Branding - The Part I Didn't Want To Make Myself

Deutsche Version

I question everything, and the way things are done. That’s what a designer does, I guess. I always look for purpose in what I‘m doing. So what purpose does branding serve? And why am I willing to pay a lot if money to an agency to do the branding for me?

In theory—for a start-up—branding can be a tool to signal trustworthiness. If you manage to put real work and love into it, people sense it before they can even hold the product in their hands. I definitely want that. But first of all, I hope you sense that what I‘m doing is real. For me this is going all-in.

That’s why I didn’t want to do something minimal. I don‘t want it to look efficient. Too many people don’t want–or don't have–the time to put in the work to develop something that resonates on a deep level. It takes time to peel off the layers and arrive at something true.

„Don‘t even suggest something that might offend potential customers.“ Brands get lame when they decide stuff in committees and protect shareholder value.

So with Geist I wanted to try a different approach: finding the visual identity of my brand in the work of someone else.

I wanted something personal, something I'm not able to translate myself. I'm not a graphic designer. I didn't spend years mastering that skillset. If I sat down in front of Figma or Illustrator, the tools would block me — unfamiliar tools are like hurdles between the dense vision in my head and the page. Being professional at something means letting go of the technical side of using tools. Your mind is connected directly to the outcome.

One of the tools I know by heart is the pen, so it's natural for me to sketch out ideas. That's what I did in my first attempt at branding last year — be free and find interesting directions for a logo. The great thing about a pen is that it allows for so many mistakes, and that's where you find the interesting stuff.

So choosing an outside agency is mostly about finding someone professional enough to let their beautiful mistakes become the center of their work. That's what I call "voice." The ability to trust your instinct and have the confidence that some unconventional solution might be the center of your work — one you feel is beautiful but don't know for sure — that takes courage.

When I researched agencies, I looked for that courage. If their work feels very close to me, I know our sensibilities are aligned. In my experience, trusting this instinct makes decision-making easy.

I found Ufficio on the other side of the world in Buenos Aires. Still mind-boggling to me how the internet is pulling people from so far away so close together. And what boggles me even more is that people living completely different lives can share the same sensibilities.

So I sent them a briefing, trying to transport the essence of what I believe Geist to be, together with product images and inspiration. I developed this very slowly over the past year, to feel a hundred percent sure about the philosophical and visual implications.

After that we basically partnered up on the same day and started. If it clicks, it clicks.

I really enjoyed how structured Ufficio handled the whole process. There was definition, there were milestones, feedback loops, a time table. But not for a second did I feel I was losing control of what mattered — the creative development of the branding. Just fantastic.

One of the best moments in the collab with Ufficio was their second logo proposal. That one hit me hard because I wasn’t expecting them to treat Geist in a 90s / Designers Republic kind of style:

It pushed all my buttons. I was thrown back into my childhood, obsessing over the futuristic race game Wipeout on the first Playstation, on fire from the iconic electronic soundtrack – music I didn’t even know of when I was 7. Back then I was used to Wolfgang Petry on the stereo.

So why did I go for the other direction? I‘m a different person now. I still listen to techno, oh yes. But most of the time I gravitate towards calmness. I‘m deeply into ambient and downtempo music at the moment, artists that offer complex emotional pallets but take time to process them. I‘m always looking for new sounds and new shapes and otherworldly ideas. Best while taking long walks through the park. This direction represents all of that:

I felt surprised, and somehow honored, that Ufficio took my original logo idea from the "danger zone" of the briefing (I called it the danger zone because I wanted them to choose freely, not be influenced by my inspiration and ideas). They gave me the courage to go with something I knew from the beginning was the one, but had been too afraid to pick.

The fact that the logo was born from something I made, and that Ufficio is so unpossessive (had to google that one) with their work, means more to me than any 90s design movement. But yeah — still loving the nineties.

Just take a look, and I hope you enjoy what we came up with.

"German Romanticism believed objects could hold what words cannot. Japanese Ma says that emptiness is not absence, but potential. Neither Germany nor Japan do things for the sake of appearance. Both cultures demand that every decision earns its place. Precision, restraint, elimination of the unnecessary. Not as style, but as ethics. Geist mixes both obsessions." - Ufficio

There's so much more to show, but I don't want to keep you reading for the rest of the day. It'll all be unpacked step by step.

What happens now?

In the next few weeks I‘ll launch the new channel, Geist Taschenmanufaktur, on Instagram. It'll be a glimpse into my little workshop — that redesigned guest room — showing the process and the practice of making.

Each bag is made one at a time, and I make them at the speed care requires.

Soon after, the website will go online—building it right now—where you can go deep into material combos, and get your companion.

Damn, exciting times!

Cheers, Mathias.