Designer profile

OKTO — Making Things and Moving Brands

For OKTO – a fledgling Stockholm-based agency founded in 2019 – movement is everything. This applies as much to its internal company culture as it does to its development and positioning of brands. The interdisciplinary, 22-person team is constantly exploring surprising and innovative communication channels and loading these with authentic content. Both local and global clients benefit from this dynamism. And although OKTO always focuses on a strong digital core, the team is open to all creative options, as “this may be our starting point, but isn’t necessarily our finishing line”.

Interview with OKTO

Red Dot: How has the perception of brands changed, also due to increasing digitalisation?
OKTO:  You really need to connect at an emotional level. It’s more important than ever to have a coherent expression in everything from billboards to apps and physical products. As soon as discrepancies occur and things start to look, feel or sound a bit off, it’s easy to become reluctant and suspicious. If the brand does not care about the quality of its things 100%, why should you?

Oatly’s website is very playful and takes a lot of interaction. Will it become even more important in the future to break (supposed) rules more often, even in the digital world?
Breaking established rules and conventions is a great way to create a memorable impression as long as you do it in a respectful and user-friendly way. With Oatly, we felt like we had the opportunity to do something really special since pushing things in fun, thought-provoking and unexpected ways is what they do, every day. (Andreas Blombäck, Digital Design Lead, OKTO)

“Making Things and Moving Brands”