A Creative Journey In Building Ducorp’s and It’s Business Satellites’ Visual Identities

It has been two months now that we have started to work on building Ducorp as an entity and as a brand.

I never had the opportunity to witness the birth of a company and it is quite an experience.

We began our endeavour with 4 souls trying to understand each other and building a bond to create a team. Our first task was to go through heavy documentations written by James covering the nature of what is Ducorp and its Interested Satellites. It was a very studious atmosphere for the very first week with regular meetings where James explained his vision of Ducorp and the company culture.

My task here is to develop the visual identity of Ducorp and its sub-brands which includes XTEAM, Shoppers Club, FindRate, Satoshi’s Lounge and EAM.VC. Each of them provide a specific commercial solution to the community.

The following is a first draft of our iteration through phase 1, which is Geronimo stage.

Yeps!

We have a code name for each stage of the development of our branding strategies.

The following is Geronimo’s outcomes.

DUCORP

Ducorp is the holding company. It is a serious and trustworthy entity; the visual identity must communicate these keywords. The choice of the “JAG” head as a symbol is because the jaguar is practical! It does not have time to do things other than what it is built for. Each part of its body is geared for hunting; its daily and long term objectives. The jaguar carries an image of sophistication, mysteriousness and discreetness but remains a ferocious predator in its ecosystem.

Now… how do we create a visual identity from scratch with the JAG head?

Using the head as a graphic, based on the logo itself, looked a bit clumsy.

The communication materials have to look cool but serious at the same time. Since we are in the digital age and that a company is an amalgamation of talents and services; we developed the concept of a polygonal JAG which would translate the idea of teamwork and an array of services.

So, there came the polygonal JAG head which would appear in our communication materials.

Is it the best solution? We are still working on it. We need more thinking and trials to funnel down to a more refined outcome.

The Atlas stage will guide us through this endeavour.

X.TEAM

The X.TEAM is the heart of Ducorp. It reflects, develops and implements strategies.

Directly related to the philosophy of Ducorp; the X.TEAM consists of MEDIA, ACADEMIC, VENTURE and SUPPORT services. The big discussion was… do we need to create a different identity for it? We are still not sure.

For now the JAG head will remain the symbol of the X.TEAM. The Ducorp logotype is a connection to the mother-brand and in bold the X.TEAM underneath it is to highlight the latter’s importance.

Is it a good thinking? We still have to figure it out.

SHOPPERS CLUB

Shoppers Club is a service to the community. The cost of life in Mauritius is rising day-by-day. People are on the lookout to find the best deals to save some money.

Through a discussion platform, people will have the opportunity to decide which products they want cheaper every month.

The identity is designed to reflect this concept.

FINDRATE

Ever needed a special skill to help you out with something you don’t know how to or you don’t have time to handle?

FINDRATE is here to help you in your quest!

The logo is a very simple visual representation of the words “FIND” and “RATE”.

SATOSHI’S LOUNGE

Blockchain/cryptocurrency is a growing economic solution. Satoshi’s Lounge’s identity needs to reflect the exclusivity of this exceptional service offered to a premium market.

The symbol is a combination of a wing and the Bitcoin ideogram.

EAM.VC

EAM.VC aims at helping East-African entrepreneurs in developing their business ventures. The concept of the logo revolves around a representation of East-Africa with the warm colours associated to the big continent.

To conclude, Geronimo was a marathon! It got us to spin the wheel.

As from next week, Mid-May 2019, we will deepen our thinking and design process to improve our branding and visual identity strategies.

That stage is called Atlas.

Stay tuned!

There are more to come.

XTM; 2019.

First posted in X-Team Ventures.