\n<\/strong>The GAF\u2019s old logo, which depicted Greek and American flags, confined its organization to an outdated stereotype.\u00a0 GAF wanted to enhance their brand and develop a new logo that would better represent the organization and its mission.<\/p>\n
Our Process This new brand needed to:<\/p>\n By the end of our discovery process, we clearly understood the brand\u2019s core attributes, personality and the positioning of the foundation. Our next step was to conduct a competitive analysis and explore other cultural foundations from around the world. \u00a0During this process, we learned that a culture could be defined as \u201cthe system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another\u201d. \u00a0A culture is transmitted from generation to generation.<\/p>\n The key insight from our analysis was that the foundations\u2019 brands all visually communicated their roots, culture and ideals. \u00a0With this in mind, we began collecting core roots and visual connections for the Greek American Foundation. Spirit, heritage, unity, culture, ideals, and community were some of the principles that we explored.\u00a0 We created a morphological box to get visual representations of those principles. This was really the starting point of the creative process.\u00a0 Our creative team started to visually express all the core roots and ideas, tell a story with them, and create emotional connections.<\/p>\n At this stage, we were concerned with the form of a logo and how it works to tell the brand\u2019s story.\u00a0 We ended up most pleased with the first sketches and prototypes. During testing, we realized that the initial logos (with the representation of the \u201cG\u201d and \u201cA\u201d as an ionic rhythm colonial) were the strongest ones.\u00a0 The simplicity of using the two letters made a strong, memorable and recognized logo mark.\u00a0 It also told a symbolic story, with a clear and impactful message.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the ionic rhythm architecture created an emotional connection to the foundation\u2019s Greek roots, drawing people closer to the organization. We had created a powerful and classic logo that evoke pride in the foundation\u2019s members.<\/p>\n Brand is everything Another critical part of this project was maintaining the overall brand architecture of the foundation. There are many different sub-brands and movements (Greek America Magazine, Gabby Awards, Forty Under Forty, National Innovation Conference, etc.) under the GAF umbrella. A \u00a0pluralistic brand architecture will allow us to give each brand its own identity, while the master brand remains visually intact. \u00a0The unified brand style guide and architecture applies to every part of the GAF. This enabled us to build compelling relationships with a multicultural and diverse audience, throughout all of GAF\u2019s \u00a0channels.<\/p>\n Reflection
\n<\/strong>To get started, our global team went through an extensive research process to gather information about the foundation.\u00a0 Using this information, we created a strategy for a \u201c21st century\u201d GAF brand.<\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/strong>Once the logo was in a final form, we moved forward with concepting the new brand identity.\u00a0 We needed to continue our goal of creating a premium and contemporary look and feel for the GAF. The brand needed to communicate with modern people: people with fresh ideas, people that wanted to change the world, and people that wanted to feel proud of their history. It was an incredible combination of emotions. We came up with an impactful moodboard that paired the classic logo with a fresh, contemporary color palette to show a foundation that is both modern and powerful.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.customedialabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/gaf3.jpg\")
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\n<\/strong>We had the amazing opportunity to attend the 2011 Gabby Awards, where our CEO, Manos Sifakis, first revealed the new brand<\/a> to an audience of a thousand of Greek America\u2019s biggest and brightest stars.\u00a0 The initial reaction was incredible.\u00a0 The audience immediately connected with customedialabs\u2019 vision for the new brand and aligned with its mission.<\/p>\n
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