The collaboration between WASHKing and Peter Schmidt Group came about through Impacc, a non-profit organization for development cooperation that aids sustainable start-ups in Africa. Impacc CEO Till Wahnbaeck introduced the Ghanaian company to the agency and in 2021, and executive creative director Norbert Möller and his team were thrilled to support the company pro bono. “We want to help people perceive toilets as a lifestyle product that everyone can afford. It sounds strange by European standards, but in the poorer areas of Ghana, toilets are seen as status symbols. It has a lot to do with dignity, but also with safety, if you can go to the toilet in peace,” says Norbert Möller.

To help the company achieve the greatest possible success, Norbert Möller and his team developed a new corporate identity and an emotionally appealing brand story. Their work is made manifest in the tagline “Own your throne” and the logo, which features the company's initials and a crown. This is because in Ghana, owning a toilet goes hand-in-hand with social prestige.

For entrepreneur Dieudonne Kwame Agudah, it was important that the new brand identity not only made use of African elements but was also effective and understandable all over the world. This approach was also supported by Ruediger Goetz, managing director of Peter Schmidt Group, who added, “We neither wanted to simply imitate the country’s style nor rely entirely on contemporary design guidelines. We wanted to combine traditional and modern aspects.” The new branding therefore makes use of both Western and regional design practices. The logo is simple and can be used in many ways, while the primary brand colors of apricot and ocean blue harken back to color combinations that can be found in the facades of buildings throughout Ghana. As a result, the new brand appearance looks perfectly at home in the local environment – and at the same time projects a confident and cosmopolitan attitude.

The designers from Peter Schmidt Group also made their way to Ghana to make sure the concepts they created in Germany actually work in real life. They took branded clothing with them for the WASHKing team, as well as stencils that can be used to apply the logo to the doors of the toilet cubicles, and proved that high-quality design doesn’t necessarily have to mean high production costs. Their next steps are to design a website, flyers and other marketing tools, so the start-up has everything it needs to attract more customers and investors.