26
September
2022
September 26, 2022
Introduction
In 2016, when Brigad was built aiming to enable talents and companies in the restaurant and hotel industry to collaborate better together, the question of identity and the graphic representation of this ambition quickly arose.
This is how the ⚡️ lightning bolt evolved into life, and it has been with us ever since. With Brigad focussing on efficiency of service, this symbol of speed and energy was quickly adopted.
The lightning bolt also referred to the world of superheroes and the heroic response of Talents flying to the rescue of businesses by accepting missions on Brigad.
In 5 years, our Lightning Bolt has accompanied more than 300,000 missions performed by more than 15,000 incredible Talents. It has appeared on your screens via our website, apps, social networks and presentations. Brigad has expanded across borders, cementing itself as an international organisation, and the skills on offer have expanded at a similar rate, with a launch into the healthcare sector in 2020.
Brigad's graphic identity has gradually become too narrow to fully express our ambition, our values, our mission and the full scope of the project.
Some things don't change:
- Our name: because Brigad is like a rallying cry for all the talents of the skilled professions who want to work freely, to earn a living from their passion and feel proud and considered for. Also, because we love this name and it is an integral part of our history and DNA
- Our mission: in essential industries such as hospitality or healthcare, professionals need, more than ever, to be valued and respected. This is not the time to give up!
- Our values: Brave (courage), Impact (impact), Care (caring), and Enjoy (fun), have been with us since the beginning, embodying our way of being and helping guide us through all our decisions.
And new values are emerging:
With this new identity, we wanted to highlight people, essential to your businesses success, the community, which Brigad brings together, and finally the passion that lies at the heart of your daily working life. We are certain that it is through passion that talent flourishes.
We hope you enjoy the new Brigad brand as much as we enjoyed developing it. It's a reflection of the passionate, expertly skilled talent that makes up the Brigad community: you! So, also we’d like to kindly thank you for your commitment over the years.
The story behind the "Bud”
A logo has the delicate task of embodying the personality of a company, in an effective and simple visual manner.
But to embody the personality of a company, that is much easier said than done! We must understand, and then capture its DNA: its mission and its values. Then, on an external scale, it must embody the message we want to deliver and how we plan to embody it.
Accompanied for several months by Agence W, it gradually became clear to us that Brigad's personality gravitated around 3 fundamental axes.
Being human
Brigad is deeply human; connecting people in a world where work reaches beyond just ‘getting the job done’, and into their personal and political lives.
Brigad has proven to have a profound impact on the lives of talented people: their earnings, their careers, and even their work-life balance, and this allows them to spend more time with their families, or start personal projects on the side.
These are all subjects on which it is essential to show humanity, and consider the individual, in order to improve on them.
“I have a family. I always felt a bit exhausted, and now that I have the choice, I can do something about it. I have a much more balanced work life. I spend time with my kids, I take them to school in the morning,"
Wolfe Conyngham, self-employed chef.
Embodying a community
Brigad brings together two types of professionals. This means twice as many reasons to be credible, to master the ins and outs of their industry and to earn their trust, especially as a crucial tool in their daily work. We even go further and offer talents the benefit of specific advantages (support finding a place to live, for example), safety nets (income security, for example).
“We meet a lot of people through Brigad! What's cool is that from one mission to the next, you can find the same people, you create networks"
Delphine Koawo, self-employed care assistant.
Advocating for passion
And, finally, the most important thing in our eyes: we are certain, and have already observed, that by giving talents the means to practice their passion while feeling valued, cared for and free, they enthusiastically work, even returning to a vocation they had considered abandoning. It is therefore obvious to place passion at the heart of our message, our positioning and our identity.
“I am passionate, I do not count my hours. (...) But because I love this job! I like to give pleasure, and to please people "
Hamza El Ouilani, self-employed chef de partie.
The graphic embodiment of this personality
The "Bud" therefore perfectly encapsulates these 3 aspects:
- Our human aspect is represented by the man raising his arm (affectionately renamed "Buddy" at Brigad HQ).
- The community is symbolised by the two overlapping circles, reflecting the business users on one side and the talents on the other.
- Passion is represented by the universally understood shape of the heart.
Why the "Bud"? Similar to the rosebud, itself a symbol of passion, the new Brigad logo places passion at the centre of the message we want to endorse and advocate for at Brigad.
