Something Serious: Brand Guidelines

“Inside every cynical person is a disappointed idealist.”

– G. Carlin

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some backgound

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history is history

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future is us

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serious customers

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market analysis

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competitors

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brand development

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visual analysis

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logo process

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chosen logo

brand guidelines

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the brand, seriously

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mark system

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some typefaces

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colors

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tone of voice

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photo style

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merch

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extensions

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ads

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Some ound

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Back Some Background

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History is history

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Bringing together individual experiences to support company passion and vision. A company is built by its people, and individuality is built on history. Something Serious uses that experience to lead clients into the future.

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Timeline Something about a company being built on its people, we take individuality seriously. Each person has a unique history and when two people meet, it’s usually for a reason.

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Future is us

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Always on the rise, improving storytelling and brand identities for start-ups and established companies alike. Leading the creative work behind the branding, marketing strategy, and brand development.

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Just a soul We look towards the past for inspiration.

We desire something nonconforming.

We demand serious attention.

We are Something Serious.

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A serious mission We are changing the status quo of creative collectives.

Something Serious is breaking the traditional boundaries of a job title. We are an off-beat creative collective, an inspiring resource, and an art-house—here to create compelling stories and market-shifting solutions for you and your dope clients.

And to meet new friends to shoot the shit with.

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22 Because we’re a creative agency, not an accounting firm. We love to express the goals of our clients in a visual way.

Crreatiive Creative

True to our passion and true to our character, we’re nonchalantly creative. Taking in a client’s wants and adding our serious touch to it.

Auth tiic Authentic

Keywords

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Creating engaging in experiences for our client’s customers. We want to elevate the brand experience for everyone.

Inspirra ioon Inspirational

Having a burning desire to create lasting impressions. Changing the future of the advertising world one design at a time.

Vissioona Visionary

Some more keywords

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Serious customers

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Potential clients There is something about working with young companies that invokes an instinctive ambition for creative freedom.

A casual fashion shoe company from Stockholm.

A design-centric bike manufacturing company.

Esports team wear, jerseys, and shops.

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Subscription service to reduce carbon footprint.

Stylish eyewear that focuses on expression and vibes.

Unique eyewear in both form and construction.

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Collecting the collective Our linear structure gives a voice to everyone in the company.

We want to know each person’s design journey and what brought them to Something Serious. Focusing on the individuality of a potential coworker and what they can bring to the table, we look for their ability to strengthen our weaknesses and laugh at our dumb ideas.

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Market analysis

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Not to be cocky about it, but standing out is what we do.

Seriously humble yet confident in our abilities to provide for our clients. Staying true to ourselves, we wouldn’t introduce our clients to something ordinary.

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Something like a situational analysis Focusing on start-ups and providing a solid creative foundation for them to work off of, Something Serious is a creative collective that subtly sets trends. We help brands create their identity and follow through with their mission, which builds a soul for their customers to fall in love with.

Something Serious also refines brand strategy, increases brand equity, and develops refreshing marketing solutions for existing brands. Deconstructing a brand down to its core starts with throwing everything out of the window, like tossing out your ex’s stuff, we’re professionals at refinement.

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Competitors

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Current

Advertising agency that aims to help organizations change the behaviors of their leaders and employees to focus on operational excellence.

In advertising, they focus on activated brand purpose and cultural ideas.

A larger global creative collective that focuses on technology, data, and media. They are focused on a different ff scale of creative work that may not be aligned with client values.

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A music house converted into a creative agency.

They explore the intersection between pop culture and business. They develop personal and commercial brands through branding, public relations, and content.

A new creative studio with a traditional company structure. Led by two art directors, they focus on spreading out client ideas through branding and marketing.

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Adjacent

I M A G I N E T H AT A creative services firm that provides strategies for clients to make an impact on marketing their brand. In addition to development and project management, Imagine That also creates product packaging to video and web campaigns.

Being in advertising and never seen Mad Men is like being in fashion and never seeing The Devil Wears Prada. Let me guess, you prefer Tik Tok? Great, because that’s what we’re after. Any design studio that can touch an audience that spans different generations is our competition.

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Aspirational

Not considered an “Ad Agency�, they have consistently crossed the line between marketing services and business development. They are also different in a way that they create their own intellectual property and license it to clients for a share in revenues.

Their approach is focused on the soul and science of telling their client stories. Not just an advertising agency, they’re said to be a multimedia content factory that can produce for both technology and culture.

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Larger agencies or other creative collectives that copy rather than create.

Consulting and reaching out feels more personable and less corporate.

Size of the agency, if you think size matters.

Personalized attention and personalized work, like an extension of your own creative arm.

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Brand pment

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Devel Brand Development

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Visual analysis

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Started out with a few sketches, added a few more, and explored those some more… about 1000 sketches later, roughly 999 of them were thrown out. After finding “the one” and trying out a bunch of things that worked and didn’t work, we finally found what was liked and what wasn't. Essentially, we were learning how to communicate in our relationships.

