We are closing the office for two weeks, from July 16th through July 31st as we leave to spend time in the sun rather than in the hot office in Kompagnistraede, Copenhagen. We will be back, ready to take on new projects and finalize ongoing work from August 1st.

I have been spending most of my time in June and July in Rome, Italy, working on my book projects. The manuscript for the Danish book titled "Den autentiske virksomhed" was finalized in June after massive editing from a total of 365 pages to 303. While the Danish editor at Gyldendal is reviewing it I will be starting up the other half of the project which is to edit and change various parts in order for the book to be published in an international version. Also, I've been spending time in Italy working with some Italian case studies. On Friday, I'm interviewing one of the masterminds behind the city planning in Rome through the past 20 years, Eugenio La Rocca, Superintendent of Cultural Heritage of the City of Rome during the 90s and 2000s. We will be discussing the paradoxes between massive cultural heritage and the need to change and develop a city. Two important factors that do not always work out nicely - just like in all other aspects of understanding, preserving and changing organizational identity in organizations, large and small.

When I return from Italy and my colleagues return to the office in Copenhagen August 1st, we will also be welcoming a few new members to the Stagis team. During May and June we have been busy recruiting new skilled people and four new faces will show up at Stagis during August and September. I look forward to that and I know everyone else does too!

It is about 35 degrees celcius in Rome today - a bit too much to be in front of the screen if you ask me - I hope you will enjoy the summer as much as I do! Enjoy La Dolce Vita!

'The crisis makes the trade union look inside'. An article on the website of Danish trade union FTF is concerned with the organizational crisis of their market: the members of the trade and labour unions are fleeing. They interviewed me to get a perspective of possible solutions in regard to maintain existing members and attracting new ones. It seems that the unions are not as attractive as they used to be. There is a sense of a lack of purpose. The financial and economic crisis may have helped a bit as people felt insecure about jobs, economy and day-to-day life. But when things get better financially what will the unions bring about that really inspires people to join and participate? What is the movement about?

The unions - like all organizations facing a crisis - will have to look inward to find their authentic strengths and they will have to make a strategic selection as to which beliefs and competencies they will pursue and which will have to be left behind.

Article in Danish - read it on the FTF website.

Today we've launched a new video about the process and the results of the new authentic identity of the Corporate Governance Agency of the Danish Cultural Ministry (Kulturministeriets Koncerncenter). The mapping of the authentic organizational identity and the creation of the visual identity was developed during the past year and this spring the new corporate website was implemented. During the process we found that the primary authentic strength that the management wanted to promote was the role of the Agency as 'translator'. Every time the staff of the Corporate Governance Agency meets politicians, government officers or employees from the many Danish cultural institutions, they try to understand the everyday world of the institution and translate that into politics and vice-versa.

You can see the film on our website www.stagis.com where you can also download an article with one of the Agency employees who's bringing her personality into the everyday job as she lives out the role of the 'translator' between the Cultural Ministry and the cultural institutions who are the clients of the Agency.

We wrote a few blog-posts during the process. Back in October I wrote a post on finding and living the authentic identity which involved a two-day staff workshop and in November Anne was posting the authentic strengths and visuals and corporate colours from the new visual identity.

During the past few weeks I have worked on an identity project for a small management consultacy firm. Heliotrop is offering team and organizational development from the perspective of the mid-level manager. Ulla, who is behind the company has a background in the recruitment industry and as an ingineer, and this background combined with a passion for philosophy and human relations creates the forcefield from where she turns teams towards a positive and forward-looking progression.

In the design, we wanted to emphasise both the idea of the name - Heliotrop - which means turning towards the sun, and the authentic strengths we found within Heliotrop:

- Heliotrop works with the relations between individuals and organizations
- Heliotrop believes that a person's conception of a positive future works as a powerful driver for change
- Heliotrop stimulates processes for change by questioning and challenging the the organizations perception of itself

By making a simple and clear combination of a circle - the sun - and the name - Heliotrop - we developed a system that allows the logo to change in 7 different angels. This refers to Heliotrop's authentic strengths of 'turning' someone towards the sun, focus on change through process and the relation between the individual and the organization. All summed up in a dynamic logo and byline: Leadership with drive.

