A Full-scale Update for a Climate-centered Nonprofit Consultancy

The organization’s alliterative name and the culture it conveys provided the inspiration for the icon and wordmark lockup and overall visual identity. A literal dounce “C” shape allows for an intersecting shape that hints at a venn diagram where ideas come together. The negative space in the center of the icon represents bringing focus to complex ideas, finding a central spark for ideas, and being open to new approaches and perspectives.

The distinct orange and yellow color combination brings light and energy to the brand expression, indicating that while they take their work seriously, they are a fun team to work with. Lastly, the scale and styling of the wordmark emphasizes the word CONVIVE, which is the established shorthand for the organization.

While doing research into the culture of learning in philanthropies, it became clear that Convive is a rarified organization. There simply aren’t many other companies that are climate focused and operate in an intentional collaborative and collective way while taking a personal yet professional approach. 

They were inspired by the visual identity work we did for Third Plateau. Our goal was to take that spark and make it distinctly an expression of The Convive Collective.

Our exploration into The Convive Collective brand expression led us to start with colors. The entire palette consists of five bold saturated colors: Midnight Blue, Golden Yellow, Warm Orange, Deep Maroon, and Sandy Cream. To provide visual variety for the site’s backgrounds we used a subtle off-white. The color system designates the organization as grounded, professional, and established. The colors also express the attitude of the brand, conveying the fun and innovative nature of The Convive Collective.

The logo design utilizes the color palette and includes ‘C’s from the name while also representing the personal aspect of the work. The wordmark element intentionally emphasizes Convive, the shorthand that most clients use when referring to the organization.

The ‘C’ shape is a recurring aspect of the design language. It’s used as a photo treatment that bridges site sections and draws people down the page. Even the buttons and color-block portions of the site use a curve inspired by the ‘C’.

The ‘C’ shape is best for some images, and we use circles for others to retain the welcoming nature of the brand while allowing for a variety of subject matter in the photos. This treatment allows the photos to integrate with the professionalism of the organization while avoiding a boring corporate brand expression.

The Convive Collective is a growing organization with global aspirations. As they expand, our brand style guide will provide them with everything they need including how to create duo-tone style images with their signature ‘C’ element that allows them to feature images in a subtle way.

The iconography across the site is intended to feel like they are in motion. This approach aligns with the action-oriented nature of The Convive Collective. Their dynamic team prides themselves on moving projects forward and helping their clients develop and sustain a learning culture.

We wanted to highlight the inspiration for The Convive Collective without blocks of text. Pulling it off was a matter of understanding the full story, distilling it down to its core elements, and presenting the story in a uniquely engaging format.

When developing the overall messaging and website content, we focused on what initially seemed like a very broad audience. Ultimately, there are two specific audiences within the very broad climate philanthropy space. Knowing this, the website content was aimed at conveying the benefits to these audiences.

With overlapping services, it was important to organize the information on the site along the lines of how philanthropies see themselves. Doing so helps potential clients immediately recognize the topline service categories that apply to them.

The Copywriting throughout the site gets the culture of the organization across. They’re a team of established professionals with deep expertise in the philanthropy field who love to collaborate. Yet, they rarely pass up a chance to have a laugh with their clients and celebrate wins big and small.

A small but mighty organization, The Convive Collective is determined to establish themselves as providing a different experience from traditional developmental evaluation consultancies. The Manifesto we crafted with them is one way to pack a lot about their outlook into as little space as possible while going big with their benefits and aspirations.