Kerkhoff Group
Kerkhoff Group advises businesses on procurement and supply chain, with seven companies under one name. Their logos spoke seven dialects. We gave them a shared grammar and then took the group to where its clients sit: Lufthansa business class.
- Services
- Logo system and manual
- Stationery
- Adverts and campaign
- Packaging and in-flight items
- Client mailing and objects
- Year
- 2015–2016
Each company carried the group wordmark with its own name below, letter-spaced or squeezed until it was exactly as wide as ‘kerkhoff’. Short names fell apart into single letters, long ones jostled. Side by side, the logos looked like seven different firms.
For a consultancy that brings order to complex structures, that is no detail. So: turn seven one-offs into a family, without touching the group logo.
- 01 / 07INTERIM Seven letters are meant to fill the width of ‘kerkhoff’. So each one gets 1.54 cap heights of air, and the word falls apart.
- 02 / 07SOFTWARE Eight letters, 1.12 cap heights apart. You read letters rather than a word.
- 03 / 07CONSULTING Ten letters, 0.77 cap heights. Legible, but every company speaks in a different rhythm.
- 04 / 07VOICE & DATA 0.59 cap heights, and the word spaces turn into gaps.
- 05 / 07COST ENGINEERING Fifteen characters across the same width, down to 0.16 cap heights. Now it gets tight.
- 06 / 07RISK & COMPLIANCE 0.12 cap heights. The letters stand shoulder to shoulder.
- 07 / 07NEGOTIATE & CONTRACT Eighteen characters, the same width: the letters overlap. One rule, seven different results.
The answer was already in the group logo, where ‘group’ sits flush right beneath the wordmark. That is exactly how all the names now stand, in one typeface, at a fixed distance. Anything too long breaks onto a new line instead of squeezing in.
The system grows with the group: new companies find their place by the same rules, and ‘member of kerkhoff group’ takes the family along wherever a company appears on its own.
- 01 / 04First, a deep breath. The letter-spacing goes. All the names move flush right beneath the wordmark, to where ‘group’ has always stood in the group logo.
- 02 / 04One voice for all. A modern cut of the house typeface replaces the heavy imitation: lighter, more open, with exactly one cap height of space below the wordmark.
- 03 / 04The group has right of way. No name reaches further left than the first k. Anything longer breaks onto a new line, so ‘kerkhoff’ is always read first.
- 04 / 04Straight because it sticks out. Mathematically aligned looks optically crooked. So every name extends one stroke width past the f, and only then does the edge stand straight.
- 01 / 04The group leads. When several companies appear together, ‘kerkhoff group’ always comes first.
- 02 / 04A rhythm in cap heights. Between each name and the next rule there are exactly two cap heights. No eyeballing, just a rhythm that can carry on for as long as needed.
- 03 / 04A rule separates, the edge connects. Short rules keep the companies apart, the shared right-hand edge holds them together.
- 04 / 04Seven companies, one stance. The whole group in one column, following the same rules as each individual logo. An eighth would already have its place.
A system is only as good as its use. So the manual describes the design not in adjectives but in measurements. Know them, and you no longer need a feel for it, just a ruler.
- 01 / 05A measure taken from the lettering itself. Between ‘kerkhoff’ and the name there is exactly one cap height. The gap grows and shrinks with the logo and never needs guessing again.
- 02 / 05Exactly one I wide. The name extends past the stem of the f so the edge looks optically straight. By how much? For CONSULTING, by the width of the I.
- 03 / 05This far and no further. Even the longest single-line name starts to the right of the first k. That keeps the hierarchy clear: the group first, then the company.
- 04 / 05Two lines, but not just any two. Anything that wants to cross the limit breaks onto a second line. The line spacing is in the manual too, to a tenth of a point.
- 05 / 05The logo measures its own space. The clear space is marked out with the k of the wordmark, upright above and below, on its side left and right. Have the logo and you have the ruler too.
Measured from the final artwork: before, letter spacing ranged from one and a half cap heights to letters that overlapped. Now it is almost identical across all the names, and that is exactly how the eye spots a family.
| Logo | Width · ‘kerkhoff’ = 100% | Letter spacing · cap heights |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | 0.30 | |
| 46% | 0.21 | |
| 55% | 0.27 | |
| 60% | 0.19 | |
| 85% | 0.30 | |
| 87% | 0.29 | |
| 57% | 0.22 |
- 01 / 02Before: width calls the shots. Every name had to be as wide as ‘kerkhoff’. Letter spacing paid the price: anything from 1.54 cap heights to below zero.
- 02 / 02After: spacing decides. Now width follows the name, and spacing sits between 0.19 and 0.30 cap heights for all of them. Seven names, one rhythm.
Kerkhoff Consulting was named Hidden Champion for the third year running. We took the title at its word: a cloth slides off the symbol to reveal ‘Wahre Stärke liegt oftmals im Verborgenen’, true strength often lies hidden. An award, staged as an unveiling.
A motif does not need reinventing for every publication, it needs to fit every publication. From full newspaper page to quarter page, cloth, title and seals keep their order, only the text moves closer or gains breathing room. One version doubles as an invitation to the Procurement Executives Forum.
After that, each company got its own theme, from cost drivers to bottlenecks in management. Four adverts, four audiences, one signature.
People who make procurement decisions travel a lot. So the campaign travelled with them, as a box of chocolates in Lufthansa business class. Outside, the half-veiled symbol; inside, a bar with an embossed logo and a card with a direct line to the consultants.
Plus a refreshing towelette that performs the unveiling once more. young promotion brought it all on board.
Lean management is abstract until you hold it in your hand. For a client mailing, we turned the consultancy’s concepts into objects, from a labyrinth of paths and detours to a Soma cube in seven pieces, as many as there are types of waste.
Clients of the group also received the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, cast and in its own box.
Planning something similar? info@vertikahl.com