How&How brand “future of zero carbon concrete” Biozeroc with engaging architectural forms

The concrete industry is one of the biggest producers of carbon dioxide in the world (producing between 4-8% of total global CO emissions), second only to water. Because of this, reducing cement-related carbon emissions deserves to be brought to the front of the climate conversation. Thankfully, UK startup Biozeroc is putting in the work, and their team of scientists and engineers are developing a zero-carbon alternative as the first priority – with other materials to follow in the future.

They called in the help of global branding agency How&How to develop an appropriate brand image for the company. It was important to not sway into a direction that is too friendly or overfamiliar. At the same time, they didn’t want the company’s materials to appear experimental or unscalable. How&How therefore aimed to communicate Biozeroc as ‘more than just concrete,’ with an identity centred around the idea of ‘House of Hard Things.’

“The space we landed on for the overall feel of the Biozeroc brand was somewhere between cutting edge science and modernism,” Design Director Luke Scott explains. Positioned as the construction industry’s “new source of solid,” – think bricks, panels and blocks – Biozeroc has dual audiences. One one hand, they work with architects and developers. On the other, material scientists. Because of this, Scott tells us, it was important to have a colour palette and wider visual language that felt at home in both worlds. “So I guess you could say the palette is a mash up of Le Corbusier’s Polychromy and a science lab,” he adds.

Following research into brutalism (and its inseparable link with concrete), it was a natural decision to select a primary typeface that follows a similar architectural lineage. “The Future by Klim Type Foundry – used as the headline typeface – is a revival of Futura, a classically architectural typeface,” Scott tells us. “Haffer was chosen as an accompanying body type for its clean, modern aesthetic, bringing a technological flavour to a brand that is otherwise dominated by physical forms.”

Central to the identity is the ‘B’ logomark, which was born from research into breeze blocks, a lightweight building brick made from small cinders mixed with sand and cement. “There is a world of interesting graphic patterns within the different types of these blocks which feel distinctly modernist and immediately remind you of concrete,” Scott explains. “While we decided using the patterns themselves was a little too intense, during this exploration we stumbled on the idea of creating a simple ‘B’ using these breeze block forms,” he notes.

When it came to selecting the imagery for the identity, the process was a lot less straightforward. “Biozeroc are a startup working on the molecular science of concrete, this means their actual physical product could be months or even years away,” Scott reveals. With nothing to show, this posed a communication challenge, resolved by creating rendered visuals of the materials. “We decided it was important to incorporate 3D to bring some tangibility to the brand,” Scott reflects. “It was also a natural follow on from the brand idea of ‘House of hard things,’ so we nodded to the double meaning and actually showed some.. hard things.”

How&How

Biozeroc