A welcoming new identity for a housing company
A merger in the housing sector that rocks the foundations of a whole society? With a mellow and welcoming corporate identity, our team built a new home for Initia: the new organisation for the 41 housing companies that rent social housing in Flanders.
Initia: a new foundation
Merging two social housing companies together is no small feat. A lot of interests have to be aligned to create a broader base. After several intensive brainstorming sessions and workshops, we finally hatched the short but powerful name “Initia”. The foundation stones had been laid.
A welcoming visual identity
The working title ‘ Voortrekkers van sociaal wonen’ (Pioneers of social housing) echoed during the first brainstorming sessions and stuck. Initia had to project a relatively respectable image, while it could also have an activist edge. Moreover, the visual style had to come across as an inviting, warm home. By placing several houses in a half circle, we reinforce the feeling of unity and the whole thing becomes an “uplifting” dome.
Initia stands firmly behind the other housing companies. So we chose to highlight a house with cut-out corners, as a nod to the backing Initia offers to the sector. We're also quite proud of the colour accent that gives the logo a fresh and recognisable touch.
Extensions to the corporate identity
Building the future: Our team compiled all the new branding elements in a style guide: a handy overview explaining how to apply the visual identity and graphic elements to different carriers. We also put together a guide to inclusive and accessible language: essential for our diverse and multilingual society.
Anything else in the works? There definitely is, as we are currently (re)building Initia's website and ensuring that all mail is neatly redirected to the correct address. Soon, everyone will be able to find everything about social housing in Flanders on this new website.
The collaboration had several strong points, such as your creative approach and flexibility in coming up with our logo and our new organisation name.
