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From Chambéry, LaBoîte designs the logo, palette, typefaces and guidelines of businesses in Annecy and Haute-Savoie: outdoor brands, image companies, tourism venues and industrial firms. Every identity is tested in French and in English, on the product as well as on screen. We come to Annecy for the workshops and the on-site trials.
Annecy sets a high visual bar. People who practise sport there see well-known sports brands every day, CITIA runs the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and the Cité internationale du cinéma d’animation, a new international centre for animated film, opened at the Haras, the former stud farm, on 19 June 2026. A local brand is therefore judged by customers used to highly crafted images.
It is also judged by customers who do not always speak French: Geneva is 42 kilometres away and its international airport 50, notes the lake’s tourist office. Here is how we run a branding project in that setting; our web agency for Annecy page covers what else we do there.
Which Annecy businesses do we help with their brand?
Those in the sectors Grand Annecy promotes, and the venues that live off the lake. Each profile has its main constraint: the product, the screen, the façade or the foreign buyer.
Among its key sectors, the conurbation names mechatronics, imaging and the creative industries, sport and outdoor, and business tourism. It has opened themed business incubators: Annecy Base Camp at Les Glaisins for outdoor, Les Papeteries in Cran-Gevrier for digital imaging, Galileo at the Altaïs business park for innovative companies, and Alb’Espaces in Alby-sur-Chéran for craft businesses.
- Outdoor brand: a mark that survives embroidery, washing and the strap
- Image studio: an identity that steps back behind the films without vanishing
- Hotel, restaurant, boutique: from the old-town façade to the booking confirmation
- Industrial firm: a serious image for buyers and job candidates, often in English
How do you stand out in the valley of outdoor brands?
By starting from a specific use and a clear stance, then designing for the product’s surfaces before the screen’s. The logo is approved embroidered, screen-printed and engraved, not just on a monitor.
Outdoor Sports Valley, founded in 2010, reports more than 500 member companies and historic roots in Annecy. Summits, peaks and upward arrows crowd the sector’s labels: a board of competitors shows it in minutes, and pushes the search elsewhere, towards a gesture, a material or a shape that belongs to the product.
In practice we deliver a mark that can be woven in a single thread on a label a few millimetres wide, colours checked on fabric swatches rather than on screen, and a text typeface chosen for composition and care labels. The name, the first images and the order of the launch are handled in our brand launch work.
What does living next door to animation change for an identity?
People in Annecy see a great deal of high-quality animation, so a logo that moves badly gets noticed. We therefore plan the brand’s motion from the first drawing, not as an afterthought.
CITIA, which already runs the festival and its industry market, Mifa, also operates the new centre in the renovated Haras. Whether for an animation studio housed in Les Papeteries or for a manufacturer explaining its product through animation, the brand has to break down into parts: a symbol that builds itself in a few frames, colours that stay true on video, a rule for transitions and for the end card.
We deliver these elements with the guidelines, and our Studio animates them in motion design and 3D. If the animation is entrusted to another local studio, a clear written brief matters; our journal has a guide on briefing a motion design project in Annecy, for now in French only.
Does an Annecy brand need to work in English?
Its name and mark should at least be easy to say and understand in English, sometimes in German or Italian too. Its legal protection should follow its customers, including across the border.
A name built on a French pun loses its charm with an English-speaking client in Geneva or a conference group from far away. We try every option out loud, in writing after hearing it only once, and in the languages of your actual customers. The tagline can exist in two versions, as long as they are never mixed on the same piece.
Switzerland is not part of the European Union, so an EU trademark does not cover it. The IPI, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, offers a national application or an international one through the Madrid system, examined in each designated country. Have an intellectual property attorney choose the right combination before anything goes to print.
Our work for The Club and CoinMentor shows this on an international scale: a brochure in French and English, a partnership deck and posts for the first; a website, brochures and the presentation of the CoinPro offer for the second. Their logos and 3D are by Four Plus Studio; our part was to bring these identities to life, from one language to the other, on every piece.
How should a sign in the old town or by the lake be handled?
By reading Grand Annecy’s local advertising regulations before approving the logo, and by planning a version of the name that works in cut-out or painted letters.
The canals, the Thiou river and the Palais de l’Île, listed as a historic monument in 1900 according to the tourist office, form the backdrop for many shops. Signage there is strictly regulated, so the name has to be chosen with those rules in mind, alongside the usual trademark availability checks.
An Annecy shop identity therefore has two faces: a discreet façade, and everything else, menu, bags, Google Business Profile and social media, where colour and pattern can speak up. For a hotel that wants guests to book direct, the same identity carries on to the website, as shown on our website design in Annecy page.
How do we run an Annecy project from Chambéry?
Mostly by video call, with trips to Annecy for the kick-off workshop, the presentation of directions and the trials on the product or the façade.
The workshop takes place at your premises: seeing the sewing room, the terrace or the editing suite changes the choices. Directions are then shown on your real materials, never on a blank background: a label, a story, a sign, a video end card. Guidelines, templates and source files are handed over at the end, with a written transfer of rights. The full list of pieces is in our guide to brand identity essentials.
For a complete creation, from the name to the first content, see business launch in Annecy; to make the new brand known, see communication agency in Annecy.
Frequently asked questions
Can we put the lake or the mountains in our logo?
You can, but many businesses in the area already do, and a shared symbol does little to set you apart. We keep it if your customers first need to place you on the map, and otherwise look for a mark that belongs only to you.
Should we protect our brand in Switzerland if we sell to customers in Geneva?
If you sell or deliver there regularly, the question arises, because a French or EU trademark does not cover Switzerland. An intellectual property attorney will tell you which route to take.
Do you work with animation studios?
Yes, on their identity and their website, which have to leave centre stage to their films. We can also prepare the elements of your brand for a studio to animate.
What timeline should we plan for a complete identity?
It depends on the number of directions, materials and languages; we set it in the quote, including your sign-off times. For a seasonal brand, start from the opening date or the trade fair and work backwards.
Updated · LaBoîte, Chambéry, Savoie
