Mily Group
Craft at scale.Nature with character.
A rebrand for a deer antler supplier: communication strategy, logo, brand guidelines, the milygroup.com website and trade fair materials.
See where the idea came fromA deer antler on a light background with a soft shadow, a photo from the hero of milygroup.com.
Big idea
One piece of antler, and hundreds of tonnes at once
Every antler is collected by hand in a Polish forest, from natural sheds, and every one is different. At the same time, Mily Group supplies the raw material on an industrial scale and was the first Polish company in its industry to export antlers to the US. Instead of choosing one of these stories, we built the brand identity on the combination of both.



“A brand that doesn't apologise for its scale or hide its natural side behind cold, corporate design.”
Mily Group brand playbook
Keywords
- Craft
- Nature
- Partnership
- Uniqueness
- Scale
- Ethics
- Respect
The inspiration was the form and structure of antlers: naturalness combined with an orderly, businesslike aesthetic.
The brand's visual language grows out of nature and the company's scale. The key visual is a modular pattern and natural photos of antlers in different settings, from industrial scale to structural details, surrounded by nature.
The challenge
From machinery roots to a premium brand
Mily Group makes natural dog chews and supplies deer antler as a raw material to companies around the world. It started out as a company with roots in machinery, and that's how it looked: technical, like a factory rather than a supplier of material that ends up in premium products. In the workshops the team named the goal plainly: break away from the technical image without losing the authority of a large supplier.
The new brand was to highlight the natural, eco-friendly origin of the material, speak to two very different people at once and be ready for the US and European markets, and in future Asia and the Middle East. On top of that came one identity and a communication system that brings order to the offer.
- 1.
- Polish company in the industry to export antlers to the US
- 5
- customer industries: pet, furniture, interiors, beauty, pharma
- 3
- continents on the target market map
Positioning
An empty corner on the market map
Before the project we looked at five competitor brands. All of them sat on one side of the axis: either a large B2B supplier with a cold, corporate message, or a warm, natural brand without scale. Nobody combined the two. That's where we placed Mily Group.
A global partner trusted like family.
- Solid B2B supplierlarge scale, a cool and anonymous message
- B2B supplier without characterthe scale is there, but no story and no face
- Bland middle groundneither scale nor story
- Natural niche brandgood storytelling, small scale
- B2C niche and ethicswarmth and values, no B2B capacity
- Mily Groupscale, craft and warmth at once
Logo
A logo you can read like a forest
Every element of the logo is there for a reason.
A deer's head built from a single repeated module. It works on its own, for example on a trade fair backdrop or embossed in leather.
The elongated serif of the L is shaped like a single piece of antler. It's the only literal reference in the wordmark.
The letter I gave rise to the brand pattern: vertical strokes in rows, like the layers of a forest.
Subtle serifs place the brand in the premium segment and give the letters a steady vertical rhythm.
Brand guidelines
The logo on backgrounds
The guidelines say which logo colour goes with which background.
Pattern
A forest from a single letter
The pattern grew out of the letter I in the wordmark. Some letters are double height and form the foreground, while the even rows recall the layers of a forest. The brown pattern always sits on blue or shows through a photo.
Colour and type
Brown, gold, and blue for trade fairs
The light palette with dark brown underlines the businesslike character and the natural colour of antler. Gold appears only as a detail: a button on the website, embossing on the business card. Blue is the colour of large scale: it sets the brand apart from competitors, makes it stand out at trade fairs and is always a background.
-
White
main background
- CMYK
- 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
- RGB
- 255 / 255 / 255
-
Light grey
main background
- CMYK
- 7 / 5 / 6 / 0
- RGB
- 240 / 240 / 240
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 1 C
-
Dark brown
logo and text
- CMYK
- 40 / 60 / 65 / 88
- RGB
- 44 / 26 / 17
- Pantone
- 4975 C
-
Gold
detail, CTA, print finish
- CMYK
- 28 / 36 / 56 / 18
- RGB
- 169 / 143 / 107
- Pantone
- 873 C
-
Blue
background only
- CMYK
- 96 / 86 / 16 / 4
- RGB
- 47 / 58 / 127
- Pantone
- 2748 C
-
Instrument Serif · headings
Raw deer antlers.
-
IBM Plex Sans · body text
We are a trusted partner, supplier and manufacturer of natural dog chews.
-
IBM Plex Mono · craft detail
WE SUPPLY ANTLERS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Website
Self-service before anyone picks up the phone
The website is in English, because the brand should think in English, not just translate. A hero with a close-up of an antler, the offer close at hand in the menu, and product cards that tell partners what they would otherwise ask a sales rep.
- Design for desktop and mobile, from wireframe to animations
- Built on WordPress
- A panel where the team adds products and posts on its own
- A form with a choice of contact method: phone or email
Materials
From business cards to the stand
We carried the system from the brand guidelines over to everything a sales rep needs at meetings and trade fairs. Gold in print is embossed or foil-stamped, and the antlers on the stand sit on shelves like exhibits in a gallery.
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Business cards, with embossed gold
-
The stand: blue, dark wood and antlers on shelves like exhibits
-
198 × 210 mm leaflet with UV varnish
-
Post templates
-
Product tag
-
Social media profile
Pages from the brand guidelines
Working together
The rebrand was our first project
More projects followed the identity and website. Printed materials are now made within the finished system, and Mily Group has also entrusted us with naming a new brand in its portfolio.
- 21
- pages of communication strategy, with personas, a market map and communication rules
- 11
- chapters of brand guidelines, from logo construction to the pattern and brand elements
- 8
- pages on milygroup.com, from the antler offer to the FAQ
- 2
- animations: one of the whole identity and one of the website
A global partner trusted like family.
Mily Group no longer has to choose between the image of a large supplier and a natural product: the new brand shows both. The team has brand guidelines, a playbook and a website it develops on its own.
The new identity strengthens Mily Group's credibility as a global supplier. Its communication is in order, and the system can grow into new markets.
- Client
- Mily Group
- Scope
- Animation
- Branding
- Coding
- Logo
- Business materials
- CMS panel
- Social media
- Leaflets and brochures
- Communication strategy
- Website
- Content entry
- Strategy workshops
- Technologies
- WordPress
- Adobe After Effects
- Online
- milygroup.com
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