Branding

At mendesaltaren we want to create brands that create value and impact. We believe in branding that looks up to digital products and digital products that value the power of brands. We believe that human brands with digital form, technology and creativity are one of the great drivers of business.

In a world full of brands, only the ones that are committed to their principles can connect with their audiences. We study the context, social trends and the industry to understand the essence of each business and build a unique and contemporary narrative that connects with the audience.

We approach brands from a holistic standpoint that takes into account both container and content. We also develop the brand and product processes in parallel within the same phase. In doing so, we are more agile and get to learn at twice the speed with both of the disciplines. We can then build a visual identity and product experience that allows us to create the strongest of brands.

1. Kick-off

The kick-off phase is key to lay all the foundations that will help us make important decisions during the project. We address the following:

1. Introducing the team
2. Review project objectives
3. We ask key questions to understand your business.
4. We share roadmap, working model and communication tools.
5. Resolving doubts and next steps

2. Situational Study

Our goal is to understand the client's business as our own, analyzing and listening to gain insights that guide the creation of the brand. We identify challenges, opportunities and the core value to build around. This phase is the beginning of a shared journey, understanding where we are, where we want to go and how to get there. To do this, we conduct an internal and an external analysis.

Internal analysis

To understand the business from the inside, we have two main tools:

1. Interviews: based on the information gathered previously, we build a customized script for each of the stakeholders we interview. We seek dialogues that alternate business, vision, objectives and expectations, incorporating analogies and opposing concepts. The objective is to understand the business and positioning from different points of view.

2. Audit: We analyze the state of the company with a magnifying glass in order to make an accurate diagnosis.

   • Brand and business idea: Is the value proposition clear? is it being communicated? is there alignment among stakeholders? what is the current positioning? how do we differentiate ourselves from the rest? what is the status of the brand right now?
   • Touch points: What are the channels through which the brand communicates? on which platforms is it present? which are the main ones? is there coherence among them? what is the brand experience like?

   • Communication: How do you communicate? What tone do you use to reach our audience? Are we being able to convey who we are?

This analysis helps us to understand the the company, the possible misalignments, aspects that need to be changed and why certain design decisions were made in the past.

External analysis

In order to understand the industry, trends and best practices from the market, we have two main tools:

1. Research: In this phase we look outward to understand the current state of society and the industry, determining what trends and narratives impact us. We look at articles, reports, news and statistics to identify emerging narratives and what market trends impact us.

2. Benchmarking: understanding strategies, both within the category and in other sectors, will give us clues on how to differentiate ourselves. What is their value proposition? How are they positioned? Do they offer emotional or functional benefits? Does the sector have its own visual codes? By asking the right questions of other brands, we will learn lessons for our own.

3. Strategy

In a complex world, brand strategy helps us to narrow down and find a unique space that gives each company a real competitive advantage.

A good strategy should be simple and straightforward. We focus on locating 2 or 3 critical issues, and build a narrative around the brand idea, it is about finding that 5% differential that makes each organization unique. Flexible and scalable brands with their own discourse.

First step: Strategy workshop

Nobody knows the business as well as each client. Our way of working always starts from a very close work with the client and with a deep listening in each phase. We avoid imposing anything, but rather finding together what makes us different and how we want the world to perceive us.


In this workshop, which starts with the first interviews of the understanding, we work on values, territories and personality with the aim of nuancing concepts and achieving deeper and differential brand concepts.

Step 2: Brand platform

After having several strong brand concepts, the next step is to give them shape.

1. Insight: The idea or need, which arises from the previous phase, and which gives a clarifying perspective on consumers. In this section, the problem that we need to solve must be clear.
2. Brand narrative: The backbone concept of the whole strategy and under which we focus all the narrative discourse of the brand.

3. Territory: The brand territory is the foundation on which we will build the entire brand strategy. It is an emotional and conceptual space where we will position ourselves and from where we build meaning. Example: Apple: Innovation and exclusivity. Xiaomi: Quality and price

4. Purpose: The North Star of the business. Purpose is our essence: What does our company do to make the world a better place? Locating the reason why an organization exists is the basis for generating a discourse and culture around the brand.

5. Value proposition: why should they choose this brand? This is the only promise the company makes to its consumers.

6. Values and attributes: Values should function as our beliefs and solid principles and attributes are the way we have to behave based on those beliefs. During the strategy process, many concepts associated with the brand emerge. First, we filter which ones we want to represent the core of our vision. Although some may be generic, our goal is to transform them into distinctive beliefs that truly reflect the reality of each brand. For example, honesty has a different meaning for a bank and an artisan cheese store. If our belief is "One technology for everyone, everywhere" our way of behaving - our attributes - will be accessible, universal, flexible, and plural. 

7. Archetype and personality: psychiatrist and essayist Carl Jung defined universal personality patterns shared by all cultures. We do not seek to treat archetypes literally, but to nurture them as a tool and rely on them as a first step to define personality. Mixing several of them, creating new concepts or analogies based on their characteristics and peculiarities, linking them to recognized characters and generating a new narrative that really has something to tell.

8. Tone: The idea or need, which arises from the previous phase, and which gives a clarifying perspective on consumers. In this section, it must be clear what is the problem that our brand solves.

9. Extra: Brand architecture: Some brands that come to us belong to a main brand or contain sub-brands under one umbrella. We help companies organize their different brands and define the links and hierarchies that operate between them.

The last step of the strategy will be to share our results with the client in a presentation in which we will go through each of the concepts of the strategy and explain what led us to make each decision. This point of contact is essential to receive feedback, to understand how the client feels and to be able to iterate if we are not aligned on any of the points. We do not seek to impose, but to generate a strategic narrative with which the client feels comfortable and motivated to build based on it.

