GRAVO

A creative agency needed a brand with weight

GRAVO is a Nigerian full-service creative, marketing, media and advertising agency. It exists for businesses with good products that few people know about, and its job is to close the gap between a good business and a known one.

We designed GRAVO's identity. Then we set the whole system out as a one-page guidelines site, so every designer, writer and supplier works from the same rules.

One idea runs through every element

Gravity is invisible, but you know it by what it does. It pulls things in and gives them weight. The guidelines call this brand gravity: the pull that attracts attention, customers and opportunities, and keeps them.

Every part of the identity answers to that idea. The mark pulls towards its centre, the gradients look like light bending around a mass, and the logo is meant to be bold without being loud.

A G and an R fused into an arrow, repeated into a ring

The mark fuses a G and an R into an arrow pointing up and to the right, for growth. The arrow repeats around a circle into a ten-part ring, so everything pulls towards the centre. It is drawn as an outline stroke, and the wordmark is a heavy grotesk.

We documented the lockups, the construction and the clearspace. Six rules cover incorrect use, so the mark holds up from a pitch deck to a billboard.

Colour that reads as light bending around a mass

The palette has six colours: lime, periwinkle, dark olive, off-white, khaki and near-black. Two gradients start from a flat lime or periwinkle base, with a radial glow and two blurred shapes on top. Together they make the field look like it bends towards the mark.

Two typefaces and a four-step scale

Dx Grafik sets headlines, presentations and campaigns. Instrument Sans sets body copy, reports and supporting content. The scale runs in four steps, from hero headlines above 72px to body text under 24px, each with its own leading and tracking.

Four art directions for a full-service agency

GRAVO works across campaigns, media, strategy and production. One visual style would not cover it. The guidelines define four directions, each with its concept, traits and feel: editorial minimalism, digital brutalism, neo futurism and a humanist direction.

The whole system on one page

The guidelines are one page in six chapters: strategy, personality, logo, colour, typography and art direction. A side navigation keeps every chapter one click away.