beam
Client: beam
Period: 2022-2023
Professional services
01 The sneak-peek
A name that sheds light
beam is a development-economics communications firm that turns complex research into clarity. Before it could do that for clients, it needed clarity of its own — so BBA Liminal ran a purpose workshop, named the firm, and built its identity around strength, light and signal.
02 The liminal moment
For society to change its behaviour, we need better understanding. That is the conviction behind beam — a firm of development economists using analytical expertise to draw clear insight from complex research studies. But when its founders came to BBA Liminal, the firm had no name and no face.
The brief was to develop a name and visual identity for the new firm — and, beneath that, to consolidate the founders' ideas and vision into a brand positioning and personality the name could fit. There is a pleasing symmetry in the task: a company whose whole offer is clarity needed help becoming clear about itself. The threshold was the founding moment — the point where a shared conviction between economists becomes an entity the world can recognise, hire and trust.
03 The transformation
We found the purpose in a workshop. We began with a holistic purpose workshop with the founders, agreeing the core identity building blocks — purpose statement, vision and positioning — that everything else would be built on.
We chose a name with light in it. From that foundation the firm was named beam — drawing on ideas of strength, light, communication, signalling and the dissemination of information. A name that says what the firm does: it carries insight from source to audience.
We built an identity to match. We designed a logo that carries the character the company wants to project, and developed the overall look and feel — a corporate identity that makes the brand visible and whole.
04 The craft
Strength, light, signal
An identity for a firm that brings research into the light: the beam name and logotype, a clean look and feel, and the purpose statement and vision that anchor them — all drawn from one workshop with the founders.
05 The validation of purpose
The work gave beam what it gives its own clients: clarity. A firm that began as a shared conviction between economists now has a purpose statement, a name and an identity that say precisely what it is for — and a foundation its founders can build on as the practice grows.
“Thank you so very much for this and for all the magic you and the team have brought to the lives of the beam team!”
- Anja Smith, Co-founder, beam
01 The sneak-peek
A name that sheds light
beam is a development-economics communications firm that turns complex research into clarity. Before it could do that for clients, it needed clarity of its own — so BBA Liminal ran a purpose workshop, named the firm, and built its identity around strength, light and signal.
02 The liminal moment
For society to change its behaviour, we need better understanding. That is the conviction behind beam — a firm of development economists using analytical expertise to draw clear insight from complex research studies. But when its founders came to BBA Liminal, the firm had no name and no face.
The brief was to develop a name and visual identity for the new firm — and, beneath that, to consolidate the founders' ideas and vision into a brand positioning and personality the name could fit. There is a pleasing symmetry in the task: a company whose whole offer is clarity needed help becoming clear about itself. The threshold was the founding moment — the point where a shared conviction between economists becomes an entity the world can recognise, hire and trust.
03 The transformation
We found the purpose in a workshop. We began with a holistic purpose workshop with the founders, agreeing the core identity building blocks — purpose statement, vision and positioning — that everything else would be built on.
We chose a name with light in it. From that foundation the firm was named beam — drawing on ideas of strength, light, communication, signalling and the dissemination of information. A name that says what the firm does: it carries insight from source to audience.
We built an identity to match. We designed a logo that carries the character the company wants to project, and developed the overall look and feel — a corporate identity that makes the brand visible and whole.
04 The craft
Strength, light, signal
An identity for a firm that brings research into the light: the beam name and logotype, a clean look and feel, and the purpose statement and vision that anchor them — all drawn from one workshop with the founders.
05 The validation of purpose
The work gave beam what it gives its own clients: clarity. A firm that began as a shared conviction between economists now has a purpose statement, a name and an identity that say precisely what it is for — and a foundation its founders can build on as the practice grows.
“Thank you so very much for this and for all the magic you and the team have brought to the lives of the beam team!”
- Anja Smith, Co-founder, beam
Naming
Brand & communications strategy
Brand identity design
Positioning & narrative
Purpose architecture
