We always see ourselves a little better before we look in the mirror.
Brand self-perception distorts before the brief even lands on our desk. We’ve watched it happen across 81 logo projects — a company convinced their identity reads confident, while their audience registers something closer to anxious. The mirror test isn’t vanity; it’s the first honest step in any serious brand identity work.
Fun fact that goes with singing in the shower and playing some air guitar. But lets transform that phrase into branding. When was the last time you looked with your brand in the mirror?
Think about it—just as you might belt out a song in the shower, imagining you’re on stage, your brand needs that same level of self-reflection. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind of running a business, but how often do you take a step back and truly assess how your brand is perceived? Is it in tune with who you are now, or is it stuck in an old version of itself? Are you on stage with your ideas or just under the shower?
Looking in the mirror isn’t just about surface appearance; it’s about aligning your brand with your values, your goals, and the audience you’re trying to reach. Does your brand still reflect the passion that started it all? Does it tell the story you want it to? Or is it time for a refresh?
Just like that air guitar moment where you feel invincible, your brand should evoke confidence and energy every time someone interacts with it. So next time you’re having one of those spontaneous moments of fun and creativity, remember to ask yourself: when was the last time I really looked at my brand in the mirror?
Be honest and take a closer look.
What the Brand Self-Perception Mirror Actually Reveals About Identity Blind Spots
How we approach logo design from brief to final markDon’t miss the next essay. Signup for our newsletter
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It is not ok to fail — and we've never treated it as an option. Most studios build failure tolerance into their process. We built accountability into ours instead. Twenty years in Ljubljana, 80+ awards, and a working assumption that getting it wrong is not a learning opportunity — it's a broken promise.
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The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence design is not a soft skill — it's the hardest discipline in visual communication. We've spent two decades building identities that don't just look right, they feel true. That gap between looking and feeling is where emotional intelligence design does its real work.
What are you buying with a designer?
What you buy with a designer is rarely what appears on the invoice. The file is the last thing — what precedes it is accumulated judgment, pattern recognition sharpened across decades, and the discipline to reject work that almost works. We've built 81 logos and won over 80 awards not by delivering what clients asked for, but by understanding what they actually needed.
Hell Yes
Hell yes creative approach is how we decide what to make — and what to walk away from. If a project doesn't produce that immediate, visceral pull, we don't take it. That filter, applied consistently since 2004, is the reason our work holds together as a body rather than a portfolio of compromises.
A healthy brand
Healthy brand design starts with honesty — not aspiration dressed up as values. We've watched too many briefs arrive wrapped in sustainability language that dissolves the moment you press on the strategy underneath it. A healthy brand isn't greener or louder; it's structurally coherent, and that coherence is what we've been designing for since 2004.
Art is Provocation: Raising Questions, without Giving Answers
Art is provocation — and that alone makes it fundamentally different from design. Where design resolves, art destabilises. We've spent two decades navigating that tension, and art is provocation precisely because it refuses the comfort of conclusions.