About this project
Boydell & Brewer is an independent, employee-owned publisher, driven by their mission to bring high-quality academic content to a worldwide audience. Specialising in humanities and social science, they empower scholars globally and pioneer excellence. Boydell & Brewer approached BookMachine Creative Agency (now Maykn) to help them refresh their brand. With a complex brand architecture due to imprint acquisitions, collaborations, and brand growth, they sought external help.
Enter Maykn.
We were excited to lend our expertise to the project and help not only modernise the brand but also future-proof it for any future business growth plans.
Before…
“The collaborative approach was perfect, enabling the entire company to engage in developing the new design and structure. It was quite challenging on our end to manage so many different viewpoints, but we were delighted by the final design concept. The new logo was the perfect modernisation we were hoping for.
We were very impressed with how BookMachine worked and their approach: professional, friendly and personable, a fast delivery and overall great ideas and insights. We would highly recommend BookMachine to anyone looking for a thoughtful and engaging marketing agency.”
Antje King, Group Sales and Marketing Director, Boydell & Brewer
Our Approach
Maykn took a two-fold approach: a sprint and brand strategy, followed by the design process.
01. Brand Sprint
The Brand Sprint for Boydell & Brewer was designed to define their purpose and positioning within the industry.
Key stakeholders took part in the interactive session, ensuring that all areas of the business were represented in the new branding. The session provided vital insights that helped Maykn understand their key business aims, core messaging and unique strengths. It also clarified the business model of Boydell & Brewer, its imprints, and collaborations, something a rebrand needed to take into consideration.
Maykn then developed a brand strategy review. Drawing on the contributions from the sprint team and other colleagues, the strategy outlined the vision, mission, values, elevator pitch, tagline and brand architecture, aligning the brand’s identity with its future direction.
02. Rebrand & Design
Once Boydell & Brewer were happy with the brand strategy, our design team got to work.
Ensuring the rebrand represented their brand values, mission and identity, and also encompassed the parent brand and its imprint, a detailed brand brief was produced. Initial concepts based on the approved brief were refined through internal feedback via a core project group and wider team to ensure buy-in.
The Maykn team provided an efficient and seamless process for the client. Core branding elements, including font and logos, were finalised. The design team then completed a brand book, ensuring all necessary files were organised and accessible, as well as answering any final queries to ensure a smooth handover to the client.
After…
The Result
With full visibility and communication offered to the Boydell & Brewer team, we’re proud to have been able to deliver the following:
- Sprint documentation
- A brand strategy review outlining the refreshed identity
- The new brand book, which serves as an internal resource for guidelines on positioning, messaging and logo usage.
- All logo and brand architecture files in supporting formats, alongside templates for publishing services to support a scalable visual integration.
- Ongoing support and guidance as the Boydell & Brewer team start to apply the branding across the business
- A full future-proof rebrand that allows their business to grow
In addition to the above, Maykn is always on hand for Boydell’s marketing team to contact should they have any follow-up questions or needs. We are working together to ensure that the alignment of the core brand with partner organisations and imprints stays on track and continues to run smoothly.
