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.

Daniel Eatock has recently finished a Thoughtful piece for us which we really like.

He didn’t explain the meaning behind it, but we see it as 'Help to keep trees vertical’.

Daniel gave us some instructions on what to do with the donation.

“Please give a £100 note to the first Big Issue seller you meet after withdrawing the note from the bank. Take his/her photo and email me a copy.”

So we did. On a cold, rainy day, Daniel made someone very happy.

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At Thoughtful, we want to do some good, as well as some good work.

So we've asked some of the UK’s finest creative thinkers and image makers to produce something Thoughtful of their own. The piece could be anything, as long as it conveyed ‘thoughtful’.

In return for their kind help, we've given them £100 to donate to a charity of their choice.

This is an on-going project and we'll be showcasing them all later this year.

Here's a beauty from Ian Stevenson

We chose Ian through our love of his extemely funny and slightly disturbing set of postcards, Lost Heroes.

Here's another Thoughtful piece, this time from Andrew James Jones.

You really should check out this guys work...