With the residents being a melting pot of refugees, students, and small businesses as well as parking for traveling people, it became clear that the new brand had to be easily understood across culture, age, and gender, reflect the temporary nature of all its inhabitants and give a sense of structure. Imagining Fogo as “A place to live and grow”, it was decided to create a reduced, clear brand that avoids any “hippie commune” clichés and instead respects its inhabitants as human beings building themselves a better life.

Reflecting the “building site” character of both the architecture and the temporary life phase of its inhabitants, a visual language based on the simple square shape, imagined as a building block was created. Referencing the different groups of people coming together, these squares were complemented with round shapes. Mixing these shapes and reimagining them into letters, the Logo system was born. With no two logos ever being the same, this variable word mark references the constant changes in both inhabitants and place, creating a strong, alive, and welcoming presence.

Based on the logo system, a new bespoke typeface was created, to fit the needs of spatial signage and better readability, expanding on the “building site character” by placing the signage directly on the containers with muted colors to let the place itself take center stage. 

Drawing inspiration from the view of the area itself — seeing the orange and yellow containers’ colors in front of the blue sky — the color system strengthens the sense of place in applications such as a website, posters, and newsletters.

The website strengthens both the sense of structure and the interplay of people and cultures, working as a one-pager with a clear design and structural differentiation while changing the logo on each click and supplementary color on each reload.

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