It features cool, calm blues with an injected pop of energy from with aqua green and coral. The tones also reflect The Sherpas calm, confident, knowledgeable service and warm, vibrant nature.
We created a full library of brand assets including brand image library, presentation templates and case study reports. Our extensive brand tool kit and brand guidelines were shared with the entire team to ensure they were able to easily and efficiently roll out the brand across all social media channels and client work going forward.
We worked with the brilliant Nordic Creative to develop a new website for the Insight Sherpas. This involved us creating the assets and design work for the new website while overseeing the creative direction.
