Madcats Agency

Modern Expo — a company engaged in the design, creation, and implementation of commercial equipment in the halls of shops and warehouses. It is the largest market player in Central and Eastern Europe with an annual turnover of more than $ 100 million. This type of customer is one in a million.

Despite its vastness, the company is very flexible. The management of the corporation is literally in love with renewal and improvement, without forgetting about the values: work efficiency and economic benefits. Everything around should serve them, including the logo with the corporate identity, that was developed by our team.

The main task was to get away from the associations with metal and shelves in the vector of the intellectual component of production, to attach the concepts of transformability, flexibility, and modernity to the brand. In the developed logo, these functions are performed by the letter O. Composed of simple forms — two horizontal lines — it can expand, shorten, accommodate additional elements: the names of divisions or producing countries. And, of course, it is the symbolization of space: mutable, modular, clever. Calculated and organized as efficiently as possible, the way Modern Expo works when designing a store or warehouse.

Cooperation with a company of this level is always a challenge, but a pleasant one. The way the new branding works would be judged by the time passing by, but now we can say that it is liked. By the smiles and mood of people working in the offices, workshops, and warehouses of Modern Expo, glancing it on a daily basis. And, of course, by the lights in the eyes of the client who once created this company, always inspired to develop it.

Modern Expo:
https://modern-expo.eu/en

Movie theater chain Planeta Kino is the sole representative of IMAX and 4DX technologies in Ukraine. The first movie theater of the company was opened in Kyiv in 2008. In 2016 the chain numbered 9 movie theaters with 49 screens in 6 cities of Ukraine.

Challenge

Lack of a consistent strategy of communication as well as boring, faceless brand identity hindered the development of brand identity: consumers perceived Planeta Kino as IMAX, which is, in fact, just one of the technologies presented in the movie theater chain.

 Solution

The new visual identity of the company is easily recognizable and can convey a variety of emotions that Planeta Kino gives its customers. The new identity allowed to make interaction with the brand on the Internet more personalized and therefore more efficient.

A new brand image set the direction of development, the tone of communication, the convenience of online and offline services, even the interior of cinemas and set the new standards in the industry.

Planeta Kino: https://planetakino.ua/

Helen Marlen Group is the largest retailer of premium designer clothing in Ukraine. The company has loyal customers - mature, wealthy customers who have been buying things in Helen Marlen for a long time. The brand wanted to attract a new audience - the Millennials. But they did not understand why the jacket from Helen Marlen was better than the jacket from Zara, and many did not even know that there were clothes, besides shoes.

We also needed to create a new recognizable brand visualization system. While working on positioning, we thoroughly analyzed the market and competitors. We found a great idea that would give Helen Marlen a competitive advantage, and structured the brand architecture - made it more understandable to the audience.

Helen Marlen is not a mass-market, it's premium retail. They sell designer clothes that have outstanding quality and aesthetic value. We realized that Helen Marlen does not sell fashion, they sell the beauty and individuality. So we crafted the essence of the brand: This is beautiful.

The idea is strong because it harmoniously integrates into previous communication concepts. Besides, the monopolization of the baseline value is a serious foundation for successful brand development. We chose a bold move - we made a discharge between the letters in the logo with a firm trick, increasing it. The wide space between the letters turns each one of them into a fully scaled art object. The discharge in the logo has become dynamic - now it is changing with the format. The digital principle highlights that beauty is fleeting, and we strive to capture it and share these beautiful moments.

We have retained the neutral and harmonious Helvetica font, which Helen Marlen has used for more than 20 years, but chose its new version - Helvetica Neue Bold. We used the Caslon 540 in a pair with it. It makes the logo more expressive. New brand visualization is like a dynamic container for great moments.

Helen Marlen:
https://helen-marlen.com/

Mitka is a new spray-paint brand from Poltava. 

We have developed naming, brand identity, and package design. 

The first 150,000 spray-cans will soon appear on the shelves. 

If you look at the shelf with spray-paint in a Ukrainian store, you feel sad and amused at the same time. 

Sad because someone made it, but amusing because someone took it and put it into production. 

The riot of color here goes hand in hand with strange names and tasteless typography. 

In the beginning, we decided that our paint should be different. 

Naming 

As a child, we liked to walk on fresh cement, write "Here was %username%", or draw something on the garage facade.

Insight from childhood "Leave a Trace in History", was interpreted in our own way: Mitka is a "sign" in Ukrainian and with it, you can leave your spot anywhere (of course, in the aisles of Ukrainian legislation). 

