A True Story from the Perspective of One of Its Protagonists.
In 2012, two biologists decided to create a marketing agency focused on the sector they knew best: science and innovation. What is now understood as somewhat unusual was very improbable at the time. Why would the branding, website, or communication of a cancer research group be important? It was and still is a common question. Yes, it is important, but I’ll explain it further.
Back then, I was finishing my design studies and starting my first job as an in-house designer for a technology consulting firm. My project: Training for the healthcare sector. Despite my lifelong dream of working in illustration, the textile sector, and corporate identity, my project primarily focused on designing and structuring web courses for active professionals; HTML, CSS, PHP, and other languages that I had disliked during my studies…
Two projects began parallel journeys without knowing the existence of the other: Ingenyus* and AdrianRF (my professional life). Two paths that intersected and got to know each other in March 2018 when I was working as a freelancer and responded to a job offer from an agency in A Coruña that I had never heard of but quickly captured my attention. From here, the numbers begin. In a month-long process, I had two successful interviews with three people, during which we agreed on a two-month collaboration that turned into a relationship that has lasted until today, now four years.
When I joined the company, ingenyus* was undergoing changes with a natural change in the director’s role. Pedro, the co-founder of the agency and director at the time, left everything in the hands of Dani, the new CEO of the agency after being part of the management team in recent years. Changes were coming, and the brand knew it. By that time, the logo had already changed from its initial version. The brand now featured a typographic logo with right angles, characters at different heights, a variety of colors, and a typography designed for the logo. Yellow predominated in the graphics, illustrations, and a close, friendly, and passionate communication style. The branding perfectly represented the agency’s DNA with Pedro as the main figurehead and the rest of the team. However, 2018 was a year of changes, new additions, and new management. So, the idea of a rebrand and a new website came up. But this process took longer as we realized it wasn’t just about changing the logo; it was about adapting what was already there. As mentioned before, Dani (the new CEO) had been with the agency and collaborating with Pedro for several years, so while there were differences, the DNA had some common elements.
In late 2018 and early 2019, we introduced the new website, a redesigned logo, the duality of consultancy/marketing, and the octopus, our asterisk octopus that visually represented our duality as an agency – “whether it fries a thread or sews an egg,” in other words, it helps with strategic innovation projects while managing the communication and branding of your company. The new brand introduced new colors, gradients, illustrations with our octopus doing all sorts of things, and our eight tentacles capable of tackling almost any challenge. However, the branding and the agency’s DNA were not in sync. We made many decisions, some in a hurry, and others without giving enough time to settle the atmosphere and integrate the new team. So, we weren’t comfortable with what we had and how we were perceived.
With the brand in place but not fully convincing us, we continued with our daily work, focusing on one of the mainstays of our DNA since 2012: the client. We set aside our branding as a project that was completed and resolved.
Spoiler Alert: Changes Are Coming.
In December 2019, another change occurred as Dani left the project and David entered the scene as the new CEO of the agency with a strong desire to observe and analyze before making any decisions. With the help of the partners, they decided to form a new management team, emphasizing the duality of work – Manu for consultancy and me for marketing and design. The idea was to establish this model and define our agency with values set by the team that makes it up. This idea is still present today and has shaped the new image. However, to get here, the journey has been long, as long as a two-year process. But there are excuses, and very good ones. In addition to the well-known ones like global pandemics, natural disasters, material crises, volcanoes, and monkeypox, there have been other more specific challenges. Some of these were related to adapting to new working models, constant changes and transformations in our clients’ markets, the ever-increasing demand for innovation (fortunately), changes of offices, and the one I consider most important for today’s discussion – getting to know ourselves as an agency and as a team. To understand ourselves, we needed time, and this time has helped us realize that we are not “ordinary.” We don’t want to be either. Hence our new slogan or, as I prefer to define it, attribute: an unusual agency.
Things have changed, and we’ve come to realize that the clear duality of other times no longer exists. Both the team and our way of working are mixed. We don’t understand the brand without innovation consulting, marketing, or knowledge of a project’s social impact. Similarly, we don’t understand technology transfer, talent acquisition, or innovative project development without paying attention to the market, branding, or our clients’ values and their customers.
Today, we still don’t have many things clear about ourselves, but does anyone really have it all figured out? We are no longer just consultancy and marketing. We are science and innovation. We are a marketing agency, but we are also a branding studio, a programming and development company. We are more than just being; we do many things, and we keep getting better because, as I mentioned earlier, we change and use every opportunity to learn and evolve. We continue to learn as a team and individually. Every day, we learn a bit about something and a lot from our clients. Fortunately, we are a great team made up of unusual people, or as I like to say, “enthusiasts of our own thing.”
*1 It may seem unrelated, but over the years, I have crossed paths with professionals, colleagues, clients, and projects from that time.
*2 Today: Department of Science and Innovation.
*3 I could list everything we do, but it’s easier to say what we don’t do: Nothing that you don’t need.
