Why did we change our identity?

We have known for a long time that change is coming. 

It was clear from the reaction of customers to the first Poustra.

From confusing communication on social networks.

And also from thank you cards.

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The old brand The Žurnál was simply too one-way. It only included our diaries and their accessories. Poustre, Fusakle and other upcoming projects simply did not fit into it.

And the name s.r.o. The Projekt was never adopted even within its own ranks. And the only place it showed up was our invoices and email signatures.

Already when planning the goals for 2020, we decided that we would introduce a new brand that would "cover" it all.

But how to do it?

Step 1: Setting expectations

First, we looked at how other brands handled it. We found best practices and determined the direction we want to go.

We agreed that the change must be complete and irreversible. That we dig through everything from the name, domain, to values ​​and visual identity.

Next, we did some research. And we found out the expectations that other Journalists have from us and also the associations with which we connect to them.

And we also said that we don't want to throw away everything we've built on so far. That the change will be irreversible, but it must smoothly build on the 4 years of work so far.

Step 2: Creating a new brand

I remember the memorable workshop in Brno, which turned out to be a big fiasco. During it, we focused too much on the name. We generated a lot of ideas. But none took it.

I also remember how it kept me awake. How I got into a creative moment one evening and how I lied to myself at five in the morning that the first skeleton of the new brand was ready.

How we called him x times together with the whole team. And how Zambo and I knocked him together. We covered every single word.

We looked at every value through the lens of our colleagues and suppliers. And we said goodbye to some thanks to it.

Finally, we took our creation and went to the experts I name at the end of this article. We returned from one meeting with Zlty full of enthusiasm. And on the next one, Ptačin cooled us off by saying that it wouldn't work.

We have made the necessary adjustments. And we went to the final.

Step 3: Introducing madebythe:

The last three months have passed very quickly. In addition to the never-ending flood of videos with Žurnál and Poustra, things related to the new brand have also been added to our daily agenda.

• Legal officials.
• Domain equipment.
• Moving emails.
• Social networks.
• Lyrics.
• Web.
• Marketing.

We will not go into details, as a lesson you can take away that it should not be underestimated.

Three months is a long time, but we still pulled a few all-nighters.

We will still catch up on a few small things.

But you can already read this article on the new blog Zápisky at madebythe.sk.

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram as @madebythe.

And we renamed the group of journalists to "We change the point of view".

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What does the new brand actually mean?

• made refers to our origin. We are makers. We enjoy discovering new areas and technologies. And change the world around us.
  
  
• the speaks about the uniqueness of our products. These are not just any products. They are THOSE products.
  
  
• the colon is a reference to the openness of our platform and synergy with other creators, brands and the community.

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A few final words...

We know that a new brand may not suit everyone. There will be people who will tell us that we should have remained the good old The Journal.

We know that the new brand is not perfect. We haven't gotten rid of our famous The. We just bent it our way. And there will still be people who tell us that the colon evokes RTVS.

But we also know that the new brand is ours. No big studio made it for us. We didn't pay thousands of euros for it. But he was born with us internally for approximately 9 months.

The new brand gives us many more options. We are not limited to diara or Poustra. And when the time comes, we can also look abroad.

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Today we are going through a symbolic birth. We hope that the painful period is behind us and that the six-week period will be in the sense of new Journals, Poustros and a few other novelties.

But about that next time :)

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We thank Martin Jenec from MILK, Jakub Ptačin from Echt, Roman Hřebecké from Pábení, Mata Rypáková, Kristián Capuliak, Jan Adámek and also all our supporters who contributed their opinions for their help.