DK makes an upstart architect firm’s modern portfolio website

Group3 Architects LLC came to Design Kompany because they liked the “fish with bubbles” in our web portfolio. It was flattering, and cool, and one of the earliest indications that the Internet can and will introduce you to the exact people you would love to work with. Powerful. The best part of this was coming up with a brand identity by visiting the home office of Anna Mihkels, whose Swedish tastes resonated beautifully with our own Japanese-influenced minimalist aesthetic. Architects and DK get along because we value thoughtfulness, and an exploration of ideas to see what makes the exact sense for a design. At the time of this writing (December 2011), Group3 is operating out of an office in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, just steps from where we first met, at Victrola’s for their lattes and huge wooden tables.

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Design Kompany created a new brand identity, business card, announcement mailer and website for Seattle architecture firm Group3 in fall 2007.

A new brand identity and web site for a Seattle architect

We have just launched architecture firm Group3’s new web site. We have developed a complete identity scheme starting with the logo and tying it in with the business cards, complementary card, stationery, and a mailer.

We always start with a set of key phrases that describes the brand/firm and a mood board when we develop an identity. What did we find out in this case?

The firm’s core values are: be fun, but real. Architects Anna Mihkels and Chris Wright’s work reflects deep thinking and understanding of what makes living enjoyable, and the firm’s new brand needs to reflect that. “Space making” is a big theme for these architects.

Some of our early sketches show us trying to come up with a mood for the kind of spaces the architects might create. That’s usually how our early drawings are—mood pieces.

We then match it up with the brand’s more left-brain concepts: the number “three”, the “fun and real”, in this case.

From there, we pare it down to the essence of the brand: “simple gestures” as Anna and Chris put it. Of course, there are many steps I am skipping over here, like choosing the right typefaces and colors, dimensions, paper stock, etc., but the resulted pieces themselves might tell the whole story better than I could do justice here.