Culturis
strategy
expression
Sep 2024
Story: Culturis
Culturis connects cultural organizations with professionals from the business world. The challenge: create an identity that feels confident and accessible, so the bridge becomes something people can join.
Culturis
A bridge is only useful if people can find it, walk across it, and trust it to hold. Culturis lives in the in-between: creativity and meaning on one side, strategy and organisational strength on the other. Its mission is to get those two sides talking long enough that something new can happen between them.
That's a lovely sentence in a slide. It's a harder sell at the front door of a cultural institution busy keeping the lights on, or in the diary of a business professional who has never once thought "I should donate my strategy brain to a theatre this quarter." The brand had to turn the abstract bridge into a real destination.
Confident enough to open the door, warm enough to walk through
Culturis needed a brand that reads as professional without going corporate, and warm without going soft. Coaches, cultural institutions and policymakers all had to recognise themselves in the same identity, which is a narrow target to hit.
Through co-creation sessions we pulled apart what "the space between" actually feels like when you're standing in it. Using 23plusone we tested which of the 24 fundamental human drivers the different stakeholder groups were bringing to the table: belonging and meaningfulness on the culture side, mastery and effectiveness on the business side, curiosity and vitality running through both. The brand had to honour all of those at once, which is exactly the kind of brief where most identities politely surrender.
A signature, a palette, a toolkit
Out of that came a visual system built around the C_ symbol as a recognisable anchor, a palette where bold black is set against an almost impatient yellow, and typography chosen on the grounds that designers aren't the primary users of this brand, the community is.
"Culturis's new identity doesn't feel like a suit we're wearing, it feels like a flag we can all rally behind." Culturis partner
The whole system is designed to be handed over and used, not admired from behind glass. That's the only test a bridge brand can really pass.
Building a brand that has to hold two worlds together?
If your organisation lives in the space between sectors, audiences or ambitions, and the brand keeps slipping off one side or the other, there's a way to make the in-between visible. Let's talk about how.
Reach out to Kim or Alexander if you're looking for something similar