A cosy and homely new identity for this housing company
A merger in the housing sector that rocks the whole society? With a soft and homely 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
Forging 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 brainstorms and workshops, we finally arrived at the short but powerful name “Initia”. The foundation stones had been laid!
Homely visual identity
The working title ‘ Voortrekkers van sociaal wonen’ (Pioneers of social housing) echoed during the first brainstorms and stuck. Initia had to project a reasonably polite image, while it could also have an activistic edge. Moreover, the visual style had to come across as an inviting, warm home. By placing several cottages in a half, radiant arc, we reinforce the unified feeling and the whole thing becomes an “uplifting” dome.
Initia stands as a unit behind the other housing companies. So we chose to highlight a cottage with cut-out corners, as a nod to the backing Initia offers to the sector. And we have to admint: the colour accent gives the logo a fresh and recognisable touch!
Extensions to the corporate identity
Building towards the future! Our team elaborated all the new branding elements in a style guide: a handy overview on how to apply the visual identity and graphic elements to different carriers. We also hammered out a guide to inclusive and accessible language: essential for our diverse and multilingual society.
Is anything currently in the works? Definitely! 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 strong points, such as your creative approach and flexibility in thinking along about our logo and our new organisation name.
