The backstory, of course, is that we know Coptix. We’ve worked with them; they have built web sites for brands that we’ve built, like Rock/Creek and DeMoss Capital; we’ve offered creative collaboration on projects ranging from Crabtree Farms events to Volunteer State Health Plan's identity to EPB’s upcoming websites. And having worked as partners before, we were glad to work as partners again.

But frankly, it’s not often that we are asked to brand another branding firm. And some said that this isn’t smart business, since they compete with us for some jobs. But we jumped at the opportunity to create for creatives. As a result, we were able to propose a very conceptual platform, one that could push the limits of what exactly a brand is, and can be, and how it can serve good growth in our clients. 

Part of this is because of the “open source” approach that we have to our brand development process. We have long shared it with others — and firms around town have begun to implement a modified version of our approach discovery and brand development (it's even been taught in design classes at UTC). We love this. We believe that transparency, and sharing good methods, and client-focused design are all good things. Which means that they are good to share, because the more people who are making these best practices the only practice, the better. And at the end of the day, any firm that tries to put “process” first is forgetting its first duty — to serve the clients’ objectives. 

So we pitched in on the massive Medium undertaking, to help them get creative, establish and articulate their core values, brand promise, and the expectations they hope to create in an audience. First to themselves, to enable their leadership to articulate it later to potential audiences and the public. 

We articulated the Core Philosophy this way in the Medium Style Guide – a hand book for the company:

And now, it's alive! They’ve implemented the identity beautifully, taking creative concepts and applying them creatively. 

We led the team through a naming process where we opened it up to the whole company for suggestions, then brought it in close to the company owners for final choices, selection and positioning. 

The name grew into the design direction. Since Medium was built to work across integrated platforms — such as web and print, communications and client relations, we decided to emphasize the unique nature of each platform, as well as its potential for integration. 

In a strong brand, every piece is integrated. So what makes a website uniquely a website, in terms of a communications medium? We helped establish rules for this.

What emphasizes the envelope-ness of an envelope, as a communications medium?

Or the archetypal business card?

Just how much of a coffee mug can a coffee mug become? 

An invoice? 

Even our brand identity presentation became an exploration of presentation-ness: using an overhead projector and hand-drawn transparencies to present concepts, and a staged instant-message conversation to present the final identity suite.

Or – the piece de resistance – a logo? Rather than one logo, we gave MEDIUM over 120 logos to be used interchangeably. Each lends itself to certain media – by its look and feel – while being united by use of the word “medium”, standing alone, and by a simple application of black-and-white-only parameters. 

Link through to their website, thisismedium.com, to see the launch implementation of the identity. Congratulations to MEDIUM!