PL

Contact

Tell us what brings you here

Got a minute?

Answer a few questions so we know more. At the end you'll see an initial diagnosis.

Anita, Creative Director, co-founder

Rather talk right away?

A free 30-minute consultation with Anita, the studio's co-founder.

Book a call

Write or call

[email protected]
+48 726 220 596

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 from

A 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.

Zoom

Roztocze, in south-eastern Poland. Antlers are collected by hand, from natural sheds.

Raw material for manufacturers in the pet, furniture, beauty and medical industries.

Cut to size, whole, split or powdered. Under the Mily brand or the partner's own.

A cross-section as unique as a fingerprint. The brand shows this structure up close.

A dark coniferous forest with the trunk of a fallen tree.A pile of tangled deer antlers on a light background.A piece of deer antler cut lengthwise, on a white background.A close-up of the porous structure of an antler cross-section.

“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 line “Natural antlers.” over a photo of a dark forest, with a frame showing an antler cross-section in the middle.
A deer standing in tall, dry grass at the edge of a forest.
Tangled deer antlers arranged in a circle, in warm side light.

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
A huge screen in a conference room with the line “Raw deer antlers.”, an antler and the Mily Group pattern.

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.

Large scale Small scale, niche Cold, corporate Warm, relationship-driven
  • 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.

Logo element

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.

The Mily Group symbol embossed in brown leather, in a streak of light.

Brand guidelines

The logo on backgrounds

The guidelines say which logo colour goes with which background.

Background
Logo colour
In line with the guidelines The primary version: a brown logo on a light background. Incorrect use Light on light: not enough contrast. Not in the guidelines Gold is a detail colour. The guidelines don't allow for it on a light background. Incorrect use Blue is a background colour, never a logo colour. Incorrect use The logo disappears into the background. In line with the guidelines A light logo on a dark background. In line with the guidelines A gold logo on brown, as on the back of the business card. Incorrect use Blue is a background colour, never a logo colour. In line with the guidelines A brown logo on a gold background. Not in the guidelines The guidelines don't cover this pair. Incorrect use The logo disappears into the background. Incorrect use Blue is a background colour, never a logo colour. Incorrect use Brown on blue is on the list of incorrect uses. Incorrect use So is light on blue: on blue, only gold. In line with the guidelines A gold logo on blue: the colour of trade fairs and the website footer. Incorrect use Blue is a background colour, never a logo colour. Incorrect use A dark logo gets lost on a dark, uneven photo. In line with the guidelines On a photo, a light logo goes on a dark part of the image. Not in the guidelines The guidelines don't cover this pair. Incorrect use Blue is a background colour, never a logo colour.

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.

Variant
A greyhound in a collar in a dark forest, a photo from the milygroup.com website.

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

A laptop showing milygroup.com, surrounded by printouts of web pages, leaflets and other Mily Group materials, seen from above.

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
milygroup.com
Website section
A tablet showing milygroup.com, leaning against a brown leather sofa.

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.

  • Mily Group business cards: a blue one with a gold logo and a brown one.

    Business cards, with embossed gold

  • A blue trade fair stand with antlers on shelves and dark wood.

    The stand: blue, dark wood and antlers on shelves like exhibits

  • An open Mily Group leaflet with a dog on the cover and the offer inside.

    198 × 210 mm leaflet with UV varnish

  • Four Mily Group posts in the new identity.

    Post templates

  • A brown tag with a gold logo on a piece of antler.

    Product tag

  • Two phones showing the Mily Group profile: “Natural antlers” and “Rope toys” posts.

    Social media profile

Pages from the brand guidelines

  • A brand guidelines page: the Mily Group wordmark.

    Logo

  • A brand guidelines page: six logo variants on different backgrounds.

    The logo on backgrounds

  • A brand guidelines page: photography, with antlers, a forest, a dog and a deer.

    Photography

  • A brand guidelines page: a packshot placed on a photo in context.

    Packshot composition

  • A brand guidelines page: the pattern made from the letter I.

    Pattern

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 greyhound in a leather collar with a round tag, against an autumn forest.

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

More projects

View

Facing a similar challenge?

Tell us what you want to change. In a first, no-obligation call we will see whether and how we can help.

Let's talk Book a 30-minute consultation

Cookies

With your consent, we use Google Analytics and Hotjar to see how people use the site, and Google Ads to measure how well our ads work. Without consent, the site works just the same. You can change your choice at any time under “Cookie settings” in the footer. Details are in our privacy policy.

Cookie settings

Necessary Always on

The fluo_zgoda cookie remembers this choice for 12 months. Cloudflare Turnstile protects the forms from bots.

Plausible counts visits without cookies or personal data, so it works regardless of this choice.