Note: This gives context to the rationale.
Stance is a design company purposed for the next generation of challenges.
By combining behavioural science with strategic design and technology we uncover human insight to create brands, products and experiences that create broader value and improve people’s lives.
We are designing better ways of operating, approaching problems, producing solutions, and measuring value. This creates a stronger foundation on which to tackle some of the biggest challenges faced by society, while still growing viable, sustainable and valuable enterprises. To do this, our company has been designed to be more transparent and focused on creating value for all our stakeholders; our team, our suppliers, our community, as well as our clients, shareholders and society.
To better equip ourselves to help solve increasingly complex challenges, we must deploy more sophisticated methods of gathering insight and developing strategies. We believe that if we’re to design a better future for anyone, we need to understand better the people for which we are designing. Our methodologies reveal the hidden detail of the choices people make by leveraging the principles and research of Behavioural Sciences. By better understanding actions on a micro level, our strategy can be better informed to design at the macro level.
We are on a mission to design a better future for everyone.
The founding concept of our visual identity is change. It has been designed to further that idea, hinting at how we operate, what we do and how we approach challenges.
The identity system has been designed in components that can be deployed in varying ways to help find synergy between disparate ideas and content. This approach allows a lot of flexibility and scope for change over time, which we expect and embrace.
Motion plays a significant part of the identity. It's a growing part of our visual output. Our aim with the 3D motion is to suggest changes in state and behaviour; when objects interact, influence, nudge each other and coalesce in a group. The objects are visual metaphors for scientific models of microscopic elements and sub-atomic particles, but also how people behave in a system, suggesting the idea of a new approach to observation and insight development. This furthers the concept of understanding how things can be changed on a large scale by introducing interventions on a small scale.
Our logotype was designed by Caterina Bianchini Studio. We commissioned the studio early in the process to bring additional perspective to our creative thinking. Perspective is invaluable in the creative process, especially in branding. It's why most companies hire a collection of minds - a studio, agency, consultancy - to build their brand instead of doing it themselves or hiring a single person. We also really love CBS's work and had talked about working on something together for a while. We had a concept and direction, which CBS interpreted, even finding a new perspective that became part of the overall visual direction.
We exclusively use Helvetica Neue as our typeface. It has the authority of a trusted classic with the right tone to align with our visual direction. The uniformity of the characters brings a feeling of balance to the surrounding components within the identity. We use it at varying scales and repeated as statements to form a pattern used in motion treatments.
We concentrated on executions we knew would stretch the identity concept, such as communication and experience executions like events, podcasts, digital OOH, interactive interfaces and social media.
The identity gives us the tools to communicate our content, which is a significant part of our output going forward.