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Bakone - Investment Banking Advisory Brand Identity

The Bakone brand refresh consists of an elegant revamp of a finch symbol alongside a block of contemporary type.

The look and feel contains contrasts of a corporate blue alongside warmer tones of gold and earth.

The visual identity is made uniquely compelling with the addition of specially commissioned fine art.

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the client

Bakone International is a distinctly African Investment Banking Advisory providing the full suite of investment banking advisory services, tailored for the African market.

The Brief

Firedog was commissioned to develop a growing financial services brand in Southern Africa. Bakone international is an innovative and entrepreneurial firm focused on delivering outstanding results for our clients strategic needs. The business has distinct and first rate local knowledge. Our task was to elevate an existing brand identity into the contemporary business world whilst maintaining a strong African feel. We were briefed to retain the existing brand heritage if plausible. We did enjoy the unassuming nature of the scaley feathered finch icon which existed - it offers a contemporary spin on what is often seen in iconography; overly masculine and bold brand animals. It also has a heritage connection to the founder's northern roots which we felt brought an authenticity to the symbol.

The Solution

We developed a broad spectrum of symbol design options as part of the exploration process. We started with linocut style illustrated icons and further refined with client feedback. The abstraction led us to a more minimal line version of the finch rendered in dark blue. This became the brand icon which was paired with contemporary humanist type. We developed a memorable colour palette which used a gold hue as a contrast to the dark blue. From this, we developed further shade combinations along the same hue values; a darker caramel, a dark brown and a charcoal. We then worked together with the client in commissioning unique artworks which supported the brand aesthetic. These paint based illustrated brand assets feature in two ways: Firstly as a series of character portraits to be used in key image containers in the website, comms and designed materials. Secondly, the design toolkit contains painted abstracts which are used in backgrounds and other secondary and ambient use cases.

The Results

The result is a warm brand which is rooted firmly in the African landscape yet with all the supporting contemporary brand triggers which ensures its global relevance and standing.

  • We explored different styles of the finch bird which features in the brand icon.

  • Early creative concepts featured a linocut rendition of the particular species of finch. This application was inspired by bird illustrations rooted in classical texts.

  • We then started to abstract the bird making it more symbolic. This involves reducing the number of shapes in the vector that makes up the illustration.

  • The client feedback challenged us also to explore the potential of using an icon which formed the letter B at the same time. It didn't quite work an we reverted to the chosen symbol.

  • The final brand lock up features a clean minimalist symbol resting against a dark and contrasted design aesthetic. This makes the small delicate bird feel strong in its environment.

  • The application of a warm, bright and localised colour palette coupled with bespoke art assets elevates the brand aesthetic beyond the mundane.

  • We designed and developed a custom theme based Elementor Wordpress web design for the financial services business.

  • This Wordpress design contained a number of varying page types for each section of the website.

  • We designed and developed a full Microsoft Powerpoint design template which contained cover, chapter, content and multi column page layouts.

  • The Wordpress web design responds to multiple device viewports to ensure a fully responsive web design experience.

  • The brand library contains a number of painted brand assets - canvas textures which can be used in container backgrounds. This example shows an application in a PPT chapter page.

  • The website contains various infographics within the content areas of the site in order to make for a varied and interesting read.