Seattle and Raleigh-Durham marketing, graphic and brand design studio Design Kompany

Every once in a while, we get new business cards.

Not for our own company, but with return addresses of past clients.

These cards just came through the post the other day:

We designed the logo and business card for the Seattle-based architecture and design consulting company C’ODA last year. We helped C’ODA arrive at its identity starting from brainstorming the new company name to designing the above business card.

Only once the vision and name—and in that order—got set could we start on other things. Like concept sketches, typefaces, layout ideas, and colors.

How do you find good ideas?

Often it’s a combination of a million things, like what we’re reading, who we happen to meet and what kinds of conversations evolve in the days and weeks around a deadline.

But there’s a lot more to it than that, of course. Going out into the world to see what people are making elsewhere, visiting museums, asking for book recommendations… all of this plays into getting a strong sense of what a company’s personality shapes into. See Design Kompany’s archive of field reports A trip to Tacoma inspired the design for C’ODA.

Also see DK’s posts on:
Author Haruki Murakami and the creative process
5 Myths about good branding