Where ideas are found.

Every brand starts with an idea, but the idea is rarely the first thing on the table. It is usually hiding somewhere in the business already, in the way a founder talks about the product, in what customers say when nobody is selling to them, or in the thing the competition keeps getting wrong. Our job is to find it. That is also what our name is about, so this entry covers both: the thinking behind the name Fondu, and the way we approach every brief.

The thinking behind the name

In English, Fondu is a twist on the word found. In French, it means melted. We liked that one name could hold both, because that is the whole job: finding the idea a brand is missing, then fusing the strategy and the design so nothing gets lost between them.

The jumbled letters matter too. Found becomes Fondu when you rearrange it, in the same way an unexpected perspective rearranges what you thought you already knew about a business. And like anything melted, Fondu is a melting pot, where strategists, designers, writers and makers with different backgrounds bring their ideas together until you can't tell where one ends and the next begins. Most of the ideas we have found for clients were not invented from nothing. They were already there, seen from the wrong angle.

We spent a long time on the name, and tried several before it, which is fitting, because naming is one of the things we do most. A good name has to be easy to say, ownable, meaningful to the people it is for, and able to grow with the business. It also has to survive being said out loud in two languages, which in Canada is not a small consideration. Fondu works in English and French, and it says what we do without having to explain itself too much.

How we approach every brief

No two briefs are the same, but the way we approach them is. It comes down to four habits.

We question the brief before we answer it. A brief is a starting point, not a set of instructions. When FAS Hospitality asked us to create a new hotel brand in Saudi Arabia, the brief asked for an industrial look, a commitment to sustainability and a community feel. There were simple answers to all of it, and that was the problem, because simple answers are how you end up with another copycat hotel. So we asked better questions, and Acacia became a hotel that gives the country's artists, musicians and chefs a stage.

We look for the idea before the look. We work on what a brand should be before deciding what it should look like. That means understanding the business, the people it serves, the market it sits in and what makes it worth noticing. Only once that idea is clear do we start designing, because a strong identity built on a weak idea is still a weak brand.

We let one decision lead the rest. The best brands feel inevitable, as if every part came from the same place, and usually that is because it did. With ILL, everything started with the name. Once we decided to take a word people use as an insult and wear it on purpose, the narrative, the identity and the tone of voice all followed from that one decision. With Veo, the strategy, the name and the identity were developed together, so each decision informed the next instead of being added on afterwards.

We stay involved to the final detail. From the first conversation to the final detail, we get involved in the thinking, the making and everything in between. An idea is only as good as the last place it shows up, whether that is a sign on a building, a key card, a menu or an app on someone's phone.

How we name a brand

Because the name is often where the idea first becomes visible, naming deserves its own note. Our naming process follows the same habits as everything else:

1. Define what the name has to do. Before writing a single option, we agree what the name needs to carry: the positioning, the audience, the markets and languages it has to work in, and where the business might grow.
2. Go wide. We explore every route, from descriptive names to invented words, borrowed meanings and names with a story in them, and we write far more options than anyone will ever see.
3. Narrow with reasons. Each shortlisted name is tested against the brief, said out loud, checked for meaning in other languages and screened for availability, so the final choice is one the business can own.
4. Show it in use. A name on a slide and a name on a storefront are two different things, so we present names in context, alongside the first sketches of the identity, the way people will actually meet it.

The names on our site show how different the results can be. Veo comes from the Latin salveo, to be in good health. Acacia is named after the tree that has always meant shade and hospitality in the Saudi landscape. Craft is an ode to the chefs and bakers who take their craft seriously. Each one started with the same question: what is the idea this business is built on?

Bring us the brief

There is a better brand behind every business, and a business behind every great idea. Finding them is why we are here. If you have a brief, a half-formed idea or a business that has outgrown its name, write to us at info@fondu.studio.