brand book APRIL 2017

Transcription

1 brand book APRIL

2 inovia is at the dawn of a new era. For 10 years, the team has worked to build relationships with incredible tech leaders first across Canada, and then across North America. In that time, inovia has earned a reputation for excellence; for being discerning, for being a dedicated partner, mentor, and friend to the venture community. In this new era, we change nothing about who we are. We simply step into full ownership of our strengths, our mantras, our vision for how things should be. When we step into ownership of ourselves through consistent, on-trend creative, human-centered marketing, and purpose-driven content, industry will take notice. Industry craves the consistency; it helps the blob to know who we are and how to best connect. This document offers that high-quality baseline, but success will come from consistent application. Every handshake and coffee date, every brochure, minisite, social post, and every event hosted or attended is a chance to attract the future we believe in.

3 so the purpose of this brand book is to chart a path. Define a visual and verbal language to express the inovia world view. Provide guidance for manifesting this world view for various audiences. Inspire brilliance and consistent action internally and externally. 3

4 the potential Most early stage venture firms have similar goals: foster great networks, scale great companies, drive great exits. And many do this very well. But along the way, are relationships strained more often than not? Does the high stakes venture climate stifle honest conversation? Is that fear-based, not-fully-expressed communication style impeding us all? What would our industry look like if there was no appetite for hype? What if failure wasn t taboo? What if we all believed profit wasn t a scarce resource? Wow. We believe venture capital is an incredible force for good. But we also believe our industry can do so very much better. Breaking down the old patterns of how we go about our work is what inspires us each day. We believe that when our needs are met when we feel heard and supported through thick and thin, we can achieve exponentially more. We can build stronger communities, more successful companies, and more powerfully realized lives. So basically, all those things all the other firms are doing just better. Better for founders, better for co-investors, and on and on. 4

5 well. now that we ve gotten that off our chests...welcome. we can t wait to work with you. brand strategy the potential voice mantras brand pillars audiences creative assets logo fonts colors grab and go assets messaging social profile campaigns the whole shebang 5

6 our voice (in no particular order) Simple moments like a coffee date can be a powerful opportunity to bring brand values to life. authentic transparent witty trustworthy committed to self-awareness and self-improvement a confidant accessible relatable geeky confident but humble hard-working simplifiers kinda pretty cool 6

7 mantras: please quote us on this. people > companies 7

8 value is a process, not an outcome. 8

9 being heard has nothing to do with being loud. 9

10 brand pillars As an early stage firm, inovia has worked with founders across a variety of sectors. While we like to keep the door open to a lot of possibilities, our investment thesis is driven by the three pillars below. In short, you could say this paints a picture of what founders we are most interested in connecting with. PEOPLE PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES Connect with people who come with unique, deep sector experience. Their back story can illuminate opportunities for transformative approaches. Diversity encouraged. Let s reshape and refine how sectors function, to drive better financial outcomes for all. We are especially geeked by companies that take old industries and turn them on their heads. If it drives itself, or fits on your wrist; if it build its own intelligence over time; if it has a passing chance of landing on Mars (moonshots are so 1999), then yeah. We want to hear more. 10

11 audiences inovia interacts with 4 distinct groups, and each has a unique set of perspectives and interests. While the brand doesn t need to wholly change for each group, it s important to remember which messages will resonate with which audiences. WHO WHAT THEY CRAVE TOUCHPOINTS SIGNALS Up Funds of Funds Canadian Insights Annual Leadership Piece Access to the Canadian Investment Scene, Website Top Founders in North America, Leadership Parity Coinvestors, Canadian Insights Annual Leadership Piece Access to the Canadian Investment Scene Potential Buyers Website Top Founders in North America Down Founders Sector Information, Lunch Webinars, Networking, On-Trend, Vibrant, Cool Companies, Tools to Help Them Social, Website We re On Your Side Always Available Succeed Out Media, News and Content Regular PR Comms, Social On-Trend, Insights, Leadership Industry Website 11

12 creative assets 12

13 logo primary logo Our logo embodies the clear, humble, yet assertive approach that inovia takes to communicate with partners. The lowercase letters speak to the playful, curious qualities of the team and brand. The letterforms were drawn to accentuate the visual alliteration between the o and a ; which are balanced by the sharper point on the v. These visual tricks create a pleasing regularity that is still invigorating and exciting to look at. formal logo The emphasis on these shapes also serves to de-emphasize the initial i, which could allude to adolescent internet-isms. Two versions are available. The primary logo will be used in most standard marketing communications. The second, which includes CAPITAL will be used in formal environments where the brand may need to underscore it s status as a venture firm. One example may be a Wall Street Journal feature. 13

