Brief
Our client, an entrepreneurial Swedish law firm, required a new name, brand identity and website to support its transformation into a next generation law firm, as part of AGRD Partners, the fast-expanding Axcel-backed legal services group.
The brief required a short, memorable, meaningful and protectable brand name, a brand strategy with a clearly articulated and differentiated brand promise, a distinctive brand identity system and a full website to launch the brand; all within three months.
Solution
Starting with the brand name. We studied the legal services market across the Nordics as well as all the leading 'golden circle' firms, before identifying a positively differentiated positioning. Using our well-proven brand naming process, we identified twelve naming themes before creating hundreds of name concepts, using our Third Lens brand naming AI to filter them for Nordic linguistics and identify any double-meanings. We then screened the top 100 candidates for trade mark, domain and social media availability, non-registered rights and pronunciation. A shortlist of twenty was presented to our client, before shortlisting five for final checks. ‘Ascente' was unanimously selected for its elegance, positive attributes and being easily intelligible across all Nordic languages. Ascente was cleared for trade mark applications while we negotiated the purchase of the Ascente.com domain to complete a strong package of brand name intellectual property rights.
Next, we used our 5-step brand strategy methodology to define a differentiating value proposition. The brand name inspired the brand promise 'Legal advisory, elevated.', reinforcing meaning in the name and implying a new era of legal services. 100-word and 50-word brand narratives brought the brand promise to life.
When it came to designing the brand identity, the name lent itself visually to either all-caps or upper and lowercase styled word marks. We explored a range of elegant and distinctive letterforms, settling on a design that expresses confidence and contemporary elegance. The font uses bold stroke contrast between the thick vertical stems and the thin horizontal strokes and serifs. The capital A is particularly distinctive, with contrasting ascenders and a distinctive serif on the base of the thin diagonal stem. This capital letter is also used as a highly recognisable monogram.
Supporting the strong typographic language is a natural Nordic colour palette based on Pine green and Stone, plus beautiful photography by Hans Strand, one of Scandinavia’s leading landscape photographers.
The bespoke, dual language website brings all these elements together in an immersive user experience, realised in a fast-track design and build programme of just two months, yet still featuring all practice areas and profiles of 100 legal professionals.
Results
Ascente was launched on October 2nd 2026 with the website go-live on plan and social media campaigns launched simultaneously.
https://ascente.com/