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who we are / how we work
Michael “Suxi” Suxdorf started our journey as a 3-dimensional design studio for bottle & flacon design creating design classics for Jil Sander, Hugo Boss and Zino Davidoff, followed by product design for Montblanc, Faber Castell, Louis Féraud and many others. Marc Suxdorf and Gerald Steuer have developed the Suxdorf Studios für Design since 1998 to one of the top brand & packaging design agencies in Germany, working for international companies and brands such as Reckitt (Cillit Bang, Sagrotan), Beiersdorf (NIVEA), Henkel (Bref, Loctite, Schwarzkopf, Somat), Colgate (elmex, meridol, Colgate, Softlan), Carlsberg (Duckstein), Kao (Goldwell, Guhl) and many more,
Based on our history at Suxdorf Studios for Design we do not just develop two dimensional graphic designs, we also work in the third dimension – in product design, shape development, point-of-sale/display and interior/shop design. This interdisciplinary approach across the various design disciplines, our in-depth brand knowledge and our ability to react quickly when needed is our strength. Agile and hands-on thinking in different dimensions in itself and our broad experience across many categories leads us to look at things in a new way creating successful design identities for brands.
Our Team consists of designers, consultants and project managers from Germany, Italy, Noway and the United Kingdom.
From the beginning until today we run our agency in a wonderful old warehouse building in the backyard in Hamburg-Pöseldorf, a district once well-known for its artists & art galleries (Gunter Sachs had his gallery here) and fashion (Jil Sander had here first shop & atelier right next to our building), now offering a vivid combination of restaurants, bars and one of the worlds nicest big city recreation areas (Lake Alster).
We love our iconic backyard building and believe in a rather individual, almost familiar working atmosphere that expresses our belief in honest, passionate and creative work in a relaxing atmosphere, breathing many years of design history.
who we are / how we work
Sounds nice – but what does this mean? Well, we believe that design is a process in which various disciplines must be combined in order to create something unique, something that is convincing, something that fits to the brand and product and meets consumers real, sometimes even unknown needs.
Our design process:
Understand the clients brief, think about the meaning for the brand and its products, review the competitive environment, look at the situation at point of sale, learn from consumers (qualitative as well as quantitative) and summarize this in our inspiring to the point internal creative brief.
We define what is needed for the creative design team to understand the brand and design objectives, however leaving enough room for creative intuition in order to develop design ideas that are surprising, sometimes leaving beaten tracks – but in the end all leading to our recommended 3-5 design concepts, which we present to our clients.
We take you through our journey: What we’ve learned, what we created for you. Not extensive, but comprehensive and to the point. We don’t bother you with what you already know, we don’t steal your precious time with marketing blabla, but we want you to understand what we did and why. We want to inspire you.
Our Toolbox
In order to create the best and most convincing design, we must
understand your brand
(learn to) use your products
get to know your consumer
And in case we have doubts or unanswered questions we will talk to consumers on a qualitative basis – either in own focus group discussions or in telephone/online interviews. Obviously if time is short, we have to work with what we have, but if needed we will let you know why we would possibly need more time to dig deeper into consumers minds.
Based on the briefing, the product benefits, the brand values and its market position as well as the design objectives we define what from our perspective
In a constantly changing environment, with increasing competition and an explosion of external impressions throughout all media and in life, consumers might tend to lose focus. Brands can provide guidance and trust, however, if they communicate coherently across all channels and deliver a relevant brand purpose as well as convincing product benefits. Brand and packaging design has the obligation to support this via a distinctive, easy to decode and long term Design Identity that guide consumers and present the brand and its products in an unique and convincing way.
The Design Identity can either be a strong logo, an ownable colour code, a distinctive typography, a clear and unique visual language, a memorable shape and/or the combination of course.
We either build on an existing Design Identity or create it for your brand, with the objective to last for a long time.