OVERVIEW
A startup in need of a powerful identity
A new client came to us looking for supporting in their start-up journey. All considered? A name, a visual identity, supporting data visualizations, pitch decks, and a website to entice investors.
CLIENT
Revex Technologies
SERVICES
Branding, Photo, Web, Writing, Design
NAMING
What’s in a name?
The client had generated a number of naming options and were lukewarm to them. Working with us allowed them to refocus their energies around developing the business. We took what we knew from email interactions and client meetings to develop a creative brief that highlighted the companies product, their processes, and their competitive advantages. From there, we defined the key concepts, the pair word, and established the root words.
Our proprietary name generation tool uses the root words to build a list of 99 related terms. From the initial root words, we generated more than 4,700 words that our team reviewed and expanded upon. Using our evaluation tool, we analyze the best names for associations, semantic, phonetic, easily heard, easily spelled, domain availability and overall brand strength.
IBRAND DENTITY
Revex Technologies, Inc
A confident wordmark, a tight type system and a palette that reads premium in a feed full of neon.
Palette
Type
THE WEBSITE
Reshaping a web presence
BUILDING THE DIGITAL BRAND
Beginning message
After developing the name for the brand, Revex, our team explored the top level messaging structure with cohesion and expression of the brands’ core values. We pulled elements from the brand name: Re to tie in a rotating messaging structure that also aligns with the powerful, aspirational language of the brand’s mission statement—Reshaping the Metals Economy. We utilized RE words that align with their process to tie in a consistent message on the home page: reclaiming, reshaping, recycling, reshoring, and refining.
To find these words, we listened attentively during Revex discussions and developed a deep understanding of the technology and the sector’s global economic states. We unpacked the political and economic drivers to position the concepts and highlight the remarkable ideas that formed the core value proposition. Once the core terminology was established, we iterated with the client, their partners, and the SmartZone team to build out and refine the messaging pattern.
Emphasizing Tangibility
While Revex was still planning their physical location, we set out to work beyond conventional marketing using unconventional brand extensions. We worked with the Revex team to develop a photography plan featuring branded assets (that our team helped to create) that yield both a strong team presence and an implied momentum of technological advancement. We worked with trusted partners from our extensive network of relationships to capture photos in technology-rich spaces with genuine team member interaction through discussion of printed key diagrams, mock presentation scenarios, and analyzing lab chemicals in branded jars.
Inserting Reality
We brought reality to Revex by employing purchased lab materials in standard jars using labels designed to showcase the products for use on the website. Modeling our designs on standard lab labels, emphasizing both the logo, the material name and chemical composition provided visualization of what Revex will be in the future. After creating the labels, we found materials and jars and placed the labels on the jars to bring to the photoshoot for the Revex team to hold for a greater sense of reality.
Graphic Design Support
Data Visualization & Beyond
Building the vision
CAD Modeling
Existing in a start-up capacity and seeking funding toward a facility to bring jobs into the region, Revex needed a way to connect the brand with a vision of a factory. We imported CAD for a suitable factory building, applied their branding as a 3-dimensional sign, a rooftop paint scheme, and aligned with their market needs before placing renderings into the site. The presence of a physical (though 3D model) of a building gives the Revex website brand an increased sense of tangibility, and increases receptivity with stakeholders, investors, and political aides. Bringing the vision to life, we also animated the camera views around the building to help the audience visualize the full scope of the planned facility.
Communicating the Value
Capturing Attention
We recruited local partners from our broad network of clients to participate in photos with assets like automotive batteries and electric vehicles. The net result of these actions was to present Revex with momentum in the market and in their technology, while delivering crystal-clear communications about their core value proposition. By leveraging the relationship capital we have fostered over decades, Monte was able to move the project forward at the speed of trust.
Creating Reality
Holding Attention
To provide a deep sense of physical progress in the technology, we built a servo-controlled rotator where we could carefully control the speed, direction, and duration of moving powdered and granular materials "mixing" as they might appear in a pilot or benchtop scale processor. Scrap copper pellets were cascaded down chutes and into a hopper-like box that was recorded at a scale which made it feel like pilot production was underway. Low-friction industrial UHMW profiles were employed to slide powdered materials that would otherwise stick. By leveraging creativity across disciplines, we can engineer an experience that crystallizes in the mind of the audience. When presenting this video in the context of a web header, a colleague asked, “Where is this place?” The question revealed that Revex was very real and tangible to her, precisely the unconscious conclusion we were seeking
Abstract Concepts
Graphics to Advance Understanding
To secure funding and grants for the expansion of the business, the Revex team has made presentations to multiple groups and submitted several grant applications. To supplement the information in the applications and presentations, Revex turned to Monte to generate graphics, charts, and data visualization elements. We focused on the goal to reduce the cognitive load on audiences by simplifying complex ideas into extremely clean graphics.
The Result
We paired these simplified graphics with an on-brand powerpoint presentation with a consistent design approach. The reduced cognitive load eliminates friction and increases receptivity with stakeholders, political aides, and potential investors.
