Vertebrae Social
Category
B2B | Start-up
Type of work
Brand | Print | Digital
Vertebrae Social are personal brand managers for some of the UK's most interesting entrepreneurs working in such diverse fields as med tech regulation, executive coaching, EdTech and metal recycling.
The opportunity
Lindsay was approached by Samantha Wiltshire to help design a brand for her new venture Vertebrae Social, a personal branding agency with a difference. Sam had run a successful social media and digital marketing agency for over 4 years but wanted to take a fresh approach with her offer and create a new brand which better reflected her personality and unique approach to personal branding and community building.
She wanted the new brand to be direct, impactful, and more subversive to reflect the team's passions, and she referenced vintage skate stickers and eighties hardcore punk posters as inspiration.
The identity
The creative concept for Vertebrae Social helps to bring to life Sam’s vision for a branding agency with a difference, one that subverts the usual look and feel / tone of voice of the average social media content creator, and instead makes a bold statement in order to stand out from the crowd.
Inspired by their mission to bring lesser heard voices to the forefront, the creative feels fearless and confident starting with a logo which features a unique graphic backbone mark paired with assured, contemporary typography.
The colour palette feels impactful with deep warm blues, vivid reds and bright pops of orange. The overall feel is inkeeping with the agency’s digital/tech background, but also references their wider cultural music and art influences.
Thought was also given to how photography would be presented – a halftone textured feel is used along with a duotone effect from the colour palette. The result is a punk inspired, un-glossy feel which works well digitally but would also translate perfectly into risograph printed material.
A suite of icons were developed which represent Vertebrae Social’s three main strands of work; Personal Branding, Community Building and Ideas + Strategy. These icons bring variety and interest across the suite of comms material and social media assets, either used individually or by creating bespoke patterns.
Typography choices for the brand followed the logo in their contemporary and clean feel, with two sans serif typefaces for headlines and body copy, and a characterful brush typeface for more conversational copy to help bring Sam’s unique tone of voice to life.
A set of stickers inspired by the punk/skate aesthetic were designed which offer a more informal way for Vertebrae Social to communicate their quirky and direct messaging, both for use digitally and to be made into a printed sticker set. The imagery is rooted in the team’s interests and personalities and is paired with direct and punchy slogans.
This fresh approach to a truly unique brand plays out across multiple touchpoints, challenging the status quo whilst remaining playful, savvy and experienced.
