ICA 2019
Discovery put the problem in the client’s own words: “There’s a gap between the power of ICA’s work and our ability to share it.” The brand was diluted. Messaging fractured across pillars. The work had outpaced the experience the organization produced when it tried to explain itself.
Challenge
Discovery put the problem in the client’s own words: “There’s a gap between the power of ICA’s work and our ability to share it.” The brand was diluted. Messaging fractured across pillars. The work had outpaced the experience the organization produced when it tried to explain itself.
Decision
Rejected the visual habits of both finance and nonprofit categories — two languages that flatten entrepreneurial energy into either spreadsheets or sentiment. Rebuilt positioning, narrative, and identity as one system. Led with story. Made the organization readable as itself, not as a collage of programs.
What shipped
Positioning and narrative. Identity system. Guidelines. Business system. Marketing direction. New website — one brand across pillars, not a federation of looks.
What held
ICA could speak as one organization across its pillars under new leadership — the gap between the work and the telling of the work narrowed to a system the team could run.
Reflection
Six years with one client means designing for institutional change, not a re-skin. The refresh worked because the trust existed to challenge the organization’s own language.
