If you are a regular reader you may have noticed that my site recently went through some much-needed polishing. A different template, different colors, a nice logo to accompany my name… The ones to blame are my friends and go-to designers Markos and Esther. In this post, I explain the creative process and show you the new brand.

I met Markos and Esther when we worked together in feelgut. At first, I liked their work, then came a good friendship we managed to keep after the project failed.

A few months ago, after a mrgn.in meetup, I asked them to send me a proposal for new business cards. Marco Ugolini, another designer, and friend had done the ones I was using back then, but I felt they were not representative enough.

What I like about Markos and Esther the most is that they have their own style but know how to capture the personality of each project. I dislike designers that treat every brand in the same way, who can’t leave their personal taste aside and work towards fitting their customers’ personalities. I love how they can make my brand and then things that are completely different like to one below.

I am not only very happy with the result; the process was also enjoyable and it gave me a chance to look at the back-office of how brands are made. The only guidelines I gave them were that I wanted the look to be professional but relaxed; elegant but not girlie and that it had to be simple. And this is what I got.

Even though it was work for a friend – and many times this means you can be sloppy – they were incredibly professional and went through all the discovery, briefing and proposals process. They helped me find my identity, working around words, concepts, and colors that went well with both my personality, my customers and my professional activities.

Once the concept was clear they worked closely with me and helped me select colors, materials for my cards… Once this was done, to help me apply that brand to the rest of my online presence, they designed the other branding elements you now see – banners for my facebook and twitter profiles, a banner for this website, logos I can reuse…

I love the result, a handful of my business cards already sit on desks in at least two countries of West Africa, and I now feel more confident about handing them to the people I meet – because they reflect who I am and are a pleasure to hold and touch.

The next step is probably to get together to design this website properly, because of shame-on-me.

Even though I advise my customers to go for a tailor-made template and leave free or low-cost templates for non-professional sites, I am guilty of being lazy for my own site.

This, though, will probably be a project for 2016.

In the meanwhile, until I give them more work, you can check the website of the markos-esther design studio or take a look at their facebook page – I bet you’ll like what you’ll see and who knows if they will be the right people for your next project?