Forward Cities is a national non-profit equipping communities and regions to grow and sustain more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems. They use a system-level approach to connect communities and provide resources to entrepreneurs.

Kompleks Creative was tasked with translating the mission and work of Forward Cities into its visual brand and presentation. Before getting started, we conducted a branding workshop with their leadership team to discuss who they are and what they already believed about their work. During this session, we uncovered commonalities among the individual perspectives and used this information to influence the creative direction and brand. In their style guide, we explained the alignment of the visual assets to the values, energy and motivations discussed in the workshop.

After finalizing their creative strategy, we developed marketing materials that could be used to communicate their highly-innovative work to the world. The logo design centered around hexagons, which commonly connote ecosystem building in nature. Throughout the logo and website design, we incorporated colors that evoke growth and collaboration such as blue, green and orange. We also created a PowerPoint template and style guide that can help Forward Cities take their city level work to the state level.