Nuavo

Branding and visual design for an ambitious startup

Challenge

To support this their mission and ambitious business goals, the founders of Nuavo knew they they needed a strong brand that would resonate with investors, business owners, and the talent they wished to attract as their first employees. They also wanted to differentiate themselves from the traditional private equity firms in their competitive landscape, setting themselves apart as a more empathetic and approachable option for SME’s. Having started successful companies in the past, they valued the importance of a strong and consistent visual identity early on in their new venture.

Outcome

Nuavo successfully launched their new business with a fresh and consistent visual identity and consistent brand. A streamlined but professional web presence along with a well-designed pitch deck provided a strong foundation enabling them articulate their mission, company values and business goals to prospective investors and business owners.

Approach

As part of the discovery process, I conducted a collaborative "Brand Sprint," workshop using Figma Jam in order to outline their goals, brand personality, values, audience, and competitive landscape. I also created inspiration boards to gather design ideas and references. At the same time, I partnered with a freelance writer to who would lead their naming strategy.

As the baby boomer generation retires in large numbers, the transfer of ownership is often a concern for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For those lacking a well-defined strategy, navigating this process can prove even more challenging. Nuavo, a Swiss startup aimed to tackle this challenge with an ambitious objective – to assist Swiss SMEs through owner succession, people development, growth enablement, and best-in-class technology.

Once the name, Nuavo, was decided, and with clear direction from the Brand Sprint and inspiration boards, I began the visual design process. Several mood boards featuring logo options, colors, typography, and visuals were created, each contributing to larger concepts focused on the key themes of transformation, evolution and potential.

The final chosen logo and design system combined aspects of several different concepts and focused on the idea of “Potential”. This idea best reflected Nuavo's dedication to seeing and realizing potential in both SMEs and the people they planned to employ. It enabled them to showcase their ambition all the while remaining empathetic and respectful toward SME owners.

The chosen logo design leveraged the first two letters of the company name, creating an interlocking 'N' and 'U' to signify close collaboration, further cementing their role as a trusted partner. This was paired with a clean, bold sans serif font.

From there I iterated on a color palette, settling on bright and bold colors, with red, deep orange and navy blue as primary and sky blue and yellow as secondary colors. The primary font Poppins was selected for headlines and body copy with a serif font for quotes and callouts. This combination of bold type and vibrant color created a bright and bold visual identity that would stand out in their competitive landscape.

To further illustrate this concept, I curated a small image library containing images of urban and rural Swiss landscapes, combined with visuals of people working in various industries. The images served to represent ideas of potential and acceleration, all the while respecting the tradition of SME’s that is rooted in Switzerland. Each image underwent a Lightroom filter for a cohesive look. Two-tone line iconography was also leveraged across the website and pitch decks.

Leveraging our newly build design system, I created business cards, a web page, social media assets, print material and presentation deck templates using Pitch. The consistent use of their brand assets throughout all of their channels ensured that their company promoted a cohesive message and recognizable brand image that will hopefully bring them much success as they launch their new offering throughout Switzerland.