THE ASSIGNMENT
Alberta Chambers of Commerce (ACC) wanted to provide an online space for Local Businesses. Thus the Chamber Market initiative was born; an online marketplace for Chamber members to sell their products and services to consumers, expanding their audience across the province. Chamber Market gives local business access to an online space and provides a promotional platform marketed and managed by the ACC.
Our team here at nine10 has provided the ACC with a logo, visual brand, and Canva brand kit for the Chamber Market. We took into consideration the numerous demographic categories we needed to appeal to, from Consumers, to Chamber members. We also envisioned the future expansion of the brand into multiple provinces, with the potential to hit the global market.
Our Solutions
The Logo
Of course our goal was to connect consumers to local business, but we also needed to offer an additional networking opportunity for the Chamber member businesses across the province. With networking and collaboration being core values of the ACC, it was crucial the logo integrated these elements into this new initiative. With simplicity in mind, we went with a monogram icon logo, with the letters “C” & “M” interconnected. We also wanted to make sure we represented the province of Alberta in the logo. We did this through composing the letter “M” of 2 triangular peaks, nodding to Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. Understanding the connection between the Chamber Market and the ACC was also key, so we used the same font in the Chamber Market Logo to provide consistency throughout the brand.
The Visual Brand
The Chamber Market needed to have a fun, innovative, and collaborative personality. The brand needed to grab attention, pique interest, and be simultaneously friendly and welcoming. We created two storyboard concept options, each with a unique look and feel. Ultimately the client chose the concept of “Modern 90’s Mall.” We’ve seen 90’s trends working their way back into modern media and pop culture. We envisioned taking some of the imagery you may have seen in the Mall way back when, modernizing it, and giving the Chamber Market a familiar feel. We wanted to connect the shopper back to the mall in their hometown, tying those warm fuzzy feelings back to the Chamber Market Initiative. The modern 90’s feel targets a wide span of demographics, with Generation X and Millennials being able to connect back to the 90’s and Generation Z who is driving the resurgence of these trends.
We brought the 90’s into the Visual Brand with sets of geometric elements to be used decoratively. We created a set of backgrounds using those elements, but the brand is meant to use them creatively to suit their own design visions. On the Chamber Market Website we implemented custom icons as navigation buttons, each icon directing people to a different area of the site. We also created a custom retro graphic for the Chamber Market tagline which can be used in social media templates and printed marketing materials.
The brand guide we provided gave direction for choosing stock photography to help in creating future graphics. The photo style outlined uses a combination of brightly coloured e-commerce related photos, along with local landscapes and Chamber networking imagery. The bright colours aligned well with the decorative elements of the brand. The local imagery emphasizes the brand’s tagline, “Shop Local Everywhere.”
Canva Brand Kit
Once we had created the brand, the next step was uploading the brand assets into Canva along with a set of customized templates. The goal for the Canva Brand Kit was to create a hub for sharing the Chamber Market brand with other community chambers and member businesses across Alberta. Sharing templates across community chambers and partners presented a new challenge for nine10. We had to navigate how to share this information across multiple accounts and organizations as well as creating an organizational structure for the brand assets. We mapped out a detailed plan to set up the Chamber Market account and share the templates. This plan included a set of training videos, walking the community Chambers through the organization of the Chamber Market brand, internally and externally.
The Benefits of a Visual Brand
Every organization needs an easily recognizable visual identity. This identity comes in the form of brand assets like brand colours, cohesive and universal design elements, and branded fonts as well as one of the most key components, the logo. While the logo on its own is identifying, it’s not as memorable without being paired with a distinct visual brand. Below you’ll see the Chamber Market Canva templates we created that use the visual brand compared to a set of templates using only the logo. This brand exemplifies the advantages of having a visual brand created for your company. While your logo may be identifying, your visual brand will make your company memorable.
