by Toma Habashi…And we did it collaboratively and embodied all we stand for as a team and as a company.
It’s fair to say we’ve been guilty of neglecting ourselves, our own brand and identity. Visually at least, in how we present that to the rest of the world. In the last 14 years since Silvertoad was founded, we’ve never really allowed ourselves any time to properly take ownership of our own brand and give it the attention its always needed.
We used excuses every step of the way and justified the neglect with tired old adages. Our work will tell the story! We are what we do! We are Silvertoad! Ah Cobblers’ shoes! Our reputation is our brand! Our passion for what we do is all we need! The list and excuses are endless and likely very familiar to many.
But we survived and we’re still here to tell the tale. But we also left a lot to interpretation and that’s never a good thing, since our vision and what we thought and what others saw, or assumed, was rarely the same. That’s the essence of branding, identity and presenting the world with your company personality, right? That your story is told, in the right way and with the right message.
Never mind. Let’s not lament. Let’s celebrate, because one very important thing has helped us connect where our branding and visual identity perhaps failed to over the years. People buy from people, not from companies. A sentiment so entrenched in Silvertoad’s history and identity, that you’ll hear it echoing up and down the corridors and meeting rooms of our offices even in the small hours of the night. Like everything in this world, it’s all about people. And we’ve been blessed with good people, all along the way, who have helped us build the Silvertoad story and who we are today.
And now, finally, we pulled it together. We managed to take a step back, take a deep breath and open up the box and see what we’ve created, where we are at, what we’re doing, how we do it and why. And it’s been a hugely eye-opening and soul-fulfilling process.
Taking time out to look back over our years in existence, how we’ve grown and developed and then tell our story, and colour in the pictures to visualise it all, has been amazing. It was that fulfilling, that we almost didn’t care about what we ended up with visually in the end. Because we could see very early on that what was unfolding, in whatever form, shape and colour it took, didn’t matter, as it was who we are. The people who make up the Silvertoad family, the team, who stand proud on the building blocks of the past and look ahead to the future, laying more foundations as we go.
It evolved so fluidly, collaboratively and easily. And what you now see, is what very naturally formed and became our new brand, our identity and a summary of our story, so far.
We’ve been creating, branding, promoting, enhancing, shaping and forming products services, companies, people and more on a marketing level for a long time. Yet we learnt much from this process.
And its why our message is, worry less about the font, the colour, the style, the form and what you might look like and let your story and you, the person, the people, the humans that make up your company, shine through and be the brand.
See you soon, we’re all here and we look forward to building our own story, helping you tell yours.