DESIGN AS A BALANCING ACT

When creating the brand identity for a law firm like Cederquist, finding the right balance is extremely important. Where do we find the perfect intersection between professionalism and personality? How to communicate wisdom and trustworthiness-while keeping the design at the forefront of the business? This challenge became the solution.

WHEN YOU’RE BIG YOU HAVE TO BE KIND

Cederquist is one of the biggest law firms in Sweden, with over 120 lawyers providing their clients with specialist expertise within most areas of business law. As a company, Cederquist has already earned a well established reputation offering a welcoming and solid workplace with a clear set of core values. Therefore, our task was to focus more on quality and innovation, while keeping Cederquist’s design one step ahead of their competitors.

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CHALLENGE – DEFINING THE UNIQUENESS

Cederquist is one of the top corporate law firms in Sweden. They compete in a cut throat business where almost all firms have the same services. The challenge is to define Cederquist’s uniqueness with a design language that stands out while at the same time being relevant.

Approach – BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION

During workshops with Cederquist’s management we decided to completely overhaul the branding. To build a strong foundation, on which both design and communication could stand, we took a deep look at what makes Cederquist unique – as a law firm and as a workplace – and came to a realization: working at a high-performance law firm like this is all about maintaining balance. In contact with customers, it’s the balance between professionalism and personality that needs to be observed accurately. So is the need to balance the richness of detail with clarity.

The pursuit of balance in this line of work can not be reactive, and can not be achieved by adjusting or compensating. Balance must exist from the very beginning.


Equilibrium

Through the concept of equilibrium, we aim to achieve complete balance by letting opposites resonate together. To every yin there’s a yang. In the typefaces, a classic serif meets a modern sans serif, in photos, color meets black and white, in headlines, cool professionalism meets warm personality.

By portraying this balance as the meeting of opposites, we elevated the design to become more stylistic and clean, while maintaining smartness and warmth. This was also a perfect way to communicate Cederquist’s core values – quality, passion, responsive – in a new and exciting way.


ESTABLISHING A BRAND PLATFORM

In order to get a cohesive graphic profile, we have to make sure the concept of equilibrium is reflected throughout the entire identity – including everything from advertisements and the website, all the way to the office. Graphically, this means that we constantly seek equilibrium: bringing opposites together to reach complete balance – using contrasting fonts and photos, for example. The richness of color and dynamism of the visual expression results in a unique identity, perfect as it is in print, but of course, it becomes extra vital in motion or digital media.

Opposites attract

Our color palette consists of contrasting colors used together to visualize the concept of equilibrium. To further portray the concept, we use gradients of two different colors moving towards each other, allowing us to find the perfect balance in more ways than just black and white.


A solid position as top three

The Cederquist law firm had a rather undefined position as one of many firms within the business legal segment in Stockholm. A change was required so they came to us with a clear goal – to strengthen Cederquist’s market presence and position them as one of the top 3 firms within business law. We needed to strengthen their brand awareness and help them set a tone of voice and expression that both felt genuine and stood out while creating clear competitive advantages. Our task was to help the firm identify, visualize and communicate its revised offer internally and externally. Cederquist achieved their high set goal in 2019 and have since maintained their position as one of the top 3 players on the business law market in Stockholm. They have simultaneously taken an impressive position as a value-driven law firm where the target audience choose Cederquist over it’s competitors based on profiles working methods offer and communication.

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