Mitka is a "sign" in Ukrainian, and you can leave your sign on anything using spray-paint. 

Design 

On the one hand, we wanted to emphasize the practicality and utility of Mitka so that the design would literally say: "I'm just a paint. I'm not talking about Impressionism or Salvador Dali. With me, you can paint the fence, fridge, and hilt of your favorite katana. Nothing else, but I can do it perfectly. I'm paint, not an android." Armed with this brief, we created an expressive identity and package design, while, fulfilling the dream of all brand managers: "Make the logo BIGGER". 

The logo is, in fact, a cylinder of paint. We joke that we drew a cylinder of letters without drawing a cylinder. 

The shape here is responsible for making it easy to find Mitka on the shelf, and the color accent is for making it easy to choose the right color.

Mitka:
https://mitka.gpl.ua/

Backstage is the largest chain of beauty salons in Kyiv. We have developed a new strategy, brand identity, and a creative platform.

Usually, beauty salons talk only about their services, their communication is about pilling, eyebrows lamination, and keratin filling of eyelashes. We find this approach one-sided and human touch lacking.  

On the focus group workshops, we have noticed that all Backstage clients have something in common. No matter who they are: businesswomen and moms, housewives, and beauty-bloggers – all of them have a lot on their minds and little free time. We've realized that they visit Backstage not just for beauty, but also for relaxation.

Strategy 

The Backstage strategy is a small vacation in the middle of a working week (either not the working week, or just because I want to and can). With an airplane mode on, chatting with a master, or just chilling with your eyes closed, you can relax in the beauty salon. That's why we've rethought Backstage from a beauty salon into Refresh Spot – the place, where you come to update and recharge the batteries.

Brand identity

We quickly realized that Backstage deserves a better identity. We wanted to convey the story of beauty & refresh not on the level of direct reference, but on the emotional level, so the style turned out to be soft, smooth, and chill, like a wave. Any text could become wave-shaped, not just a logo, it allows us to stay light yet recognizable at any point of contact.

Signature technique

One of the main principles of beauty is symmetry, that's why the reflection of the photo became a signature technique. You should agree that it is difficult to imagine a beauty salon without a mirror, so we found a place for it in the brand's identity.

Backstage:
https://backstage.ua/

Vira is a brand from Poltava, which produces lubricants for cars. High-level specialists, imported ingredients, powerful production base - all this allowed to create a good, and at the same time inexpensive product.

But it happens so that Ukrainians perceive products from other countries as if they were delicacies. "Prodotto in Italia" evokes much more warm feelings than "Made in Brovary". It turned out to be a non-trivial task to convince our drivers that the Ukrainian brand can be equal to the European one.

The strategy of the brand was "Decent Product". Buying Vira products means to be sure that you get exactly what you pay for - a quality product at an affordable price. You go to a car care shop and don't even ask about expiry dates or cheap substitutes, but just pick up a familiar can. Because you know it's good.

The quality of the oil, as we found out, is not achieved through some exclusive technology. When asked if there are any secret ingredients in the product, the customer said, "No, it's just the way it should be." This simple and clear wording has become the main message of the brand. The sense of "just the way it should be" is familiar to everyone. It arises every time you put on your favorite sneakers for a walk. Or when your grandmother puts on a plate of branded borscht. It's the confidence that life goes according to plan. Confidence evolving into trust.

We have created a simple and functional identity system, that will be understandable to anyone, and which will be easily adapted to a wide range of products. 

we decided to retain the energetic mint color from the previous life of Vira, which made it possible to differentiate the brand from the competition.

The brand has two main directions - Vira Oil lubricants and Vira Cool liquids. We shortened the name to a laconic Vira, and the production areas were separated by signs: a drop for oil and a snowflake for antifreeze. Overall, Vira produces more than 70 products. We have created a new label for each product, adapting it to the shape of the packaging.

In its communication, the brand conveys the driver's feeling of "I am THE master" when I took the Vira canister. Because one not overpay, but won - took imported quality at a domestic price.

Facebook became an image developing communication channel – a place where Ukrainian drivers read news and communicate with each other. On its page, the brand has a strong true driver-oriented humor, shares advice and, by chance, tells about the benefits of its products.

1,500,000 l – warehouse

productivity – 100,000 l / day 

sold at 4000+ retail outlets

Vira:
https://vira.ua/