We’ve had a refresh. A remix. Brink 2.0. What do you think?

Behind the scenes this year, we’ve been working away with our friend Charlotte at One Man Band, to rethink the Brink brand. We couldn't have hoped for a better person for the job. She created our original brand too and is the woman who introduced us (Abi and Lea) to one another many moons ago. If Brink had a godmother, it would be Charlotte.

As we continue to grow our team and work globally, we want a brand which represents that ongoing journey. We have set out to do this by creating a narrative, a visual identity, and a tone of voice that all work together to help people understand who we are and what we stand for.

If our central thought is innovation as if people matter, how does this inform how we show up in the world?

Our hope was to create a space to let the work of the innovators we work with shine, and have something that feels ‘Brink’, which with Charlotte we defined as: global, experimental, incisive and playful (but not silly).

We always knew that we would only start making noise when we had something to say. Today, we’re proud to have real world stories to share from the range of projects we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of working on, like;

• The Better Futures Oxygen CoLab, with DT Global
• Africa Smart Towns Network of 11 cities across Africa (aka ASToN)
• Frontier Tech Hub’s work on drones, with R4D and DT Global

Some things we hope come across in our refresh

We’re global as a team, and remote first, with 30 Brinksters in 7 countries and a subsidiary in Rwanda where our team is growing steadily too.

We put people at the centre. Brink was founded on a belief in what we call Behavioural Innovation, or ‘innovation as if people matter’. Our approach combines classic innovation methodologies and behavioural sciences. It is a framework for designing a context fit for innovation and cultivating the calm, resilience and grit for human beings to do hard things.

We love our partners. Brinksters feel honoured  to do the work we do. We collaborate with some of the world’s great minds and are constantly learning from them and striving for better, together. Without these partners and community, none of this would be possible. So, that’s why we’re here, showing you our shiny new look. It’s time we had a brand that honours all of it.

For the design nerds: five things about our refreshed look, we hope you love as much as we do

We believe in always learning, the power of the collective, creating safe spaces for truth, trial and error, and making hard stuff feel possible. Our brand has evolved to better represent and honour these beliefs.

1. Accessibility

Our colours produce the highest level of contrast to make everything we do readable for people with visual impairment. We also love working collaboratively, so we’ve chosen fonts available for us to use in Google Docs with our partners, friends and clients.

2. Photography

Nothing tells a more compelling story than the people who have lived it, so we put them front and centre (with their permission). They are the heroes of the stories we are privileged to be able to tell: the innovators and entrepreneurs Brink works with, each breaking out beyond social norms to solve important problems in the world.

3. The Brinkle

A square box, with the arrow breaking out of the lines becomes a frame for people, ideas and concepts. We use this to showcase our biggest belief. Innovation as if people matter.

4. WIP

At Brink we are always thinking and rethinking. So much of our thinking develops over time and in collaboration. This is why we have a WIP (work in progress) pared back style to inspire the reader to meddle. It’s not shiny and done, it’s asking for your input.  

5. Rethinking; patterns

As a team and with our partners we enjoy questioning accepting wisdom and think it’s important to sometimes go against the grain. Our patterns are designed to playfully reflect this. They can be used as banners, backgrounds and endpapers when appropriate.

We hope you love our refresh  as much as we do. You can see it fully in action at hellobrink.co and on our social channels on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thank you Charlotte for your brilliance -  we are forever indebted to you for introducing us all those years ago. Really, without you none of this would exist.

Thank you also to Giles and Rob for your thinking, questioning and most crucially, for your words.