Joining forces with Sphinx 2015, our product design innovations went beyond the initial idea, resulting in the company going as far as to rebrand themselves as Sigur. As one of Russia and the EU’s leading access control system providers, they had been growing steadily on the Russian market. Yet, despite having developed some stand-out products, they had failed to establish themselves internationally.

Our challenge when Sphinx approached us in 2015 was to go beyond the requested new product design and instead use design to elevate the brand and match the level of products’ technological excellence with the brand’s design language.

Our joint efforts first revealed the task at hand was much more complex. Having no internal design team and limited experience working with designers, Sphinx never really focused on their brand as such. Like many other companies in the hi-tech B2B business, they believed that their customers bought products based on their technical specifications rather than the appearance.

Together we explored how design could holistically benefit their company, starting at the very base of the brand – its values and name. Our aim was to develop a memorable brand with a coherent design language that would match the company’s origin, industry and core values of reliability and flexibility. The name Sigur was born.

As changing the name of an already established brand is quite a drastic measure, the decision was made to keep some of the other features of the initial brand. To ensure some continuity, their signature orange colour was preserved as the primary colour of the new Sigur visual identity.

First used in the design of the Sigur MR1 access reader in 2019, the new design language principles emphasize the technological solutions and facilitate the work of installers and maintenance personnel. The clever use of details enables the intuitive use of the products. While dark and neutral on the outside, the inside of the products is rendered in Sigur’s signature orange colour.

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The whole solution was rounded off with custom-developed packaging that takes into consideration the logistics of shipping and installation for two highly different user scenarios; one for installers (the holder and the reader are packed separately to facilitate the two-step installation) and the other for general sales (the product is assembled so that the buyer gets an accurate first impression instantly).

The attention that Sigur received at Moscow’s highly lauded exhibition of security and fire protection, Securika Fair – was unbelievable. But they did not only impress the Russian public. Sigur MR1 also convinced the international jury of design experts who awarded it a Red Dot award for Product Design in 2020