Among her agency's more famous projects is the official typography for the Louvre.
After completing her undergraduate degree in Entrepreneurship Economics , VERN's graduate Sanja Nikolić began her business career in the field of marketing.
Although she had the idea of working in finance after graduation, our lecturers recognized her potential for marketing and guided her to develop in that direction. She developed her career in the marketing departments of one small and one large international company and several recognized marketing agencies, but over time she realized that she was not interested in this – “visible” – side of marketing, but what lies behind it – the design of the product itself. And that is what she does today.
During the agency career episode, business challenges and acquaintances brought her together with colleagues Marko Mlinarić and Sandro Dujmenović , with whom she decided to start a private business project, after the idea had been developing, as she states, "in our heads for several years". And so the design studio Beton was born.
When asked what services they offer to potential clients, Sanja answers:
"First and foremost, we are a design agency, we do everything, we sometimes joke that there is no material that we cannot shape. Primarily, it is graphic design, and then we do a lot of web design, but we also have situations when we are in the role of design consultants because we really want to give each client added value, and we always approach each one individually, and yes, that approach probably makes us, as they say, a boutique agency. One of the key niches of our work is the branding of luxury and high-end products, but we also love culture, interesting packaging, we do all kinds of things."
One of the most famous projects they worked on is the official typography for the Louvre, which was created in collaboration with their colleague Marko Hrastovac and the Parisian agency Dream On. It is certainly worth noting that in order to get this job, it was necessary to “beat” elite French designers in a competition, and after that one of the biggest awards followed – cooperation with the Louvre Museum itself. In addition, they designed the packaging for an Istrian extra virgin olive oil “Perdisacca”, which took gold on several continents.
Just as they win awards abroad, they also try to conquer the foreign market. Their portfolio includes 70 percent of foreign clients. Sanja describes that ingenious things are being done on the domestic market, but the disadvantage is that they are being done on a smaller scale. He claims that this is not unexpected, but that it is absolutely normal, considering the culture, tradition, budgets with which we work in the foreign market.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the answer to the question, how does he assess the current market situation in the segment he deals with and what is their recipe for "winning" new clients?
"I think we have brought some new energy and motivation from the beginning. In a market that is saturated and at the same time very small, there is still room for setting new standards. We do not compare ourselves with the competition, we have our own approach to work and that is valued by the clients. The one who cares more will win, it is best seen in the final product and I think that is true for any job. We do not "do" things and do not follow the line of least resistance, whether in the process with the client or the later, production one. Nobody came here to be average ."
We congratulate Sanja and her team and wish them much success in their future projects.
