Chicago Cultural Alliance
Website
chicagoculturalalliance.orgThe Chicago Cultural Alliance is a consortium community-based ethnic museums, cultural centers, and historical societies in Chicago. Its old logo was corporate and said almost nothing of the organization’s passion and connection for the other organizations it served. They wanted a look that truly reflected their organization.
We worked closely with the leadership, board, and member museums to create a new visual identity.
We started this branding project with a series of workshops to bring diverse voices together and get everyone’s thoughts on the Chicago Cultural Alliance’s history and direction. We wanted everyone to be counted and heard.
From there, we conducted a bit of qualitative research to deepen our understanding and spent time researching other organizations with a similar structure and mission in other cities.
Here’s why working as a collaborative group is the best way to work: When we brought our small team-approved logo to the larger working group, they identified some cultural symbolism that made the logo look like it favorited one group over others. Of course, we didn’t want that, so we iterated on the design and ended up with something that was truly inclusive.
We also built them a gorgeous website. Because, well, they’re awesome and they needed one.
