Hidden Ventures

Branding, Art Direction, Web Design

Awards:
2023 AIGA Louisville 100 Show

Hidden Ventures invests in early-stage startups that are building products for creatives. As a new fund, Hidden Ventures was in need of a fresh brand identity that reflected the creativity and importance of their work.

Visit Hidden Ventures →

*Case study originally posted on workwithrender.com.

APPROACH
We worked with Hidden Ventures to develop a modern brand identity that reflects their mission of supporting creatives and built a brand guide, website, and collateral that reflected this new look. Hidden Ventures needed a brand identity that was both modern and timeless to appeal to creatives of all disciplines and stand up to the ever-changing world of design trends.

When we met with Hidden, there were many different aesthetic directions being pitched as potential brand design avenues. Together, we worked through narrowing down ideas and merging aesthetics to create an identity that made the most sense for Hidden and supported their ideas and brand messaging.

Through our Render branding process, we worked with Hidden to identify their primary areas of inspiration: Swiss design, brutalism, Dadaism, and fashion branding. We looked to create a minimal and versatile brand that could serve as a solid foundation from which to build a variety of brand elements, including secondary and tertiary logotypes for the Hidden logo in different type styles/aesthetics and brand iconography/graphics.

LOGOTYPE
For the primary logotype, we leaned into inspiration from Brutalist architecture intermingled with a strong Swiss-type style. We wanted the primary logotype to have a unique character to it, be able to stand out against the multitude of other sans-serif logotypes, and not be so over-the-top that you wouldn’t be able to read it. We also intentionally designed the logo to be a variable type, which allowed us to create a few different logotype styles that all fit together aesthetically but give some vibrant variety to the brand.

SECONDARY LOGO
We created a secondary logotype that offered an additional style that is complementary to the primary. The secondary logotype is a wavy logotype which we hand-drew specifically for Hidden and serves as a more playful and fun brand interaction. This logotype was inspired by the more “groovy” type styles of late 1960s/early 1970s design.