What makes a branding system sustainable? For Stoëmp, it’s rooting it in something deeper than style

“One of the biggest challenges for brands today is simply staying true to themselves,” shares Wojciech Szlachta, co-founder of Stoëmp, a branding and design agency based across Brussels and Copenhagen. “We often work with organisations that are either just starting out or have, over time, lost their sense of direction. Now there is more pressure than ever to constantly adapt, to follow data, chase target audiences and respond to algorithms,” he says, “but when these things become the only compass, something essential gets lost.”

When Wojciech and co-founder Gaetano Licata started Stoëmp way back in 2009 – after keeping a promise from their school days to start something of their own once they had got some industry experience under their belt – both designers didn’t really know much about the agency world. But it was quite clear that they were interested in branding in the early days, just in a way that felt much more human and hands-on. Their approach to crafting the visual systems that come out of the studio today aims to resist some of the more traditional markers and trends that branding can get trapped in. The studio separates itself from the crowd in insisting on building systems that tend to take a look at things more long term.

Something Stoëmp specialises in, in-house, is strategy, making the research stage in a project not simply a way to gain visual inspiration for the identities they shape as a studio, but a more lengthy investigation into why a brand or organisation exists, what it wants to say and who it’s speaking to. Alongside its director of strategy Thomas De Vylder, this is the stage for Wojciech and Gaetano to establish a backbone for every design decision to follow: “It’s not about creating a moodboard or a temporary direction,” Thomas explains, “but about building a structure that can guide us over time, from naming and tone of voice to visual identity and communication.”

Once the agency gets the foundations clear for any project, only then can a visual system emerge that not only feels coherent but can evolve or adapt – it’s an all encompassing approach. “That’s what makes a branding system sustainable. If it’s rooted in something deeper than style. If it’s built on clarity, structure, and intent, it can evolve without losing itself. It ages well because it was never trying to be fashionable”, shares Thomas. This focus on strategy and bringing ideas back to their core is what underpins Stoëmp’s sleek, simple and pragmatic visual language. While their graphic style is not something that the pair ever “designed” to look a certain way, says Wojciech, a lean and minimal look quite naturally categorises their work.

“We grew up in the late 90s, surrounded by very strong visual cultures: skateboarding magazines like Transworld art directed by David Carson, publications like Radikal or Graff Bombz, videos like Writerz, films like Kids by Larry Clark,” Gaetano says. “It was an intense visual environment, raw and expressive, but also very direct. Over time, all of that got distilled. What I think remains at the studio today is the essence of those influences, stripped down, focused, and intentional.”

Projects like the agency’s visual and verbal identity for creative direction and spatial design studio Volca demonstrate this design spirit. As an organisation whose stage designs for fashion brands like Burberry already speak volumes, the framework for the identity Stoëmp created for the studio was one that they referred to as “clean, modular, precise, built like a backstage rig, not a spotlight”. Similarly in an identity for sustainable architecture firm A2M, Stoëmp built a brand that “travels light, but lands with impact”, inspired by Marcello Morandini’s bold geometry and quite a bit of deep research into data visualisation and urban mapping to shape a logomark that was made up of a minimalist grid of forms.

The central idea is always to work on something enough so that it will stay relevant for as long as possible: “Once you take away everything that’s not needed, things have more impact”, Thomas says. “In a way it isn’t about minimalism, it’s about getting to the point, and making sure that point can live, grow, and resonate over time.” That’s probably why the studio doesn’t approach design as the creation of an aesthetic of their own, but rather a tool that shapes our experiences – an approach that is usually more associated with the utility of fields like product or furniture design.

It seems like every new brand the studio works with creates a set of new and interesting limitations and discoveries for the team. When looking ahead to upcoming projects Wojciech and Gaetano list everything from an identity for an emerging high-end perfume brand Paris & Oman to a design system for furniture retailer Oaksome. It always seems to come back to finding and clarifying what’s at the client’s “core” as a base to build out from for the studio. That’s why each of its projects are dressed so differently. “We‘re more interested in shaping experiences, building systems that carry personality, culture, and meaning. When you start from that place, the visual language becomes a tool rather than a fixed outcome”, Thomas ends.