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What can be a positive attribute can also make designing a client identity

difficult. Kay Nash, group managing director of Africa and the Middle East

for Enterprise IG, says that was certainly the case for her firm’s experience

with Syspro, a software manufacturing company.

Syspro, which designs software that creates automated systems infra-

structure for mid-size companies, began as a small, owner-managed

company. By 2002, it found itself with offices around the world, each

office being run with the same entrepreneurial spirit that the company

founder possessed.

“This is a tenacious, intrepid, resourceful group of people,” Nash says. “The

company is one of the very few that has survived Microsoft and its prod-

ucts, so you know they are enterprising.”

This tenacious spirit initially looked as though it might cause Nash and her

design team problems: Everyone had a very different idea of what the new

identity should be, and no one’s vision was particularly risk-taking. The

company’s old identity in no way reflected its business culture, attitude,

approach, or product. Enterprise IG felt it should be banished in lieu of a

more appropriate and comprehensive identity system. Syspro managers

were feeling differently. They wanted a new logo that felt familiar—period.

After extensive research and interviews, Nash’s team defined the brand

essence in a single word—tenacious. This trait can be either positive

or negative. Enterprise IG decided to take it into a positive realm: The

client could be vigorous, strong, and enduring, but it could also be flexible

and contemporary.

The first thing to overcome was the preexisting corporate culture and the

restrictions each business unit threw in front of the project. United States

team members wanted the company to stick with its U.S. product name,

Impact. From the United Kingdom came the request that the identity be

blue. In Africa, it had to be red.

Design Firm

Client

Project

Enterprise IG

Syspro

Identity Redesign

This static representation of Syspro’s new logo, created by

Enterprise IG, actually does not show how versatile the mark is.

This is just a starting point for the new identity. Its pieces and

colors present Syspro offices around the world with a tool kit

with which each can form its own mark. Also, in electronic rep-

resentation, the logo might unfold and/or rebuild itself.

“It is important to be on target but also to

show the client dramatic directions

—

solutions

that are relevant but that scare them.”

Enterprise IG designers pre-

sented a number of diverse

experiments to push the client

out of its comfort zone. But

this simple, solid, sans serif

experiment was probably the

most comfortable and familiar

to the client.

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These designs represent the far-opposite end of the experimentation for the project. They were meant to fully terrify the client but

also to stretch their imagination and vision. Built from pixels and parts, this approach suggested that the final logo might be a

changeable thing, rebuilt for each occasion as necessary.

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