Branding - Smoke Screen
We sat down with Concept Smoke Screen to review the brand we created with them 7 years ago, to see how we can adapt it to reflect how they’ve evolved and what they want to achieve in the future. We found that they needed a logo refresh, dropping the ‘concept’ to become ‘Smoke Screen’ and a revision of their overall tone of voice.
We created three stylescapes which complimented their current brand but choosing three different tones - friendly, heroic, and disruptive. Upon review they realised that they wanted to disrupt the security industry, to bring some oomph to a somewhat uninspiring industry. They decided to go for the disruptive stylescape as they want to be seen as questioning the status quo as activists, experts and educators of security.
Out of the three stylescapes the ‘Disruptive’ one best represented the future Smoke Screen saw for themselves. We took this one and refined it so it was ready to be transformed into in-depth brand guidelines.
As we already had some brand guidelines in place, we wanted to update these to reflect the new stylescape vision and build upon them, especially with the messaging and tone of voice, which has been updated to be bold, uncompromising and confident throughout.
We have a retainer agreement in place with Smoke Screen, so we have been able to implement the new branding across all of their current and future touchpoints, as and when they require it.
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Chris
He / him. Chris is a co-founder of Rusty Monkey. Chris would like to think of himself as a branding philosopher but in reality it means that he can sit in his hammock and come up with great ideas around business and branding problems. He’s also a BBC-trained camera operator and has worked on many large scale TV events. A technophile. Loves the outdoors and will often head into the countryside with his wife, daughter and camera drone. Really interested in ethical thinking and business.
Zoe
She / her; green / blue. Zoe is a designer, daydreamer and self-anointed snack queen. Once described as “so awkward she’s charming” by a friend, there isn’t a day that goes by without her accidentally slipping in an innuendo. In winter, she hibernates in a blanket of books and netflix, but by late spring emerges with her trusty birkenstocks, ready to go on photography adventures and socialise with the neighbourhood cats. If she were a pokemon she would without a doubt be Pikachu, but a buzzfeed quiz has determined her to be a Magikarp. She’s a firm believer that buzzfeed quizzes cannot be trusted, under any circumstances.
Mel
She / her; red / blue. Mel is a writer, editor and designer. Equally happy hiking a muddy trail as playing tabletop roleplay games by candlelight. Will seize any opportunity for a party, as long as said party features copious food, prosecco and hits from the 1980s. Her true passion lies in words. A student of literature, she is fascinated by enduring myths, etymology and science fiction. Kurt Vonnegut is her hero. “We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”
Matt
He / him; yellow. Creative jack-of-all-trades, Matt is "dangerously knowledgeable" in almost every facet of marketing. His favourite field is branding, and he loves developing inspiring, daring brand identities for organisations who are ready to do something different. But he's equally talented at front end web development and developing digital strategies. He's also the front man and guitarist in local parody heavy metal outfit Evil Scarecrow, plus a huge fan of music, eating in nice restaurants, and going on holiday.
THE CLIENT
With a goal to provide safety to everyone, Concept Smoke Screen are one of the world’s leading developers of security fog technology, providing peace of mind to businesses all around the globe.
THE GOAL
We’ve worked with Concept Smoke Screen since early 2000s to build their brand up from scratch. They’ve leant on us to provide an array of services over the years, from online marketing to web development, from graphic design to product photography. Recently, we wanted to give their brand a refresh to showcase how they have evolved as a company.
THE SOLUTION
As we’ve been there for Concept Smoke Screen early on, we have gained a unique insight on how they have grown and developed over the years. Making use of our long-term marketing and online marketing retainers, we were able to update the brand vision to match how they want to shake up the security industry.
THE TEAM
Our creative guild, led by our branding guru Matt.
THEY SAID
"Rusty Monkey have provided our company Concept Smoke Screen with expert branding, SEO, SEM and overall marketing support for close to twenty years. Friendly, knowledgeable, talented and creative. Recommended to anyone looking for a creative agency."
-- Matt Gilmartin, Smoke Screen
THE OUTCOME
Concept Smoke Screen’s brand has become synonymous with innovation and quality customer care. Our journey with them is ongoing, and we continue to support them by providing an ever-expanding range of marketing services and a set of brand guidelines which are always evolving to reflect this.
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