It can be a difficult task, designing an identity for yourself. We should know. Our’s was a real labour of love. Hours and hours were spent nudging things this way, making type half a point bigger, nudging it back the other way, making it smaller again. We knew in our heads what it should ‘kind of’ look like, but with three of us, we could never settle on a final design. We came to the conclusion that we’d just become too close to it. So we decided to go back to the drawing board. Well, really it was Underware’s drawing board.

We think the decision to commission other designers to design our identity was a brave one, and the right one. We wanted something that looked the best it could be. So, being huge fans of theirs, we approached Underware and basically told them who we were, what we stand for, and could they design us a beautiful, flexible identity. What they came back with wasn’t what we expected. It was better.

We knew a lot of people would think ‘You’re designers, why are you getting someone else to design your company?’, but we saw this as a great way to work with people we really respect in the industry. Design companies are notoriously ‘cagey’ and competitive, but Thoughtful doesn’t work this way. Our third commandment says ‘Thoughtful shall collaborate’, and this is because we’ll do whatever it takes to get a great piece of work done, working with the best typographers, web designers, illustrators, photographers, animators etc.

It’s great to see other design companies realising that by opening their doors and keeping their eyes on the bigger picture, they can produce a piece far greater than if they had kept themselves to themselves.

Bunch have recently enlisted a long line of designers to help their identity come alive. The brief was simple, re-interpret one of three Bunch logos any way you like.

This would lead to a identity that could have hundreds of executions, and could use specific ones for certain tasks. With this in mind, we thought the one we did for them would look good on their compliment slips.

At the time of this blog being published, Bunch are still inviting designers to have a go. You can get involved and see all the other entries here.

And if there are any design groups out there thinking about rebranding, we’re always happy to take a look.