Embrace Kulture was created from pure love, and I have been so fortunate to be there for every step of its brand growth. From its inception, this incredible organization has been working to find, advocate for, and protect special needs individuals in Uganda.
Originally called The Oliva Project (its namesake being an incredible young woman with down syndrome who was about to age out of all of the resources that had protected her in her younger life), the organization then partnered with Kulture City for funding and research purposes and, in doing so, experienced a name-change to fit into the Kulture City family of brands. Meaning that the new brand needed to still feel connected to Africa and the specific work that The Oliva Project had started, but that it also needed to have a close visual connection to the Kulture City logo and the heart emblem therein... which was.... no easy task.
Embrace Kulture was born. What I took from the Kulture City logo and style was the blue, the style of font, and the heart emblem. What I introduced for the sake of The Oliva Project was the shape of a young person with black skin being hugged (or embraced) by the heart emblem. And this really is an exceptional example of how, as we grow, we're not always 100% in control of where our paths are headed. The Oliva Project had a beautiful mission, but it couldn't grow on its own. Kulture City had the funding and the framework, but it didn't have anyone working in Uganda. The partnership was perfect, at the time, but it came with significant strings in the branding. And that was ok! It needed to happen that way! And when Embrace Kulture had outgrown the partnership and was ready to move ahead as its own international organization, the branding got to grow with it.
Now, the logo for Embrace Kulture, and the brand overall, has taken a big step forward into something more modern and bold (visually) and a step back toward embracing its roots as well. In the final iteration of the logo, the heart emblem is replaced by a soft, enveloping O. O for Oliva.
