For those working in the creative services field, you’ve surely heard some version of the mantra, “Only work with people and/or brands who reflect your own values.”

At face value, this might be a perfectly acceptable (albeit ambitious) goal for freelancers and small studios like ours. But on a deeper level, is it a noble or admirable feat to only work within the bounds of one’s own worldview? Perhaps? But is it financially viable?! I digress…

All that said, once in a blue moon, a new client partner comes along that checks all of the boxes.

• Doing important work for the greater good of society? ✅
• Ambitious goals for the future of their brand? ✅
• Proper budget allocations for the work? ✅
• A small, focused team of stakeholders? ✅
• Foregoing the god-forsaken RFP and contacting a preferred agency directly? ✅

One recent example of this dream client partnership was the team at Antora Energy.

Antora is a Bay Area venture revolutionizing the clean energy sector, turning sunshine and wind into reliable, on-demand heat and power.

Antora’s proprietary technology uses thermal-heated carbon blocks (to the tune of 1,500º Celsius!) to store and discharge clean energy. This allows large-scale industrial businesses to install a reliable, on-demand clean energy source on-site, eliminating 100% of scope 1 + 2 emissions in the process. (Author’s note: this is a dramatic simplification of Antora’s mind-boggling technology. Readers interested in words like “thermophotovoltaic” can refer to the articles linked at the conclusion of this piece.)

Like many startups, the brand operated in its infancy with a scrappy, generic design expression. Following investments from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Shell Ventures, their team commissioned Buddy-Buddy for a comprehensive rebranding.

The goal was not simply a corporate glow-up, Antora desperately needed to elevate its perception in order to attract talent, secure additional investments, and convey trust to prospective customers.

The symbol design we landed on combines two central themes — geometric blocks and energy creation — into an iconic brand mark that can scale down to a mobile phone and up to a shipping container.

This block + energy creation concept resonated with the Antora stakeholder team, and provided us with both a clearly-defined filter and ample creative space for the initial brand design concepts. (We’ll share more of these rejected concepts in a future post. 👀)

Our geometric theme translated effortlessly from brand identity to iconography, print layouts, and digital applications, allowing for technical messaging to be gridded, compartmentalized, and more easily digested.

This system also allowed Antora’s internal team to have clear direction and guardrails across branded applications — work that would be completed by in-house resources.

It was a true pleasure to work alongside the inspiring founders and team at Antora Energy: Andrew, Justin, and David. Special thanks to the one and only Danielle Applestone for bringing us in and leading the charge!

Read more about Antora’s work:
• Canary Media
• CNBC

View the full Antora Energy case study on our site:
www.buddy-buddy.co/Antora-Energy

See more work: www.buddy-buddy.co. Interested in working together? Email: info@buddy-buddy.co