dache.ch

For a while now, I have been contemplating a change of company name to better suit the evolution of the company as I see it. This was a conscious decision to better position the company on an international level and to allow the new name to communicate what services I offer. I therefore wanted to share with you some of the main changes which have been and will be made over the coming months.

New Name
The previous name dache, a childhood nickname, was a good platform for me to get to where I have so far. I have felt however that this name is not as representative as I would like it to be in the design industry. It was a massive decision to change the company name and it was not one I took lightly. I looked at the pros and cons and decided that although the name dache communicated on a personal level, it was not a name that communicated anything about the service I provide. I also had instances where the name could be mis-pronounced in different languages. Here in Switzerland for example, the word dache means ‘roof’ in German therefore, for people searching in German, this could cause frustration as my industry is far removed from construction!

Another reason for the change of name was the web domain ownership. I owned dache.ch however dache.com was already taken for a completely unrelated business. As it is important to me to be able to offer my potential clients the choice, I have now acquired both domains .ch and .com.

So, I selected the name helvetic brands. Helvetia is the latin name for Switzerland and I thought that by using a universal language, this was a good way to represent my Swiss roots and keep a personal level to the company name. This was important as I strive to provide a personable service and this will not change going forward. The ‘brands’ part of the new name was to communicate my whole services which are on offer. I do specialize in identity design but I also offer web design, business stationary and typography. Clients can come to me knowing that I can provide an entire branding solution, just from the name.

Finally, as with all company name changes, it is a question of ‘Is this the right time?‘ I think that the new company name will allow me to grow the business from this stage without having to worry about the eventuality of having to change it at a later stage. I think that the business so far has gained a solid enough reputation to take the change but is not so established that the change would be more difficult to implement.

With a new name comes a new image…
This was the trickiest decision I had to make for the rebrand. It was a case of new name and new identity vs. new name and same identity.

Below are a few of the alternative solutions which I experimented with using the basic elements of the dache identity. I looked at making the symbol into a letter ‘h’ however I feel that all these solutions ended up being quite medical in their appearance and decided not to take them any further.

I therefore settled on finding a middle-ground solution by keeping the basic design of my identity under dache but with some fundamental changes to strengthen the brand and to allow my existing audience to recognize the business. The fact that the previous identity formed a letter ‘d’ does not matter as the shape itself best represents the core values of the company - out of the box design, Swiss style.

Below you can see a before and after shot showing how I have made the box in the centre smaller therefore strengthening the main focus of the identity. I think that the overall thicker lines make the branding confident and gives a more positive image. The smaller versions are to show how, even when the identity is taken down to favicon size, the new version appears stronger and is therefore more scalable.

The grid work of the identity developed can be seen below.

New Site design
Since August I have been working on a new version of the site so I thought what better time to finalise all the changes then when the company changes its name. Of course, there will always be a few bugs to iron out but we are getting there. Below can be seen the old design.

So, what’s new? Well, I have updated the typography of the entire site and made it all Helvetica. I have also used different sizes of font to create a natural information hierarchy to improve usage. This is much nicer when compared with my ‘11 point Verdana across the board’ approach. I have also improved the in-site navigation. There were too many sections before. I have now condensed the 4 sections - webdesign, logos, print and art - into a section named ‘branding’ which allows easy cross-referencing of my entire portfolio and I have added the option to browse by industry or project name. The previous dacheboard has been re-named as ‘blog’ to communicate clearly to the audience. Obviously, I could not keep a reference to dache as it would create confusion. The new blog will work as before however I have now chosen to feature the most popular articles and allow easier functionality and quick-viewing. The most recent addition is the live news feed from my twitter entries which is uploaded to the homepage. This has replaced the previous static news section.

The future of helvetic brands…
I hope you have enjoyed this insight into the thinking behind the company changes. I am happy that the new name will give me the strong image that the business will need for the future. I would greatly like to receive your feedback on the website design in particular and any suggestions for improvements are welcome. Hope you enjoy and I plan to do a round up at the end of 2009 to let you know my progress.