After seven years, the Making Waves corporate identity is undergoing a much needed update. We (Eirik Langaas and me) have just started working on the project.

First thing we did, was to write the brief. It is always better to write the brief yourself rather than letting your client (or boss) do it. The client saves time, and a designers write briefs that are more to-the-point.

I like to find pairs of words that describe some sort of message that should be conveyed by the profile. Eirik and I put our heads together and came up with the pairs sharp+friendly and empathic+firm.

Inspiration.

Also, we started on a list of of possible implementations. We drew a timeline with  all the contact points between Making Waves and the customer during a project. Contracts, business cards, meeting rooms content managament interfaces – the list is almost endless (contradiction of terms?).

To make sure we got this right, we invited heads of all departments to a small workshop to fill in the blanks, prioritize contact points, and also to have their say about what they (dis)liked about the current identity.

Post its and markers - the fastest collaborative bookmarking device on earth.

Erik and I are now developing and testing concepts, with occasional help from colleagues. As usual, I fell in love with my first idea, so it was good to have Jørn and Marita to kill it.

We have a tiny project room. After a couple of hours' work, the whole room smells weird.

More to come.