14 logo guidelines Leave safe space the size of the letter height around the brand mark. CANADA OK! No! No! No! No! Use the blue brand Do not fill the brand Do not tilt the logo. Do not use unapproved Do not create new permu- color to tint the logo. mark with a photo brand colors. tations of the brand mark by attaching or overlapping other words or visuals. 14

15 fonts Using a unique and attractive font helps tiethe story of a brand together. The consideration of aesthetics and most importantly, including font choices signals critical messages without having to state them directly: care and concern for the most minute details a commitment to excellence and quality a willingness to forge your own path care to connect with the next generation primary brand font Gilroy Gilroy Light Gilroy Medium Gilroy Semibold Gilroy Bold Available from MyFonts.com online / open source backups Century Gothic Century Gothic is a widely available font that many people already have installed on their computers. If you have any issues with Gilroy, this is an acceptable backup. However, please make all attempts to use the new font. 15

16 Gilroy Usage Gilroy Light Body Font Line Height: /18: Gilroy is a modern sans serif with a geometric touch. A younger brother of the original Qanelas font family. It comes in 20 weights, 10 uprights and its matching italics. The Light & ExtraBold weights are free of charge, so you can use them to your heart s content. Designed with powerful opentype features in mind. Each weight includes extended language support (+ Cyrillic), fractions, tabular figures, arrows, ligatures and more. Perfectly suited for graphic design and any display use. It could easily work for web, signage, corporate as well as for editorial design. Gilroy Medium Smaller Headlines Gilroy Semibold Smaller Headlines Gilroy Bold Headlines When using the Medium face of Gilroy, you may choose to use it at a size approximately times the body font size. In this example, we show it at 14/18pt with 12pt line spacing below, while this paragraph is shown using Gilroy Light 8/14pt. When using the Semibold face of Gilroy, you may choose to use it at a size approximately times the body font size. In this example, we show it at 14/18pt with 12pt line spacing below, while this paragraph is shown using Gilroy Light 8/14pt. The bold face is an obvious choice for big headlines. we use it without the initial capital letter to fully bring the weight of the message in line with the new logo. Gilroy is kerned well and does not need any tracking adjustments, unless you choose to do so for particular effect. SMALLER ALL CAPS HEADLINES Here s another option, where Semibold small headline is the same size as the body font, with smaller padding between it and this paragraph. 16

17 colors The colors selected for inovia s new brand platform are bold, clear and energizing. We generally do not use them in semi-transparent formats with whiteness showing through, however we will use tone-on-tone effects to create subtle textures as backgrounds. Teal Plum Cinnabar Lime Grey Web: R 23 G 152 B 175 Web: R 37 G 2 B 54 Web: R 231 G 74 B 58 Web: R 255 G 161 B 1 Web: R 245 G 245 B 245 Hex: #1798af Hex: #1b0123 Hex: #e74a3a Hex: #ffa101 Hex: #f5f5f5 CMYK: C 79 M 23 Y 27 K 1 CMYK: C 84 M 96 Y 39 K 60 CMYK: C 79 M 23 Y 27 K 1 CMYK: C 0 M 43 Y 100 K 0 CMYK: C 0 M 0 Y 0 K 4% ALPHA TRANSPARENCY NOT ADVISED. 17

18 textures The core line art piece in the inovia visual design language is clean, modern and high energy. It is also reminiscent of paper moving through a printing press, and as such is representative of how inovia rethinks old industries. This pattern can be repeated, scaled, tiled and flipped around to create a great range of textures for many applications. Use the visual as a bold side texture or as a tone-on-tone look for simple yet forward-looking backgrounds. Inquire for additional textures. 18

19 grab and go assets 19

20 messaging Core brand messaging to be used for media, social, introductions, and beyond. SIGNAL: FOUNDERS FIRST SIGNAL: THE inovia SIGNAL: THE inovia SIGNAL: CANADIAN WORLD VIEW WORLD VIEW DOMINANCE inovia provides uniquely Value is a process, not an We believe early stage inovia is Canada s most committed mentorship and outcome. it evolves as we venture capital can do networked early stage investment for exceptional discover and refine what better. venture firm. founders, from early stage connects us as we as we to exit. celebrate wins and overcome setbacks. it grows as we free ourselves from old patterns and circumstances. perfecting value is, to us, a craft. it is the harmony of analysis and empathy; and it is both our passion and our mission. 20

21 boilerplate inovia is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in category-defining technology startups. Epic companies are forged by exceptionally qualified founders; inovia supports these remarkable individuals with custom playbooks for attracting talent and scaling efficiently. Together we perfect a craft of building digital platforms and services that transform old industries and push technology frontiers, and together we perfect the craft of venture capital. inovia manages $500M across three funds and invests across Canada and the United States. For more information, visit 21