Francisco Baptista – brand origination

Francisco Baptista is a psychodynamic executive coach based in Zürich, working with senior leaders at the moment when the skills that built their career start creating their biggest challenges. He had an established coaching practice in Switzerland, but needed a fresh visual identity to match the depth and distinctiveness of his approach.

The brief was to create a personal brand that felt both intelligent and deeply human. Something that could hold the weight of the work (leadership dynamics, relational intelligence, identity and transition) without defaulting to the visual language of corporate consulting.

I was brought in to establish Francisco's personal brand, focused entirely on the visual side. My scope covered the visual identity, style guide, and a bespoke iconographic system. I didn't work on the website; that was built separately using the style guide as its foundation.

The identity centres on a distinctive symbol combining mirrored human faces with connected line structures. It represents dialogue, introspection, leadership, and relational intelligence. The mark was designed to feel like a conversation rather than a corporate logo.

From there, I developed the full visual system:

Visual Identity including the logo mark, colour palette, and typography

Visual Style Guide documenting the brand system for consistent application across all touchpoints

Hand-Crafted Iconographic System translating Francisco's coaching principles and methodologies into a coherent visual language

Each icon represents a core concept from Francisco's practice: leadership dynamics, learning cycles, relational intelligence, cultural change, and more. The system was intentionally drawn by hand to preserve a sense of human presence and immediacy, reinforcing the experiential nature of the coaching work.

Used across sessions and materials, the icons act as cognitive anchors, making abstract ideas tangible, navigable, and shared.

The visual identity and style guide became the foundation for Francisco's entire brand presence. His website (franciscobaptista.com) was built by another team using the style guide as its blueprint. The brand system now supports his coaching practice, a published book series ("Becoming Leader"), editorial content, and client-facing materials.

The hand-drawn iconographic system remains a distinctive element of his practice, used in coaching sessions and publications to make complex leadership concepts immediately recognisable.