Coletividad Visual Identity

Coletividad Visual Identity came by in 2018 when we needed a new, fresh and more coherent with what we were doing, what we are, what we think, and what we want to do.

To help us with that task, the great Studio Daó (https://www.estudiodao.com/), a Brazilian Graphic Design studio based in São Paulo, was invited. By march of 2020, this Visual Identity project would win second place in the 2019 Latin American Design Award in the Branding category.

In this original article (in Portuguese), here paraphrased and translated into English, they expose part of their creative process for the brand in steps our Visual Identity, Typography, Colors, Symbols, Brand Essence, etc…

Strategy

At the beginning of each project, strategic guide the visual part.

The strategy also helps the Company (or Brand Manager) in decision making, as these data helps organize and crystallize attributes that the brand has.

For Coletividad, we created the Brand Essence, the Brand Synthesis, the Diagnosis of the previous brand, and the Experience Map.

Essence phase

“Essence” (for Studio Daó) is the set of attributes that the brand has.

Based on the responses of the project briefing, research, and meetings with the Colectividad personal we identified four core brand attributes: Autonomy, Perspective, Enthusiasm, and Diligence.

We describe each one and list a number of keywords that can communicate these messages in different media and contexts.

In addition to these definitions, we also created the Brand Synthesis, which answers some questions such as “Who is the brand?”, “How does it act?”, “Why does it do what it does?”, Among others.

Diagnosis

We analyzed each aspect of the old brand to identify which features were aligned with the Essence and which were moving the brand away from its purpose.

At this moment, we realized that the old symbol, typography, and colors were not in accordance with the characteristics that the brand should express.

The previous symbol was somewhat common and with little personality, besides having deficient technical aspects (almost imperceptible tonal variation and narrow spaces between the shapes).

The set of colors referred to the institutions of the third sector, and the font had little personality, besides forming a block without expression due to the use of capital letters.

Experience Map

We used personas, a very common tool in user experience projects, to define and identify characteristics, objectives, and desires from different stakeholders, and at what moment in which one interacts with the brand.

We seek understanding on how different stakeholders feels and needs, how they act and what are the points of contact in each of these moments, such as posters, pamphlets, messages on social networks, website, etc.

With this data, we identify the opportunities for the brand to express its essence, whether through graphic materials, actions, or other ways to make the user experience better.

Visual identity

Assumptions

The development of the strategic part brought us some guidelines on how the new visual identity should behave.

The first of them is that more than a logo and a color palette, the project should include a system that would allow for several variations, since the volume of content produced by the Coletividad on all its fronts is large, as well as the number of channels that give flow to all this material.

Therefore, the brand should be perceived consistently in all these materials and the system would have to tie all the ends together.

 

“System”

In addition, the creation of the brand took into account the idea of pioneering and the future, since Colectividad was a precursor in the set of actions it performs and in the way they conduct these actions, and all this with a vision of the future where technology, science, the arts, and education will contribute to a more positive environment.

 

“Future”

 

“Pioneering”

As a consequence of this line of reasoning, identity should cause some estrangement, a characteristic that is very present in works that have a relationship with art and culture, in which we are inspired for the project.

“Strangeness”

Typography

We believe that for this project it makes sense to use an open-source, as this license allows not only the different people on the team to use it free of charge, but also that modifications can be made (such as creating alternative characters to be used in the visual identity).

We chose the font Space Text, from the Designer Florian Karsten. Space Text is a modified version of Space Mono fixed-width typeface family designed by Colophon Foundry for Google Fonts.

Its design brings some strangeness and personality in some characters, such as the square endings in the lower characters “f”, Lowercase “g” and “t”, straight vertices in letters like “M”, “N” and “V” uppercase and some punctuation characters.

The choice of a font with so much personality allows it to be an active element in the identity, a resource for brand expression, not just a support element for the existence of the text. The choice to use the same font as the texts in the logo itself reinforces the important presence of typography in this identity.

Colors

We chose colors that are at the ends of the red, green, and blue channels to make the ensemble vibrant, multiple, and full of energy, characteristics of Coletividad.

Black and white are part of the palette to express sobriety and balance the ensemble, given that the previous identity was too playful.

To give the brand more versatility, institutional colors do not necessarily have to be present in the pieces for publicizing events: when the piece contains an image, a new palette can be used containing colors from the image itself.

Stripes

Due to the nature of the project, in which different information has to be present in the different pieces, we created a system of stripes that increase and decrease in size in the vertical and horizontal axes, providing versatility and maintaining consistency in the images. These divisions help to sectorize the information (course locations, logo, date, and other information).

Images

As a platform that promotes different events in the areas of design and technology, the images for the dissemination of activities must connect with what the public consumes this type of material expects.

Photos of people in a situation, of course, are interesting for the person to project themselves in this environment, but, as they are already being used to exhaustion by other initiatives, we proposed a path that dialogues with the field of arts, historical aspects of the subject in question, images created with results obtained in the course of activity and which are constructed in a less literal way.

Usually, those who are already interested in the theme will be able to identify with the content and the strangeness provided by the most inspirational images give the brand more personality and become an element of differentiation since a course promoted by the initiative is not just a tool: it is an experience which will expand the personal repertoire of those who participate.

Symbols

To represent the Coletividad diverse audience and users, we realized that it would be interesting for the brand to have not only one, but infinite possibilities of symbols that can be created following a set of visual rules that we created to maintain the consistency of the brand.

The symbol can either be applied in place of the letter “o” in the logo, generating the desired noise or applied separately in social networks and products such as t-shirts, buttons, gifts, and other applications.

This type of application means that these products have less of the commercial aspect of a logo that signs the item, and more of an identification of the public with one or another symbol of the system. We believe that this can make engagement with the brand greater than the standard “symbol next to the logo”.

Conclusion

The strategic steps at the beginning of the project helped us to understand how Coletividad came about, to understand the changes that have occurred in recent years and the evolution that the brand has gone through.

This gave us parameters to create the visual system presented, which encompasses a pregnant visual identity based mainly on typography and symbols while allowing aesthetic freedom through the use of images that express the Coletividad vision in each action of the brand.