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
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.
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.