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Logo process

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something serious

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so se

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something serious

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something serious

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something serious

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something serious

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something seriou s

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omething erious so se something serious

something serious sose

something serious

something serious

something something serious

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Chosen logo

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Word mark

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Logo mark Creating a design that represents us as a team had to come from our collective past. We wanted to explore our beliefs on contrasting ideas about authority and artistic vision. We wanted "something" to be a bit serious, but "serious" to have something playful.

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Similar logos

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Marketplace logos

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Brand lines

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Guid Brand Guidelines

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The brand, seriously

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Seriously new Something Serious is about creating a collect-ency* for the new kids on the block, we want to be your plug for all things creative.

As we collaborate, you can focus on creating something new for your business while we put the serious word out on the streets.

*Collect-ency [col-lect-en-cy] • Swe-nglish (n.) Just the right amount of collective and some bits of agency, not too much of either, something about balance.

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Mark system

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Logo

In-line

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Stacked

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Clear Space

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Do's We take our logos seriously and you will too.

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Don't evens Something along the lines of no—like seriously, no.

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Some typefaces

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Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö 91

Typefaces Adobe Jenson Pro Caption Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

Adobe Jenson Pro Semibold Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

Adobe Jenson Pro Bold Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

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Adobe Jenson Pro Italic Caption Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

Adobe Jenson Pro Semibold Italic Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

Adobe Jenson Pro Bold Italic Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

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Color palette

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#f9c70b

kanange purple

suspisious yellow

Primary c2 m21 y99 k0 r249 g199 b11 pantone 7548 XGC

kaiser green

#037962 c88 m30 y69 k15 r3 g121 b98 pantone 3295 XGC

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#7260aa c64 m71 y0 k0 r114 g96 b170 pantone 2096 XGC

#000000

c87 m72 y0 k0

c10 m20 y40 k100

nero

#003cfc

r0 g60 b252

r0 g0 b0

#e3c081

surfing beige

cyberspace blue

Secondary

c11 m23 y56 k0 r227 g192 b129

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Tone of voice

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A perfect pitch Setting the tone in what we do and how we do it is just as important to us as it is to our daring clients. If you’re risking it all to create your business, you can bet your ass we’re jumping in with you. We ride together, we die together, bad boys… we design together, creators for life.

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Photo style

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Merch

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Extentions

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Our dope brand extensions Gallery An open space to showcase our work to collaborators and potential clients, and give a behind the scenes look into our design process.

Podcasts Something Serious is interested in making an impact in and out of the industry. We want to visually and audibly express our creative ideas.

Networking events / Sponsored parties Who doesn’t enjoy a nice party? People who hate socializing. Lucky for them, we do the networking, everyone else can just party.

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Student competition Creating opportunities for our successors and passing on our knowledge. After all, the reality of our industry is one giant competition.

Internship Providing a platform for artists to explore their creativity inspires new prospectives. It builds their confidence and improves our leadership.

Brand Collaborations Collaborations are beautiful. From designers to brands, we believe something seriously amazing can come from cool collabs.

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Our dope brand extensions pt.2 Magazine A monthly write up for the creative industry that also promotes the brands we represent.

An additional growth strategy for our clientele.

Workshop Giving back is seriously satisfying. Hosting workshops to teach business owners how to make an impact in their industry is how we do it.

Retail Store We create dope shit for our clients. Our clients create dope shit for their clients. Here, we sell their dope shit alongside our dope shit.

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Open House Touring facilities have been a fun way to bring in new talent or inspire people. Opening up small tour groups hopefully does just that.

Ad Screenings Movie screenings are cool and all, but we’re also in the advertising business. Think of it as user testing for our ads.

Museum Our history is different. Our designs are different. Our ads are different. Here, you can experience it all, from beginning to present.

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A few extra extensions Retail/merchandise Art shows Gallery Networking

Artwork

Party/Social Events Collaborations

Reoccuring events

Stickers

Student competitions Internships SoSe skits Business cards

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Magazine Podcasts Social Media Phone case Water bottles Stenciles Sunglasses

Posters Billboards Conferences Tedtalks

Openhouse creative days Portfolio reviews Community gardening

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Ads 118

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Website The only serious way to see our work, contact us, and find out more about us. However, if you thought our website was dope, wait until you see our office.

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www.somethingserious.se

work

contact

about

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Copyright 2019 Adam Kaiser, Brandon Lin, LinnĂŠa Liljedahl All content for Something Serious: Brand Guidelines was conceived, designed, and produced by Adam Kaiser, LinnĂŠa Liljedahl. Writing and edited supplemented by Brandon Lin. Photography provided by Kasandra Coronado.

Design Consultation Roger Muller ADV 370 Brand and Branding, Academy of Art University Some of the photographs and images were downloaded from pexel.com, unsplashed.com, and are used in accordance with the Creative Commons License the book is a non-commercial work produced as a student project for educational purposes, and as such is considered a derivative work under the Fair Use Clause of the US Copyright Law. Manufactured in the USA.

that’s a wrap.