The Blue Institute

The BLUE Institute is a mission-driven organization that supports early stage BlueTech and blue economy startups and addresses the significant challenges facing more advanced Blue startups. Along with its associated organizations, BLUE Institute Labs and the BLUE Innovation Center, the BLUE Institute develops interdisciplinary “water-thought” leaders through education, research, entrepreneurship & community engagement.

The challenge

When I was approached by the co-founder of BLUE Institute Labs, Judith Underwood, she was looking for a way to unify the various Blue Institute elements into a single identity system that would be flexible and scale as her organization grows. Altogether there were six sub brands under the parent brand of BLUE.

The existing family of logos had been designed internally and were inconsistent in their look as well as in their marketing applications. Without a unified logo system or brand style guide, inconsistencies had also begun to creep into The BLUE Institute logo such as varying typefaces, inconsistent logo lockups, and derivatives of the logo mark (the seashell).

The Solution

The original BLUE Institute logo would be the template for all six associated brands. I kept the design of the seashell logo mark intact but revised the lettering to be more in line with the essence of the seashell. I found a typeface (Asap) with a similar condensed mono-weight look as the original lettering but with rounded corners and a softer feel to mimic the seashell, providing the whole logo a more unified look and feel.

The color palette would be the key to distinguishing the different sub brands at a glance. Blue is only one of many colors you find within the ocean depths. I began sampling colors from a coral reef image with sunlight illuminating a wide variety of hues, from which I selected a primary brand color and sub brand colors. Each sub brand color would need to be bright enough to “pop” against the primary blue but also dark enough to stand on its own.

The anchors of the entire identity system are the seashell logo mark, the primary blue, and the BLUE word mark. As the parent organization, The Blue Innovation Center logo is represented simply as BLUE. Each sub brand is represented by a different color, while the seashell logo mark, typography, and the BLUE word mark remain consistent.

The Outcome

The final result is an identity system representing the entire universe of the BLUE brand. Each sub brand has multiple logo variations to accommodate different applications. The BLUE identity system provides a unique identity for each brand while maintaining a consistent look and feel across the whole.

Judith and the rest of the BLUE Institute board were pleased with the outcome and now can consistently represent their brand across all of their marketing channels.