The thoughts behind Copenhagen Changery

How Copenhagen Changery built a bridge to the future

In the process of developing our new brand identity, we engaged "Bernts" for strategic and creative process and subsequent design and development of a unified communication universe. This fine story has emerged in the latest newsletter from "Bernts".

I think it speaks for itself and share it herewith below.

Thank you for an inspiring collaboration Lars!

/ Thomas

_____________________

Welcome to a case story about a start-up that translated their thoughts, ideas and skills into a communicable concept.

The headline could also have been 'Changemakers who got a Changery..', because the logo ended up including both the coined word for the occasion, Changery, and a bridge that signals that Copenhagen Changery is an advisory company that builds a bridge between the present and future, products and customers, or status quo and growth.

Along the way, it was mentioned that a bridge to the future had to be built. Thus, Stormbroen, which is close to the office, became the inspiration and part of the story - both as a brandmark and part of the logotype.

The story starts in the early summer of 2024, when Thomas Vejlemand, Søren Henriksen and Amanda Simonsen decided to establish a new consulting and advisory company based on the three partners' strong competencies in strategy and growth, digitization and transformation, and not least ESG and sustainability, which is Amanda's exciting core competence, with over 30,000 followers on LinkedIn.

A very strong combination of skills, which led me to dub them changemakers early in the process and describe their approach to the market as a behavior characterized by a holistic urgency. Because that is exactly Copenhagen Changery's distinctive feature: the ability to navigate changes and be able to translate contemporary complexity into concrete execution in eternal opposition to the status quo, as it is formulated in the basic narrative.

The basic narrative was important to get in place early on as a supporting part of an overall communication strategy, which was completed before the summer holidays in July 2024. At the same time, the identity came into place - including name, logotype, colours, fonts and design, executed in both customer presentations and mocks -ups of fictitious campaigns to illustrate how the interaction between the various ingredients could work when they had to translate the thoughts and ideas contained in the communication strategy.

Example of Copenhagen Changery's logotype, branding and color combinations

The creative narrative initially revolved around a change dairy, based on the fact that consulting is a craft and that craftsmen were previously called makers, as in shoemaker, hatmaker or kingmaker. From that point there was not far to the idea of conceptualizing the story in a more modern name as Changery. Copenhagen took its starting point from the company's international outlook and, not least, the great brand value that Copenhagen and Denmark have built up in the past years. Copenhagen supports quality, innovation and the management style.

The logo design was inspired by the new Salomé font from Atipo Foundry in Gijón, Spain

In the design of a corporate identity, there are examples where the task of defining a coherent photo strategy can be ignored or down-prioritized. But precisely in this case, we were aware early on not to compromise with this visual expression. Thats why we started a collaboration with photographer Kristian Holm, who has taken all the portraits, shot the introductory video for the website and created a number of other brand-building environmental images. Furthermore, when we have chosen to use a few stock images, but only used images from Copenhagen as a supporting part of the corporate name.

The video that the website opens with..

Another idea that arose during the project was to conceive an offline event concept integrated into the site, where people could register and subsequently meet to exchange inspiration or new knowledge about change. A relationship-building forum with room for wonder, loose thoughts and perhaps a sharing of doubts about what new opportunities the future hold in terms of SWOT potential.

There is a lot to be told every time an event is to be established, so we conceptualized this, and based on wonder, we named the upcoming events 'Wonderwall' - a place where you can throw up ideas and expect to get something in return, with inspiration from this lyric:

" Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you,

and by now, you should've somehow realized what you gotta do.."

Example of the Wonderwall concept..

Although one of the most hated words in the business world in 2024, according to DJØF, is 'journey', I dare anyway to this a journey, because this project has really been an exciting professional excursion from thought to action, from idea to execution, which has been fantastic to be a part of.

At the same time, you have to get up early when you are in the room with the three skilled partners, who represent merits such as e.g. partner in IBM, management consultant in PwC and board member of Dansk Erhverv, CEO of Infomedia and co-founder of Nordic Fintech Angels - or founder of ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network and board member of Djøf, which is the case for Søren Henriksen, Thomas Vejlemand and Amanda Simonsen respectively .

Front page of the website

This is precisely where BERNTS perhaps differs from other players in the market, as we have also worked on the other side of the desk, started companies and run early projects from A to B. Perhaps this has contributed to the fact that this project has been such a big pleasure from the start to.... but we're not yet finished. We will continue the collaboration, so that BERNTS will continuously have appearances on Frederiksholms Kanal, which is currently is the main office.

Early campaign muck-ups to illustrate how the elements could play together

A huge thank for the opportunity and cooperation to both Thomas Vejlemand, Søren Henriksen and Amanda Simonsen, as well as to the creative BERNTS team, which on this task consisted of photographer Kristian Holm from Die Es Studio, web developer Steen Bøjstrup from Pixeldot and graphic designer Jakob Boni from Boni's.

If you are also in an early phase with an idea or concept, Bernts are happy to help you get it translated, packaged and executed. If you are interested in a reference from the above process, you are welcome to contact Thomas Vejlemand at thomas.vejlemand@cphchangery.dk or call Lars Bernt at +45 52 17 06 44 or write to lars@bernts.dk for more details.

Let's go Changers!!