Towards new horizons

For 15 years she was co-owner of the agency Lang Gysi Knoll/Neue LGK, now she has taken over the management of the Bernese design agency Noord.

At the end of 2014, Trasatti participated in a CAS for brand management at HSLU, working on a thesis about the Circus Knie brand. "This brand works as a tradition," Trasatti said, "thedifferent anchors consist of childhood memories, like the smell of popcorn, the acrobatics, the tent or the horses with their smells and sounds." Such recognition features are what make up the Knie brand. These traditional values of a brand, longevity and longevity are exactly what fascinate Trasatti. "Most make the mistake in branding of repositioning themselves far too soon without staying true to their roots." Other traditional Swiss brands, such as Swiss Post or SBB, have managed to communicate in a self-similar way for many years while still constantly updating their appearance. Where one could start, on the other hand, is in the design of train stations and, in keeping with the motto "At home on the way," improve the well-being of passengers when they get off the train. Now a new time has come for Trasatti - she doesn't see her life as a stringent career path and so she has now ventured into a new project; Noord. The agency combines two aspects that were fundamentally important to her when she decided to break away from self-employment: Design competence and creativity, as well as a good small team that is fun to work with.

"Experience in motion"

Trasatti took over as managing director at Noord after it became clear to her that she wanted to work in a team again. Going back to a traditional advertising agency was not an option for her, at least in terms of the often short-term mindset. She is more suited to dealing with long-term brand management. "Fast-moving communication hasn't fascinated me for a long time," she says. Rather, she says, she has always been more interested in the strategic background. "I'm fascinated by digging deep into what's actually happening and dealing with the fundamental assumptions of the brand - such as the customer's perspective and the company's history," Trasatti says. She needs solid foundations in order to deal with a topic in depth. So she soon became interested in brand management rather than developing short-term measures, she says. "That simply has to do with her own preferences," she adds. After many years in advertising, this preference of hers led her to drop out and start her own business as a consultant in brand management and brand communication. "That gave me back my passion," she says looking back. However, the origin for this step was the following thought: "To help companies make better briefings," says Trasatti. After all, brand communication starts much earlier than the implementation of measures that correspond exclusively to the management view. "Why does a company exist at all, what is its goal and how do they want to position themselves? " - dealing with these questions is Nicole Trasatti's passion. And these are the questions she deals with at Noord. The design agency is all about recognizing design issues and efficiently arriving at consistent solutions. Currently, Noord is working on a project for Isostar, for which it is designing the entire visual world and the website. Various corporate designs and logos are also in the pipeline.

Classic career

Nicole Trasatti was co-owner of the agency Lang Gysi Knoll (later Neue LGK) for more than 15 years, where she was head of consulting. She was responsible for campaigns for Swiss Post, Emmi and SBB. Trasatti is a trained marketing communications manager and specializes in brand management. In the last two years, she has worked independently as a consultant for brand management, branding and brand communication, serving SMEs, large companies, NPOs and supporting agencies as well as creative teams in the development of corporate presences and campaigns. In retrospect, Trasatti says she followed the classic career path. In addition to a few jobs on the client side - at Swissair, for example - she had gained experience in various large agencies. "At some point, the time simply comes to stop something and start something else," she says modestly, describing her career and her departure from Neue LGK. In the meantime, she had also become a mother, many things had changed, "and you don't have forever," she explains. You can just think about how you want to spend your time in the working world before a change becomes difficult at some point. In larger agencies, you're much more limited, says Trasatti, "most people are busy with themselves. She, on the other hand, likes to lead employees, wants to pass on something and coach teams. Positioning herself superficially is not her thing. For Trasatti, Noord fit perfectly into this image of a small agency that is willing to change, but is also able to do everything from a single source.

Ursina mason