We’ve got the look
By Kindred's Creative Director, Ben Friend...
We’ve got a new agency.
We bought the agency because we know we have something unique here and believe that we can give clients something they can’t get anywhere else. We know who we are. Kindred is an agency that refuses to be bound by convention.There you go, one simple statement that sums up our desire to find the answers to our client’s problems in the best way possible. Unencumbered by convention in the way we think or the way we are. Now all we have to do is come up with a neat simple visual device that encapsulates this positioning.At this point people normally start shifting uncomfortably in their seat because we are talking about embarking on a process that is usually about as relaxing a root canal treatment.Yes dear reader I’m talking about the dreaded agency identity.This is usually the cue for a ton of pain. In my experience there is nothing that will turn an agency inside out in spasms of crippling self-analysis and horrendous navel gazing than ‘The New Look.’ When I’ve been involved in this type of thing before I have hated it and I mean properly hated it.The strength of my feeling has been generated by a frustration on behalf of those around me and in myself at an inability to actually say who or what the agency I was working for at the time was about.This inability to express it ourselves would mean we would have to look outside for help and this in turn would mean the dreaded Awayday in Soho House or some equally pointlessly expensive venue. The day would be hosted by a planner/stategist/team builder and would be called ‘Finding Our Essence or The Way To Truth'. We’ve all been there.All this process would result in would be a room full of really confused people staring at a wall full of post-it-notes with words like ‘direction’, ‘honesty’ and ‘trust’ written on them. In other words, slap bang in the middle of a town called confusion.Why do agencies whose sole purpose it is to create communication campaigns find it so difficult when the spotlight is turned on them?Self-analysis I guess. We all find it a bit difficult.Or maybe at the core of their being they have no idea why they exist.Imagine my relief then when none of this happened this time round.Having written a simple single minded statement about who we are, (see above), we sat down with our very talented Design Director Matt Comboy and our smart brand specialist called Clare Sheppard and we had some ideas that summed this thought up. One idea leaped out at us, literally, and we went to see Nick Mustoe, Managing Director and he liked it as did the rest of the agency so that’s what we went with.And here it is. We wanted something that created intrigue was a little bit weird and forced people to ask why.So, why a flying fish?Well I’m glad you asked. A flying fish refuses to be bound by convention. At Kindred it’s an attitude we aspire to.And it is a creature that has evolved to thrive in new places.Just like us.And if we come up with an eloquent piece of creative work for us, as effortlessly as this then, dear prospective client, we can certainly do it for you.
