We are a Laboratory for Brands and Digital Experiences working from Portugal to the world. We build brands from scratch with agility to adapt in the ever-changing world of the 21st century. Insights from your business feed our strategic and experimental approach, fostering consistent, inspiring and meaningful brand experiences across offline and online touchpoints.
Over the years, we’ve been helping clients from diverse markets, from sustainable and wellbeing brands to tech startups, culture and entertainment, fashion & lifestyle or luxury hospitality and real estate brands.
Are you looking for a partner to assist you in laying the foundations of a strong brand? Or maybe you want to raise awareness of your new brand through a digital activation? Bear with us to understand how we make it work.
Is your business rocking hard?
If you are considering to hire us, we know there’s probably some business-related challenge lingering in your mind. If you’re a startup raising venture capital, you probably need to explore your brand story and create visual assets that convince that investor of an idea that will change the world. Or maybe you saw an opportunity to explore the digital landscape to expand your company but lack the skills to do so? Or you manage a 10-year old brand that has grown steadily but lost its mojo recently due to new competitors entering the market. Perhaps you just want to launch an exciting new brand?
Whatever the reason is, our first step is to dive deep in it.
Great design must provide aesthetically pleasant and inspiring experiences but, first and foremost, must be driven by business goals. That is why our method begins with the full comprehension of your business and purposes. We follow a design thinking framework – a human-centred approach through which we seek to understand people, challenge assumptions and redefine strategies.
Design for Breakthrough
To cut through the noise, your brand needs to stand out as unique to your target audience. Only by combining strategy, branding and excellent execution can we bridge the gap between your business and how your customers perceive and engage with you – to deliver a consistent brand across touchpoints.
Through collaborative methodologies, we implement a cycle of strategy, execution and optimisation that aligns creativity with business purposes. In this step-by-step process, you’ll uncover the rationale that pushes our creative work.
Our ultimate goal is to find your breakthrough: an innovative solution that meaningfully improves services and products.
STRATEGY
Insights and vision are crucial to designing brand experiences. Having a thorough understanding of your products, target audience, competitors and, most importantly, your mission and values, is critical to what we do. We start every project with a Discovery phase that looks holistically at your business and sets the stage for potential paths ahead.
Creative Execution
With goals and a rationale in place, we meticulously approach every design task striving for intuitive aesthetics and long-lasting visuals. Afterwards, we translate the brand values into the proposed online and offline touchpoints, always aiming at unique brand experiences and establishing guidelines to move forward.
Optimisation
Building and maintaining a brand is a continuous effort that requires constant verification. For that reason, we’ll be there for you to measure results, re-evaluate efforts and adapt strategies as needed.
What can we do for you?
Our strategic and experimental approach is backed by expertise in several different fields. Below you can check a representative list of the in-house skills we can provide. We love exploring new grounds, so challenge us!
- Branding: Research and Audit, Insights, Positioning, Naming, Brand Identity, Tone of Voice, Custom Typography, Brand Collaterals, Brand Experience, Digital Brand Activations, Creative Campaigns and Workshops
- Digital Services: Digital Brand Activations, Website Design and Development, E-commerce, Digital Games, Digital Strategy, Creative Campaigns for Social Media, Performance Reporting and Digital Advertising
- Multimedia Content: Content Strategy, Copy, Photography, Film, Motion Design and Animation
- Visual Communication: Art Direction, Graphic and Communication Design, Typography, Illustration, Iconography, Infographics, Packaging, Signage, Editorial, Calligraphy and Lettering
Case-studies
The best way to understand our methods at the agency is to have a closer look at some projects we’ve curated for you. We put them together in the form of extensive case-studies, so make sure to check them here.
Bits of us
The word “kobu” derives from a Japanese verb, meaning “inspiration”. A metaphor for how design impacts our daily lives, sometimes unnoticed, but inspiring us as a species. It is also a call-to-action to the role we believe brands should have in the world.
Nuno founded KOBU in October 2014 after four years working as a freelance front-end developer and was soon joined by Sandra, an illustrator and long-term childhood friend. Over the years, they brought together a team of curious human beings with a passion for pushing forward and exploring ways to inspire and grow. If you can spare another minute, head here to meet the team.
The values that bring us together were translated into a manifesto, our KBC0D3 – a statement of the agency’s vision, one that we wish to share with our clients and the world. Interested? Click here to read our manifesto.
We are continually looking for new challenges, so if you feel we are the right fit for your business, scroll a bit more and let’s break through the noise!
Let’s break through the noise
