19/01/17

This Is Fever: A Rebrand

Our company name was originally thought up by a bunch of guys in 2012, stuck in a small room very late at night listening to The Bee Gees. Down to the wire and with only a few minutes remaining to officially name the company, ‘Fever’ was eventually decided.

In light of creating and launching a new website, we wanted to refresh the Fever brand as a message to both our existing and prospective clients; we’re growing, we’re hungry and we’re here to stay.

Initially, we experimented with playing with the word ‘fever’ regarding its affiliations to do with sickness and feeling feverish. However, it often resulted in the word ‘remedy’ being the punchline so to speak, out-staging Fever as a brand name and making it sound more negative than we wanted. After all, why would anyone want to work with a company that could make you sick? We didn’t want that message and knew we couldn’t really go down this route.

Having said all that, we did like the concept of high temperature. Not necessarily to do with feeling sick, more so toward something being hot in a ‘Bee Gees kinda way’ – leaning toward the positive interpretation of the word, with a sense of excitement, groove and flare. We wanted Fever to be less a word-mark and more of a symbol to carry this concept forward. So, after careful consideration, a flame was decided as the best solution to represent this.

Rather than simply drawing out a flame, we wanted to base it on geometry, using a series of interconnecting circles, placed strategically to build the image of a flame. This didn’t happen quickly and took around 20 – 30 attempts to achieve the desired look. The reason for doing it this way is the same reason we create all our client’s brand identities – to give it exclusivity. With access to so many pre-designed logos online, not to mention fonts, it’s more important than ever to have a logo bespoke created, tailored to your identity, which clearly and simply conveys the voice of your business and sells the idea of your brand.

With the flame in place, we carried the letter ‘F’ over from the old logotype, with some minor tweaks – re-establishing itself and maintaining some lineage from the old brand to the new.

From here we looked at updating our brand style to complement the new logo. We wanted to go for something that was eclectic with a nod to current trends, particularly with a sense of nostalgia. We introduced a chevron weave to frame and divide layouts and our colour palette was invigorated with a cyan and warm black.

Typography is also a big deal for us; it can make-or-break your brand and, so often, we see companies get it really wrong. We wanted something with a bit more character, so we opted for a slab-serif-based typeface as our primary choice. The old branding used a script-based font called ‘Pacifico’, but it has since established itself as the font of choice for practically everything, from takeaway menus to taxi signs; almost making it the new Brush Script *sigh*

For our services, we wanted to give each of them more of an identity. After all, they have a lot to say so we felt they needed to be more than just a single icon this time round. We liked the idea of creating a tattoo-style image to complement the new logo and the brand style.

This saw us bringing skulls to life with a collection of pre-made and bespoke icons, each representing the service idea, whether it be directly or indirectly. Why skulls you ask? Well, we were partly influenced by the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival, and we wanted to go for something fresh and edgy, without being too left-field. However, there’s also a hidden reference to our co-owner, but we’ll let you work that out!

Not only are we evolving the visual aspect of our brand, but we are also undergoing some refinements internally to further enhance customer experience and improve how we approach and manage our projects. Details are important, from how we answer the phone to the quality of the coffee we serve in meetings – it’s all relative, adding value to the brand experience. Long-term, all of these details will be collected in a brand bible for internal use and to influence others.

It’s exciting times here at Fever. We’ve never been busier and the more engaged we become, the greater we evolve as a company. We very much welcome you to be part of that journey.

So there we have it. A brief insight into our refreshed brand. Here comes the sales bit — if you’re struggling to get the tone of your brand right, or you’re a new company looking to establish a new brand, we would like to hear from you. Drop us a line or give us a call.