Like product like brand: FCKLCK’s to-the-point identity for Süti sets off its PhoneBacks’ design

“Some projects take months. Some have over 10 rounds of revisions on logos. But sometimes, you need something by Friday,” says FCKLCK’s Managing Director, Tarryn Blackwood, reflecting on the studio’s experience crafting a brand for Süti. The Belgium and Amsterdam-based studio delivered a name, positioning and identity for Süti in a record time of three days, but not without some considerable groundwork from the client. Before the name for the brand was finalised, there was only a prototype for a lightweight protective accessory for an iPhone – unlike a phone case that offers heavy-duty protection, Süti’s ‘PhoneBacks’ protects the iPhone against the odd scratch, without hiding its design with unnecessary bulk. The idea was great, but the client wasn’t exactly raring to go. “When he came to us, this idea was more of an “if you guys can get me excited, I’ll move forward,” so rather than spending a lot of time and money on developing it, he wanted us to dip our toe in, and get him excited to sell it.” The studio lapped up the challenge and began working on the brand’s name and positioning, from which things progressed at warp speed. The search for the name led the team to Süti – the Swahili word for ‘suit,’ “a nod to the product being a stylish way to dress your phone,” explains Blackwood. “However, as it’s not a case, we also needed a new product descriptor, thus ‘the PhoneBack’ was born. Both a descriptor and a CTA, it became the base for the tagline, ‘Ditch the case. Get your PhoneBack.’” The initial visual direction for the identity came from the client – for a product that provides lightweight protection and grip without compromising the iPhone’s experience and design, a minimalist, Swiss slant seemed to click. Working with lots of negative space and bold, sans serif typography, the team landed on a treatment that provided the perfect foil for the PhoneBack’s design. For the wordmark, the team chose a heavy font based on Acumin “that we adjusted manually,” notes Design Director Jeroen van den Bogaert, while Suisse Int’l made the cut for the primary typeface. “We were looking for a font that has both a calm strictness, like, say, a Helvetica, but moves a bit away from the classic graphic print feel that a Helvetica has,” adds van den Bogaert. “The name actually says it all, Suisse Int’l fulfilled in every way what we were trying to achieve. It is a typeface that finds its foundations in the legacy of Swiss Style but felt a little more contemporary in the minimalist way we applied it.”