Here is the house of our neighbours, the sheep.
Making Corporate Culture
When he is not teaching as Professor Sven Voelker runs a design studio in Berlin. It is located in the basement of a furniture shop, in the centre of Berlin, only a few steps from Alexanderplatz. Its neighbour is a school. Sheep graze in front of our office windows. It is an idyllic place.
The Sven Voelker Studio specializes in the development of visual corporate culture (of all physical kinds). Even though the studio itself has developed a distinctive desire to stay very small and maneuverable it has been able to build an extensive experience with big and even bigger clients such as BMW and Suzuki.
Since spring 2004 the Sven Voelker Studio has been involved in the growing, global corporate identity project with the japanese car and motorcycle manufacturer Suzuki. This project has proven that big corporations can indeed work with very small design studios. (Read the Brand Eins article here to find out more.) But even more, it has led to a new and most unusual corporate design concept:
The Snowcrystal Principle
How does it work? Snow crystals are in perfect balance of consistency and diversity. Instead of telling each crystal exactly how it should look, nature just gave it a simple rule: the sixty degree angle. This rule tells it how to grow and gradually take shape. As a result of this, they all look similar but never the same.
What can a brand learn from this? Good corporate designs work exactly like the snow crystal is being shaped. A good visual identity is no endless collection of guidelines and instructions but a simple set of radical rules.
Instead of producing all possible results, an equation has been developed that includes typography, colour, logo, photography and structures.
This approach to design (and to corporate design in particular) is the foundation of all actions and concepts developed by the Sven Voelker Studio.
Awards