During the Fall of 2009 we developed a new identity for the Corporate Governance Agency of the Danish Ministry of Culture. Part of this project was to develop the IA and design a new website. During late 2009 and early 2010 the site has been technically implemented and now it's finally launched. Even though The Corporate Governance agency is still working on some updates you are very welcome to visit the site.



The pervasive idea in the design is to symbolise the Corporate Governance Agency as an ‘interpreter’ between the Ministry and the Institutions (their clients). We wanted to emphasise this throughout the imagery for the identity, by shooting photographs of the employees in the scenery of their clients, where they actually function as interpreters. This is implemented in the website as well, where the part of the logo representing the cultural institutions contains images and the most important information for the institutions.

Last summer we did a campaign as part of the project 'Busdrivers with character'. The idea of the project was to make passengers notice small but nice moments from their bus ride. The passengers could send the 'moment' by sms or mms to the website www.buschauffor.dk, where busdrivers and everyone else followed passenger experiences on the bus. The busdrivers got a lot of nice messages from their costomers and you can still read them on the website. (Everything in danish though). This is the material we developed to encourage passengers to compliment their driver. 

The material was hanging all over the bus, for instance this sticker was hanging on the busdrivers door, to meet the customers when they entered the bus

Hanging in the window:

Hanging on the backside of the digital sign:

Hanging by flyers and informations signs:

This Christmas we decided it was time to produce a new Stagis notebook. Over time it has become tradition to make a notebook every second year to hand out to clients, collaborators and friends. In addition to blank pages this new version in line has 3 articles and a photo series from our office.

Bindng in 3 different colours

In part of implementing the Danish Ministry of Culture Corporate Governance Agency’s new identity, we designed a new website for the agency. The website is being programmed alongside a few other sites for the Ministry of Culture, and will launch in January. This week we produced the last photos for the website. The idea is to photograph different employee’s at different known danish culture institutions (their clients), to emphasise the concept about Danish Ministry of Culture Corporate Governance Agency is interpreters between the Ministry of Culture and the institutions.

During the spring we developed a new visual identity for the Danish Ministry of Culture Corporate Governance Agency. As Nikolaj describes in a previous post, the agency has been through an internal process, developing from being an administrative department into becoming an organization primarily focusing on supporting and giving advice on administrative development rather than actually executing the administrative tasks. 

- supporting and giving advice on administrative development 

- Releasing the clients resources, in order to focus on art and culture 

- Deliver 'a complete service' with empathy and presence

- Our 'interpretation' makes our knowledge valuable and meaningful for the client.

The primary idea of the logo is to emphasise the Danish Ministry of Culture Corporate Governance Agency as the interpreter between the ministry of culture (of whom they are a department of) and the culture institutions (museums,theaters etc).

Last week we launched a new authentic identity for the group center of the Danish Cultural Ministry (Kulturministeriets Koncerncenter). During the past year they've developed from being an administrative department into becoming an organization primarily focusing on supporting and giving advice on administrative development rather than actually executing the administrative tasks. With the

In the spring and early summer we did an anthropological study of their corporate culture in order to find and understand their authentic strengths and use them as the foundation of the new visual identity. Over the past three months we've developed their new logo, type, colors and website design as well as all the details that go with a coherent visual identity; signage, business cards, email signatures... the works...

So, back to last week: Over two days we helped the group launch their new identity. Not only the visual identity but also explore the meaning of 'who are we' as they become a new organizational identity focusing on a new role towards their clients. They will leave the administrative role and take on the role of an empathic sparring partner with each client. Some 40-odd members of the group shared their stories of success in the new role and inspired each other (and me!) in pursuing their new identity. By the end of November their new website will be launched, focusing on their collaboration with clients.

I think my colleague Anne is going to blog about the actual visuals and the logotype next week - coming up!

Top: Consultant Jacob Lindeblad explaining the next exercise. The banners on the wall show the essence of the new identity. Bottom: Colleagues from the Corporate Center of Danish Cultural Ministry exercise storytelling. The stories best describing their new identity is shown as everyone puts a hand on the shoulder of the person who's story they like the most.