Cultivate Arts & Education
Cultivate is an artist-run nonprofit in Grand Rapids focused on growing community through arts education and promotion. They provide a contemporary gallery and extensive arts education programs for artists of all skill levels. They exhibit both local and national artists with a focus on inclusivity and artist advocacy.
Disciplines: Art Direction, Graphic Design, Brand Discovery, Strategy, and Development
Many organizations struggle to establish a strong visual identity in their early growth. When I began working with Cultivate they were on the cusp of introducing themselves to a wider audience and partnering with other local and regional organizations. My task was to create a flexible system that could speak to many different people while clearly representing the organizations unique voice.
Community arts class. Credit: Cultivate
Full color logo
One color logo with simplified mark
The identity for Cultivate needed to represent their core focus' of Community, Growth, and Education. The client wanted to retain the previous flower motif, so I created an icon that uses a mosaic of overlapping shapes that create a flower. The colorful shapes echo the form of pages in a book, which is more evident in their one-color version.
The strategy behind the full color and 1-color applications is to have a more vibrant, playful approach for the arts community while the more reserved, dark green focus is geared towards partnerships and education.
Brand Standards Guide
The flexibility of the logo extends through the rest of the system. Bright colors, shapes, and patterns create visual interest and energy, while the dark colors have a more reserved and formal presentation. Typography centers around the use of Calluna Sans and Serif, a complimentary family of typefaces and promotes more creative layouts than the standard type grid approach.
Business cards
Door signage. Credit: Cultivate
Design concepts for social media applications
