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.
By now, sustainability has become an annoying buzzword, and even big brands have started to abuse it in their advertising. Nothing new—advertising and corporate communication will always pick up buzzwords for their claims – just remember eco back in 2005.
By now, sustainability has become an annoying buzzword, and even big brands have started to abuse it in their advertising. Nothing new—advertising and corporate communication will always pick up buzzwords for their claims—just remember ECO back in 2005.
This is the reason we need a new and even more clear direction that will be hard to fake into simple claims. Sustainability will always be:
about the impact on society,
the local economy,
and the environment.
I do believe sustainable brands will be the only way to go as soon as people truly understand the impact of non-local brands. The worst thing we are currently doing is transferring goods. This is a real problem. Avoiding local resources and production got us into this in the first place. Coming up with buzzwords like eco, recyclable, sustainable, etc. does not help; it just makes us feel better. Just remember how they all talk about how eco-friendly, biodegradable, recyclable—insert a word—plastic is okay. It took us 10 years to understand that NONE of the plastic is okay. NONE. In the past 50 years, the industry has moved from earth-friendly resources to environmental-impact ones just because plastics are user-friendly.
Sustainable brands are becoming increasingly popular in today’s market. Sustainable brands are those that are committed to creating products and services that are both environmentally and socially responsible. Sustainable brands are focused on using resources responsibly, reducing waste and pollution, and creating long-term solutions to environmental issues. Sustainable brands are a healthy choice for consumers because they are designed with the environment in mind. Sustainable brands are dedicated to creating products that are made from renewable and recyclable materials, as well as minimizing their carbon footprint. By purchasing from sustainable brands, consumers can feel good knowing that their purchase is helping to reduce their impact on the environment. Sustainable brands are also committed to creating products that promote healthy lifestyles. Many sustainable brands are focused on creating natural, organic products that are free from harmful chemicals and preservatives. By choosing to purchase from sustainable brands, consumers can rest assured that their purchases are not only helping the environment but also promoting a healthier lifestyle. Finally, sustainable brands are focused on creating long-term solutions to environmental issues. Sustainable brands understand that their products and services must be designed with the future in mind, and they strive to create solutions that are beneficial to both the environment and society. By investing in sustainable brands, consumers can help create user-friendly brands.
Yes, user-friendly. We are the plastic-wrapped generation that constantly believes we have no time. So we need to use a user-friendly solution to help us save time. True, it is good in some areas, but in others, it has a horrible effect on our environment. Just because it is easier to use does not mean we should!
Well, to hell with us users! Let’s try something we used to do that was earth-friendly. Brands, therefore, will become sustainable, but with a new definition: a sustainable brand is a healthy brand. Healthy towards users, healthy towards the environment, and healthy towards production. And, just as your health needs allow, so does eco-friendly living.
So, let’s build healthy brands.
PS: If you did not understand, I suggest you watch Walle with your kids again.
What Healthy Brand Design Actually Demands
Our approach to brand identityDon’t miss the next essay. Signup for our newsletter
⸻ Newsletter signup
What is the one positive impact the brand wants to have
Brand positive impact is the question we ask before anything else — before colour, before form, before the first mark on paper. Not what the brand sells, but what shift it causes in the people who encounter it. That single answer, when we find it, becomes the gravitational centre everything else orbits.
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.
It is not ok to fail
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.
What is a good design
Good design principles are easier to list than to apply — and most lists get it wrong. We've spent twenty years testing what actually holds under pressure: across 81 logos, 128 projects, and judging rooms where good design either survives scrutiny or quietly doesn't. What makes design work isn't a checklist. It's a set of decisions that age well, communicate without effort, and resist the urge to explain themselves.
The Currency of Respect
Respect as currency is not a metaphor we use lightly — it is the actual unit of exchange in every client relationship we have built since 2004. We have watched projects collapse not over budget or concept, but over the slow withdrawal of basic professional respect. When respect as currency depreciates, no invoice or award recovers the loss.
Ljubljana to do
Ljubljana to-do lists are usually the same – the castle, the market, Plečnik. We have been designing in this city since 2004 and we see it differently: through the facades, the typography on the windows, the details that the tourist guide doesn't mention. This guide is Ljubljana to-do for those who observe.
Process
Design process methodology, as we practice it, is not a straight line from brief to delivery. It loops — deliberately, productively, sometimes uncomfortably. That looping is where the real work happens, and understanding our design process methodology is the clearest way to know whether we're the right studio for what you're building.
Black and white
Black and white design is where we start every project — not as a stylistic preference, but as a structural test. If a mark, layout, or identity doesn't hold in two tones, it won't survive color, scale, or time. Black and white design is the first filter, and for us, it's often the only one that matters.