The work.
Overview.
Media.Monks, the operating brand of S4 Capital and a leading digital-first, data-driven, advertising, marketing, and technology services company, encountered a growing challenge. Since 2018, S4 Capital has consistently strengthened its mediamonks acquisition through strategic agency and team acquisitions. Given S4 Capital's executive chairman, Sir Martin Sorell's aggressive pace, it is unsurprising that within a short timeframe, the Media.Monks brand expanded to encompass more properties than it could comfortably serve its customers.
This expansion resulted in a lack of specialization, as evidenced by market research. Customers were unable to discern Media.Monks’ primary specialty. In response to this challenge, as part of another acquisition, Brady Brim-DeForest, the former CEO of TheoremOne and the current CEO of Formula.Monks, was tasked with developing a new Media.Monks brand vision and value proposition. Having successfully rebranded Formula.Monks, Brady approached me to collaborate on the upcoming vision for Media.Monks for the foreseeable future.
Our initial objective was to comprehend the organizational structure. With over 40 properties operating in an unstructured manner, characterized by both independence and collaboration, it became evident that a unification of properties, leadership, and branding was necessary. Consequently, the decision was made to restructure the organization into two distinct groups: Marketing and Technology.
However, this restructuring presented a new challenge, as the existing company name, “Media.Monks,” did not align effectively with the new organizational structure. Ultimately, we resolved to discontinue the “Media” component from the name. As a result, Media.Monks became Monks.
The dot.
Upon initial review, I recognized that the design required a grounding in The Dot. Introduced after the S4 acquisition (mediamonks > Media.Monks), it became an integral design element of the brand. After discussions with Brady and numerous iterations, I was reminded of Steve Jobs’ introduction of the iPhone in 2007: “An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator … are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.”
At Media.Monks, we had over 40 properties that we were merging into two product offerings. We devised a method to incorporate all of these properties into The Dot, resulting in the video attached (below). This fluidity of motion encapsulated the ethos that led to Monks and served as the foundation for the visual style guide and brand identity.
All the things.
Designing a brand is a complex task in itself. Redesigning a well-known brand, style guide, identity, tone and voice, slide templates, and overall implementation for a multi-billion-dollar global agency further increases the complexity.
We decided very early in the process that there needed to be a regimented and structured approach to the project. I relied on fellow designer Romina Kavcic and her exceptional Design System Guide as a plan of action to maintain organization, documentation, and to build a system that was intuitive and scalable. This entailed creating a design token system for component variables within Figma and maintaining that system throughout the project, which was lacking from the existing brand guidelines.
Furthermore, I discovered that accessibility and adherence to WCAG standards were inconsistent throughout the existing brand revisions, so I corrected these oversights with a documented system of rules and guidelines to follow (attached above).
Finally, a file and folder structure was implemented for simple navigation and to avoid any issues of outdated content moving forward. Ultimately, I would prefer to transition the organization away from a Google Drive cloud-based infrastructure and into a digital asset management (DAM), but we will save that project for a future date.
Upleveling digital maturity.
Since 2001, Monks has cultivated a remarkable and captivating history. As an internationally recognized agency, it has consistently been sought after for its expertise in digital-first marketing, technology services, and consulting. Monks is a company that seamlessly integrates content, data, and digital media with technology services, providing comprehensive solutions within the consulting, enterprise software, gaming, film, social media, digital advertising, data, and measurement ecosystems.
I extend my sincere gratitude to Brady Brim-Deforest and Sir Martin Sorrell for entrusting my recommendations to implement a polished, unified, and comprehensive brand refresh. Not only did we educate the Monks team on the new brand and organizational strategy, but we also provided hundreds of pre-designed slide decks and templates for immediate use during the launch. Despite the presence of multiple business units with distinct objectives and interests pursuing independent projects, we implemented and deployed best practices to facilitate both the explanation of the changes and the seamless integration of all elements.
Press.
"Having witnessed his work first-hand, I know how much dedication and care he puts into every project. He should feel immensely proud to see this world-class brand come to life. I always get to witness his talents every day, but I'm so proud the rest of the world gets to see it too!"
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Please note that this portfolio is undergoing active updates and contains an extensive back catalog.
(Last updated: January 08, 2025)
