The designer Bogdan Branzas created the identity of Tiriac Holding starting from the ex-player’s moustache.

The designer Bogdan Branzas created the identity of Tiriac Holding starting from the ex-player’s moustache.

Bogdan Branzas is a designer and the owner of a company specialized in brand making. No, not German brands!

Bogdan Branzas and the six employees of his company create in fact the ID of one product or company. Unlike advertising people that have on their desk the product or service they must sell, Bogdan Branzas and his collaborators always start from a white piece of paper when beginning a project. A piece of paper on which they must put all the information that shall ultimately lead to the birth of the product following a complex documentation process. On another piece of paper, maybe no. 1500 or 2500, shall take shape a graphical identity symbolizing the brand’s character and personality. The ‘piece of paper’ is a little metaphor because our designers have all the technical and logistic equipment that enable performance. Starting from its foundation in 1995 and up to now Branzas Design company included in its portfolio 25 clients and was awarded 2 prizes by major design competitions.

Branza’s offer won in front the the Germans’

The specialization of Branzas Design company seems less accessible to the public. It is enough to exaggerate a little with the following image: on entering a supermarket all the products on the shelves start to live through the identity of each brand, an identity conferred to by the form and color of the package, by the shape of the bottles and by the colors of the labels. All these things that we are not aware of when reaching for a bottle of yogurt can contribute to the life of a brand. ‘Brand identity, says Bogdan Brazas, is conferred by all these details, from the bottle shape to the shape of the plastic from the bottle neck. Until reaching the final form of the piece of plastic for the Ursus beer for example, I think we made over one hundred versions, all of them different from each other as shape, texture, color and inscription, taking into consideration at the same time that the ideas should be different as much as possible from those of the competition’. The collaboration with Ursus meant for Branzas the beginning of his success in this field of activity.

Up to that moment, Bogdan Branzas had worked for 2 years by an advertising agency in Cluj-Napoca. As a student he went for a short term training in France where he had the opportunity to work with big specialists in perfume design. He returned from this experience firmly convinced that he had to dedicate himself to this type of activity. He started to practice it independently, and for one year he made a living from designing booklets for tourism agencies or logos for printing houses.

In the autumn of ‘95 he founded a specialized company together with one associate. Shortly after Bogdan took over the entire company Branzas Design. ‘In ’95 I had no computer or printer, Branzas remembers. But I was lucky enough to have my father who had all these tools and would allow me to use them. The relations between me and my father were very … business like in these matters. I used to pay for the consumables I used from him just like he pays to me too when he has something to do, this of course with the normal family discounts.’ Upon the recommendation of an older client, Bogdan Branzas, who was a student at that time, started to work with Ursus. The beer maker had also called the services of a German company to have the new national Ursus brands designed. In parallel the people from Ursus were also looking for local ‘forces’. ‘There were three months with thousands of hours of hard work. A market survey was conducted in several of the largest cities of the country based on the versions proposed. What I had done proved to be much better than the Germans’ offers. The consumers decided it’. Further on he took active part in the extension of the brand on the market, working up to the last detail, all according to the primary identity of the brand.

Turnover increased 15 times in 5 years

What is brand design, is it an art or a science? To such a naïve question Bogdan Branzas replies: ‘It is neither of these. Design is a discipline. If one is not talented enough to be able to visually represent a documentation resulted out of a logical process made with organized steps, than it is all in vain. The same, if one has the talent but lacks the skill to organize and select things it is still in vain. In this last case one is an artist. A designer must be able to clarify concepts very clearly.’

Corporate identity can be generated from one of the company’s products. There are many cases when there was first the brand and then out of it came the essence that repeated itself in the corporate identity. In this way the company identifies with the product. Branzas Design also worked for Tiriac Holdings. In this case one had to find a visual umbrella that should represent the bobbling. It was an easier task because the designers benefited from the name and the strong personality of Ion Tiriac. Tiriac Holdings identity is visually based on the ex tennis player’s moustache, a visual elements typical of him. The T letter that the name on the company relies on confers solid grounds and equilibrium which are part of the company philosophy.

Can one make a living from this business? Bogdan Branzas replies: ‘In Romania one cannot make the same money from the branding activity like from advertising where budgets amount to millions of euro per year, but the level of living is high enough to give the possibility to offer the employees absolutely decent and real salaries for Cluj-Napoca labor market, the possibility to have the necessary material support and equipment as well as other bonuses meant to stimulate people not to live your company to some advertising agency. Time proved that starting from 1995 things got better every year.’ From the year the agency was founded and until 2000 Branzas Design turnover increased 15 times.

Which is the role of the brand?

Brands are not just creations. They do not just exist. In our days’ society increasingly fed up with all kinds of messages, the brands must adapt and communicate in order to reach an audience for itself out of the multitude of other messages.