From there, FUEL went on to create kôr’s tag line: design from the inside out. “The concept was there,” Bill explains, “we just needed to figure out how to reinforce the concept within the name.” FUEL was so confident that kôr was the solution for Kim and Mary’s identity that they went on to select a color palette and create business papers to reinforce kôr’s message. When they unveiled their concept, along with several other possibilities to Kim and Mary, kôr was the obvious favorite.
From business papers and ‘faks’ covers to the curved burnt-sienna sign outside their studio, kôr successfully implemented their identity across virtually every aspect of their business. For Kim that means “I don’t have to recreate the wheel every time I want to put together a proposal. We’ve already made our decisions about typeface, about stationery and presentation folders. That leaves me free to focus on what I’m good at — the design.” Mary agrees that their identity has made her role of building relationships and negotiating sales easier as well. “With our unique name and our prominent sign, most people have either seen or heard our name and are eager to learn more about what we do, giving me the perfect segue into that 30-second elevator speech.”
“We worked from the word décor, breaking it down to its simplest form. Then we manipulated the phonetic elements until we came up with kôr.”
— Bill Bollman
Almost two years later, kôr has established itself as a leader in commercial interior design and credits much of that success to their investment in a solid identity. “Working with FUEL was the best business decision we made when we were starting kôr,” Mary states. “The investment was worth every cent.” The credibility produced by a strong identity allowed Mary and Kim to bridge their past experience into their new role and truly hit the ground running once they opened their doors. In fact, kôr has done such an effective job managing its identity that at a recent trade show an exhibitor told Mary that kôr looked like a company that had been around for 20 years or more. That type of credibility is invaluable for any emerging business — and for Mary, it was just another example of the power of a good identity.