Case study — design & marketing
Architecture of consistency. A comprehensive rebrand of Nadmorska Grupa Medialna and its sub-brands
Six brands that didn't know they belonged to one group. I built a typographic system where symbolism lives in letter anatomy — and cut production costs across the entire portfolio.
Client: Nadmorska Grupa Medialna (NGM) — an umbrella brand encompassing local media and telecommunications services (Chopin Telewizja Kablowa, Nadmorski24.pl portal, Radio Norda.FM, Twoja Telewizja Morska, TTM Foundation).
Diagnosis: visual chaos and fragmentation
Before the rebrand, Nadmorska Grupa Medialna operated as a collection of visually disconnected entities. Each subsidiary’s identity was created at different times, with no overarching design system.
The old logos suffered from classic early-digital design sins:
- Overloaded with literal symbols (satellite dishes, radio waves, boats).
- Complex structures that destroyed readability at small scales (smartphone screens, social media avatars).
- Completely ignored their shared parent company. A user browsing Nadmorski24.pl had no visual reason to connect it with TTM television or the Chopin operator.
This inconsistency diluted brand equity and made building a strong, regional media empire impossible. The challenge was to create a flexible structure that would unify the group without destroying individual channel recognition.
Visual strategy: modular system and typographic unification
I implemented a strategy close to endorsed brand architecture, but with a heavy emphasis on unifying the graphic core.
The foundation of the new system is a shared, modern sans-serif typeface. The shift to all-lowercase lettering serves a dual purpose: it optically equalizes the diverse names (no disruption from capital letters), and it communicates openness, modernity, and digital heritage.
Instead of adding external symbols that unnecessarily lengthen the mark, I integrated symbolism directly into the letter anatomy.
Sub-brand execution analysis
Nadmorska Grupa Medialna — umbrella brand
Before: A clunky, two-line layout with an archaic arc. The mark was heavy and couldn’t serve as a modern corporate stamp.
After: Radical reduction. A compact “ngm” acronym preserving the signature orange. The mark became minimalist, highly responsive, and functions as a strong, competent signature guaranteeing the quality of the entire group.
Chopin — cable TV and telecom services
Before: Aggressive, “technical” typography with a very literal satellite dish embedded in it. The logo screamed the 90s, suggesting outdated infrastructure.
After: A muted, elegant logotype in a deep graphite shade. The clunky dish was replaced by a subtle symbol of transmission waves/Wi-Fi hovering above the letter “i”. The mark evolved from “cables and dishes” to immaterial, modern communication and innovation.
Nadmorski24.pl — news portal
Before: A horizontally stretched logo with a gradient “wave/sail” cutting through the letters. Chaotic and extremely difficult to scale legibly in mobile headers.
After: Calmed composition. Brilliantly simple use of the counter inside the letter “o” to embed a minimalist wave motif. The color code (navy + orange/ochre) was preserved but applied in a disciplined way. The portal gained credibility, moving from a local blog aesthetic to a professional publisher format.
Norda.FM — radio station
Before: A distracting overlay of radio waves beside centered typography with frequencies. The mark was completely unsuited for modern digital demands.
After: Consistent with the Nadmorski24 two-color layout. Again, the letter “o” serves as a communication vector — inside it, a geometricized sound wave (equalizer) pictogram is enclosed. The logo became horizontal, easy to implement on video bars or radio apps.
Twoja Telewizja Morska (TTM)
Before: Derivative placement of an abbreviation in a blue circle beside a serif wordmark. No dynamics or distinctive features.
After: TTM’s brand integrated with the visual DNA of modern video media. A red, rounded triangle — unmistakably decoded as a “Play” button — became the container for the “ttm” abbreviation. The mark is dynamic, suggesting action, movement, and video-on-demand (VOD) formats. It positions the brand as ready for a younger audience.
TTM Foundation
Before: An over-detailed symbol of hands inscribed in a heart, dissolving into a blob at smaller sizes.
After: A consistent continuation of TTM’s visual language. The “ttm” abbreviation was inscribed in a synthetic, red heart shape. The mark retains its powerful emotional charge (care, help) but is cleaned of visual noise. It presents the charitable organization with full professionalism, on par with the group’s commercial pillars.
Strategic summary
This rebrand is a textbook example of portfolio architecture ordering. Eliminating visual noise and introducing strict typographic rules killed the internal visual competition between NGM’s brands.
Now, whether a user visits Nadmorski24.pl, passes a Chopin service van, or watches TTM, they subconsciously register a shared aesthetic denominator. This amplifies the impression of scale, increases trust in individual entities (transferring credibility from one channel to another), and dramatically cuts marketing material production costs thanks to a coherent guideline. NGM stopped being a collection of local companies — it became a modern media ecosystem.