Fundamentals is at the leading edge of electrical grid control, enabling energy to flow more safely, smoothly and more efficiently to make a net zero world possible. As the company was evolving from being a UK engineering hardware business to becoming a modern, international engineering and tech agency, they recognised the need for their brand identity to reflect this new reality.
Fundamentals wanted to ensure that its upcoming marketing investment – a new website and revitalised content marketing strategy – had maximum impact. They approached us because they were concerned that their existing branding would reduce the effectiveness of the marketing spend.
They were looking to reposition the business from its roots as a family-owned UK company to the international tech business it had become and wanted to use this to kickstart building brand awareness to drive more leads and sales, and deliver profitable growth. They also wanted to attract the right sort of talent to the business, take their place in the global market and communicate with potential future investors.
With the ideas and digital smarts of a tech-start up, Fundamentals had a history of working with archaic systems to deliver their solutions. We identified an opportunity to pair that valuable real-world engineering experience with a contemporary, agile agency brand identity.
We took a broad-based approach by reviewing stakeholder research, including customer interviews, that had already been conducted by Co-Foundry collaborator Sonja Nisson as well as carrying out a visual audit of Fundamentals’ existing branding and a review of personas and values. We also researched the market, casting our net beyond companies in the sector and gathering insights from alternative categories, particularly among brands with similar characteristics.
Our findings revealed an outdated brand identity in an undifferentiated category that was bland and grey, with cliché-ridden narrative and imagery – engineers in hard hats, power stations, solar panels and electricity pylons.
We were about to invest heavily in our marketing, a new website primarily. We needed to know that our brand identity was up to scratch and reflected where we saw ourselves – more contemporary, more innovative. Sue and her team did just that, improving our visual branding, messaging and tone of voice. The handover was solid too, and she ensured that our digital agency had a strong steer on how to apply this key touchpoint. We now feel really confident in our new positioning.
John Langley-Davis, Head of Technology
We evolved the existing Fundamentals brand logo (a triangle motif representing the three phase electricity symbol) by breaking it into three twisting shapes, communicating smooth and constant flow and reflecting the company’s commitment to delivering on the energy trilemma of achieving security, affordability and sustainability of supply.
The central theme of the full brand identity focuses on ‘breaking it down to the fundamentals’ – a concept that the stakeholder research revealed Fundamentals’ experts excelled at. This is communicated visually through the use of a minimal simplified schematic built from spheres and cubes overlaid on an isometric grid whose dotted lines reflect the pulsing electricity flow around and up to the grid.
Photography was put to use as a key element of telling the Fundamentals story. We wanted it to cover every aspect of the business, the macro – knowledge of national grids worldwide and the micro – the individuals striving to solve the biggest problems facing innovative electricity network owners and operators.
Aerial shots of cities and neighbourhoods, where roadways echo the grid, communicate how Fundamentals covers the bigger picture.
While the natural and unposed photography of people at work, prototyping and programming as well as in the field (and avoiding overuse of stereotypical ‘hard hat’ visuals) focuses on the individuals behind the brand.
The detailed brand guidelines we produced were specifically designed to help Fundamentals achieve consistent professional application of their brand identity. Before handing over to our digital partners, Unfold, we designed key brand touchpoints for the client – a sample home page and a content-rich product page. The user-friendly tone of voice guidance we delivered is packed with everyday examples to help Fundamentals’ people communicate their positioning as approachable experts with an optimistic, focused and dedicated outlook. Alongside this, the sales deck, large format exhibition displays and social media templates show the flexibility and coherence of the overall brand system, giving Fundamentals a highly differentiated space in their marketplace.
