Responses by Johan Debit, cofounder and graphic designer, Brand Brothers.
Background: Heletic, formerly known as TSEE, is a Paris-based distributor of top-of-the-range electrical equipment like switches, heating and lighting. Its customers are mainly architects and interior designers for prestigious locations, such as hotels, apartments, offices and restaurants. As TSEE, it was a prosperous family-run business with an outdated, unkempt image that was creating a problematic gap in its development. The management team therefore contacted us to define a clarified brand positioning, find a new name and work on a complete graphic identity.
Design core: After validating the strategic positioning and naming phases, which led to Heletic’s name, we wanted to avoid certain pitfalls in the branding. The first was to avoid an ultra-minimalist, disembodied and interchangeable high-end identity, and the second was to avoid overly illustrative imagery. As usual at Brand Brothers, we wanted to work with typography to make the letters speak and create an evocative, timeless graphic system. The result is rich yet subtle, which enables us to convey a variety of messages, revolving around a way of doing business, a state of mind and a love of beauty.
Challenges: Gaining the trust of a small family business to transform everything from top to bottom. We know the fear of change and the immobility that make some people feel secure. But in the end, we came across a bunch of surprising, open-minded people who were particularly willing to discover just how far design could take them. This is usually the key ingredient of a successful branding project.
Favorite details: For those of us who practice typography and systemic identity on a daily basis, it is always extremely satisfying to succeed in reinventing ourselves—even if it sometimes gives the brain knots. In the case of Helectic, we were able to create an original set where the typogram–monogram–graphic system triptych tells the right story around the product, evoking the twisting of cables and electrical circuits in a simple and evolutionary way. The brand is endowed with visual assets that will last and offer a unique graphic language in this sector of activity.
New lessons: As is often the case with design work, Heletic landed us in a completely unknown universe with its own codes, techniques, jargon and culture. We had to quickly dive into the heart of the device. In the case of Helectic, one of the Parisian leaders in electrical equipment, proposing a successful radical design in an environment not very educated in these type of aesthetics required us to adapt our methods and our thinking system. However, this project once again confirmed to us that even in technical and technological fields sometimes distant from graphic design, beautiful projects can emerge.
Specific project demands: What made the project much easier than expected was the fluidity of the exchanges with the client, the quality of human contact and their ambition around design issues. The Helectic team gave us total trust. What was less easy to maneuver is inherent in small structures: sometimes disorganized and lacking a real internal position on communication issues, which can penalize the smooth running of the project. But we are also a very small company, so we know what that’s like!
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