PeliFilip
Identity for a breakaway top-tier law firm
PeliFilip was founded in 2008, at the onset of the global financial crisis, by a group of senior lawyers — led by name partners Francisc Peli and Cristina Filip — breaking away from one of Romania’s largest and most established legal practices to build a top-tier business-law firm of their own. In elite legal services the stakes of such a move are unforgiving: reputation walks out the door with the partners, but institutional credibility does not. The new firm had to win bet-the-company mandates against deeply entrenched incumbents, in a collapsing market, without yet having a track record under its own name.
The category offered a ready answer and a trap. Law firms typically signal seniority through borrowed gravitas — crests, dark wood, the visual codes of tradition. A newcomer adopting those cues would read as a junior copy of the very firms it had just left. Brandient — on its third brand for an elite Romanian law firm, after building Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații and rebranding Voicu și Filipescu — framed the task differently: the founders’ names were already on the door and already carried personal standing; the identity’s job was to give that standing institutional form, without leaning on the category’s tired cues.
The governing idea was legal elegance. Instead of decorating, the identity concentrates the firm’s claim to the premier league in typography itself — in the words of creative partner Cristian "Kit" Paul, representing the founders’ aspirations, personality and standards "through a solution of subtle virtuosity in the art of typography". The letterforms, not category boilerplate, carry the firm’s standing. Brandient delivered the positioning strategy and the full corporate program — visual identity, corporate applications, website and brand communication — so the firm could present itself as an institution, not a start-up, from its first pitch.
The market confirmed the position. PeliFilip grew through the crisis years into one of the largest business-law firms in Bucharest and was twice named Romania’s law firm of the year by Chambers Europe. The brand served for eleven years, until the name partners chose separate paths in 2019 — and the equity moved with them: the practice continued under Cristina Filip as Filip & Company, while Francisc Peli’s new firm, PeliPartners, turned to Brandient again for its identity.
Client:
PeliFilip
Industry:
Professional Services
Project type:
New Brand Creation
Date:
2008
Services:
Brand Positioning, Logo and Visual Identity Program, Corporate ID Program, Digital Design, Communication Design
Other featured projects
News radar
Join the Brandient community! Stay in the loop with innovative branding insights, exclusive design content, and inspiring case studies.
Stay in touch with Aneta's latest opinions — articles, interviews, and podcasts — on entrepreneurship, marketing, branding pioneering, leadership, and culturally meaningful current events.
Brandient Radar is a select and non-intrusive, low-volume newsletter.
Follow our flight path — sign up for our Radar newsletter today!
get in touch
Client? contact us
5 Mendeleev Street, 3rd floor,
Bucharest 010361
Expert? Join Us
Are you brimming with talent and unshaken by challenges? Then, consider this your invitation to join our elite team, dive into complex problems, and have the opportunity to see your work make a mark far and wide.
Please submit your cover letter and relevant credentials:
Click to e-mail Brandient Careers.
friend? follow us
Copyright © Brandient 2002–2026. All Rights Reserved.