Quatre Coins · Naming & brand identity · Sports sales agency · Québec · 2026
From rep to agency, in one name.
Kareem Aucoin has spent twenty years in sporting goods: the shop floor, a pro department, two sales agencies and the brand side. Now he is building his own agency, one that sells the line and then stays to help the store move it. Initials on a business card were not going to carry that.
So we gave it an idea, a name and a face, in one presentation. The name was hiding in his own.
Client · Kareem Aucoin
Mandate · Positioning idea, naming, signature, two logo routes, brand system, apparel and website concepts
Year · 2026, brand concept
Crew · Phil Henderson (strategy, naming, copy, art direction)
Language · FR
01 · We thought it.
We started with the market, not the logo. The rep’s job is flipping: the agency now walks in with a marketing calendar for each key store, and delivers it. So we looked at who already sells hockey in Québec and how they show up. No website, no stated positioning, the same line everywhere: we represent this brand. The field was open. The idea came first: the order is only the puck drop. The season is won after it, in staff training, on the stick wall, at the demo day that actually happens.
02 · We made it.
Then the name. The working one read like a player agency and leaned on one person’s initials. The real one was already there: Aucoin. Say it out loud and you hear au coin, at the corner. Quatre Coins tells Kareem’s story without his initials, sounds like a team with room for more reps, and travels to every sport that has a corner. Around it: a signature, two logo routes with one recommendation, colours, type, patterns, and the first things the brand will live on, from polos and caps to a business card and a website.
03 · We launch it next.
The concept was presented in October 2026. Next up: the final logo call, the official name and trademark checks, then a season-plan template, the website and the first polos and caps. The established agencies we looked at show almost no brand at all. Quatre Coins would walk in with a complete one on day one.
Results
1 idea · 1 name · 2 logo routes · 1 brand system
Credits
Strategy, naming, copy, direction · Phil Henderson, PHLIK
Design · PHLIK
Client · Kareem Aucoin
Next → Belron / Lebeau · One shop, one day, every service on camera
The name · 01
The click.
Aucoin is Kareem’s last name. Au coin is what you hear when you say it. The name was sitting in plain sight, waiting for a number.
The name · 02
Four readings.
The four corners of the game: sales, marketing, training and activation. Of the territory: wherever the stores are, the agency is. Of the trade: shop floor, pro department, agencies, brand. And au coin: the rep around the corner, the one who shows up.
The name · 03
Every sport has one.
Battles along the boards in hockey. The edges of the plate in baseball. The corner kick, the cornerback, the corner three, the boxer’s corner. The name follows every new brand the agency signs.
The signature
Ça se gagne dans les coins.
It’s won in the corners. In hockey, games are decided along the boards. Sales seasons too, and that is where the agency works.
The name
Aucoin. Au coin.
Quatre Coins.
Three slides carry the whole reveal. The name also had a job description: say sales and marketing, be born in French, sound like a team, and come from sport without leaning on a single brand. The deck is in French, like the brand. Click any frame to see it full size.
The identity
Two routes. One pick.
The speech bubble says conversation: an agency that talks with its retailers. The foam finger says fan, in every sport, and carries the name in its palm. We recommended the finger, then built the system around it: violet and fluo yellow, three typefaces and three patterns drawn from the corner of a rink.
The applications
Built to be worn first.
Polos for events and store visits, two caps and a toque, a T-shirt, stickers and a business card. Schematic mock-ups for now, ready to brief a supplier.