Third step: Naming

The name of a brand must be memorable, distinctive and relevant while conveying the value proposition and meeting internationalization and legal availability requirements. To find it we follow the following process.

1. Benchmarking: we analyze and look for trends in competitors' names and the industry. Are they short or long? Are they based on emotions or characteristics?

2. Exploration: several resources are available to generate naming options:

   • Concept associations: combine two or more words related to the product to create a new and creative name. Ex: Mr. Clean.

   • Translations: translate a product-related word into another language. Ex: Volvo, from Latin volvere, to roll.
   • New creations: create new names not associated with an existing one. E.g.: Red Bull.
   • Modifications: adding or deleting letters, or changing the spelling of a word. E.g.: Sprite, from spirit, spirit.
   • Cultural references: combining two or more words related to the product to create a new and creative name. Ex: Mr. Clean.

3. Checks: to avoid future problems, some of the most important checks are:

   • Web domain: the corresponding web domain must be available in different extensions such as .com, .es, .net, etc.

   • Trademarks: searching databases of national and international trademarks that another company does not already have in use.

   • Proofreading in other languages: check if it has any negative meaning in other languages.

   • How easy it is to pronounce and write: keep in mind that it is this is easy for potential customers.

We will come out of this process with between three and six candidate names.

4. Visual concept

The visual identity is where everything comes together and becomes visually tangible. We have the concept, needs and objectives. We have worked on various concepts and ideas and clearly defined the personality of the brand and how it should be communicated. Now it is time for these concepts to become tangible in a distinctive visual universe with which to connect with our audience.

Visual audit and moodboard

1. Audit: If we have an already established brand, what elements does it have? is it visually coherent in its communications? which elements should we keep, which ones should we evolve and which ones should we change radically? why? what are the trends and visual codes of the sector? is it convenient to stay within those codes or to be disruptive?

2. Moodboard: The moodboard is a visual approximation of what the brand universe will be like. The audit has already given us some clues about which visual universes it makes sense to occupy, with the moodboard we will start to build them. To generate the concept or main idea, we move away and take a design perspective. References from other fields, art history, philosophical concepts, science or the client's own sector can be sources of inspiration for these analogies. We look for 4-5 images that convey the concept for each of the main brand elements: color, typography, layout, UI, graphic resources or photography. With an image of each element we will build the final moodboard and validate it with the client.

Tangibilizing ideas

After the strategy, the concept and the moodboard of visual references is validated, it's time to start designing.



After the moodboard, we will already have a well-defined path: we have a validated visual universe of the brand and a narrative concept that threads the strategy with the visuals. We have made many decisions, but we still need to make them tangible. How do we do it?

1. In a first creative phase, one or two designers are dedicated to experiment, fail and iterate, exploring the different ways in which we could communicate the brand, until we find solutions that meet the communication objectives.

2. Through teamwork sessions, review and feedback, we choose the most coherent path with the project's objectives.

3. All brand elements are worked on in depth until we have a complete visual identity and a coherent and scalable system.

4. An approach to how the brand will work in the main points of contact is basic, so we always design from RRSS, to a provisional website where we can see the digital application of the brand. The care and creation of the copy of each application also becomes an essential element for the construction of the brand.

This phase closes with the client's validation. It is one of the most anticipated conversations, so we take care of the narrative of the presentation in detail: explaining the whys behind each design decision and making sure that they are all directly linked to the brand strategy and project objectives. If there is feedback, we do not receive it as something negative, but as a possibility to look at the project from another perspective and work on improving it. In that case, we would work again on iterating the necessary details in order to validate for the next phase: putting rules to everything we have created.

Smarkia presentation

5. Deliverables

At mendesaltaren we build vibrant brands. We do not want to generate brand assets that work well in certain situation but are not functional when it comes to put them into action especially if they are to be used by different teams. As experts in Product Design we find value in using brand and product simultanously, streamlining time, sharing vision and transferring assets in an efficient way.

1. Brandbook: We deliver a manual that collects all the branding work done and serves as a guide to continue building the brand from it. Activable, understandable and, above all, scalable guidelines over time. The current context means that brands have to be flexible and able to adapt to different media and needs. We built the brandbook in Framer, facilitating access to brand assets from the browser and forgetting about PDFs that get lost among attachments.
2. Toolkit: We deliver a toolkit in Figma with all the editable elements of the worked material, from the basic brand assets to all the created materials. All editable and usable. In addition, we build toolkits for Social Media with several pieces of content ready to use. We also include a presentation template in Google Slides to build decks or presentations.

3. Brand Reel: in a digital context where screens have a great weight on the brand experience, we believe in building dynamic and narrative visual codes. That is why we prepare a reel that helps the client to present the evolution of its brand.

We always want to be by the client's side if they have any doubts and problems that may arise as a result of the brand. A rebranding is a significant change, that's why in every project we offer sessions after the brand closure to solve doubts, act as brand guardian in the generated pieces and remain always available to transfer the process to any other agency or studio that will collaborate with the brand after our closure.

6. Brand Activation

After rebranding, we want to see the brand grow and evolve. Accompanying it in its first months guarantees a healthy and consistent growth, minimizing the stress of the transition or the launch of the new brand.

Our goal is to simplify and take weight off the client's shoulders. We work with implants that will be dedicated to the client during the first months of the launch, accompanying them throughout the transition of materials and ensuring that all communications meet the brand's standards both strategically and visually. On the other hand, the project lead will accompany the activation with consulting and definition of activation objectives to ensure the brand's impact.