Kaupunkitilat
A sense of place
Founded in 2021, Helsingin Kaupunkitilat Oy, owned by the city of Helsinki, is a new company which rents and develops culturally important spaces, areas and markets in the city. We tackled the challenge of managing diverse sub-brands by creating a unified and dynamic identity system. The result is a condensed identity family, striking a balance between clarity and expressive versatility, providing Kaupunkitilat Oy and its sub-brands with a cohesive visual toolkit for the future.
Starting point
The project aimed to establish a cohesive identity system for the sub-identities of places operated by a newfound parent company Kaupunkitilat Oy. The sub-brands had been formed and defined over the years very independently and at different levels. Kaupunkitilat and its sub-brands needed an identity system that would enable brand management and agile material production at different touchpoints, whilst emphasizing the special characteristics of different spaces through defined sub-identities.
Approach
At the center of the solution was the goal of building a comprehensive identity system to guarantee unity and ease of use, and on the other hand, to define recognizable and strong sub-identities based on each individual space, its history and characteristics. This was done partly by further developing and partly by preserving already familiar visual assets.
Impact
The final implementation was a unified and condensed identity family, which is a combination of clarity and logic and, on the one hand, a permissive and polyphonic power of expression, which gives both Kaupunkitilat Oy and its sub-brands a handy visual toolkit for the future. This comprehensive system is outlined in a user-friendly brand manual, offering a simple and effective documentation of the identity systems.
Awards
Collaborators
Awards
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Building character
Distinct architectonical features, forms and colors were used as visual cues in the definition of the essence of the identity in each location.
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Ease of use
A cohesive guideline documentation was created to ensure consistency and ease of use across the parent brand and its seven sub-brands. The overarching identity system, with its’ unified principles, was built to improve the ease of use, whilst allowing each sub-brand to maintain and express their individual quirks and subtleties.
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