Naming and branding logic behind SmartDreamers, a Romanian startup with international clients

When we built the brand, SmartDreamers was a job platform entering a highly competitive market, next to eJobs, Bestjobs and Hipo.

They had the volume: thousands of companies, candidates and job postings.
We didn’t.

With a startup’s marketing budget, we had to avoid competing on quantity.

We went for quality, specialization and a brand that attracts through what it stands for, not just what it offers.

The name had to say this at a glance:

Dreamers: we think about new, innovative things.
Smart: but we do them with a plan, as efficiently as possible.

And it didn’t describe just the product.
It described the team, the recruiters we worked with and the candidates.

People who think differently and expect more than the bare minimum.

Everything grew from there:
- The logo: a paper airplane, standing for creativity, playfulness, exploration and a dream that takes flight.

- The archetype: Creator (in the same family as Lego, Apple and Pinterest).

- The tone: fresh, friendly, inspiring.

A good name helps you enormously in all the communication that follows.

You can use it in dozens of contexts and carry the brand idea through everything you do, in different ways, without losing its essence.

The name stayed the same, even though we’ve since taken a different path and it’s now a different business model.

Full case study here.