The thinking before the making.
The visible part of our work usually comes last.
A logo. A website. A campaign. A product. An idea brought to life.
Before any of that, we think.
A lot.
Awove started as a branding agency, and brand strategy and identity design remain at the centre of what we do. But after more than 15 years of working with businesses, we’ve learned that the brief sitting on the table isn’t always the problem sitting underneath it.
So we don’t begin by asking what colour you like.
We begin with people.
We want to understand the founders, the business, the customers, the history, the frustrations, the ambitions, the market and all the slightly inconvenient things that don’t necessarily fit neatly into a creative brief.
Psychology has always played a significant role in that process.
Not psychology in the clinical sense. We’re not therapists.
We mean understanding why people behave the way they do. Why customers choose one thing over another. Why founders become attached to certain ideas. Why teams disagree. Why businesses say one thing while behaving like something completely different.
Brands are made for humans.
It seems fairly sensible to understand them.
Our discovery sessions therefore aren’t questionnaires dressed up as workshops.
They’re conversations.
We ask questions. Then questions about the answers.
We challenge assumptions.
We notice contradictions.
We follow interesting threads.
Sometimes we spend three hours confirming that the client already knew exactly what needed to happen.
Sometimes three hours changes the brief entirely.
Both are valuable.
Because strategy isn’t about producing a large document proving that strategy happened.
It’s about reaching clarity.
Once we understand the problem, the creative work becomes considerably more interesting.
The positioning has a reason.
The identity has something to express.
The website has something to communicate.
The campaign has something worth saying.
That is the thinking before the making.
And, quite often, it’s the most valuable part.