Fuelling growth for an environmental innovator

Overview

KOKO is a company with huge ambitions and an impressive track record.

At its core sits KOKO Fuel, a Kenyan bio-fuel business that is helping stop African deforestation. This in turn enables KOKO Networks to sell carbon credits that will fund further innovation. Although its impact has been recognised by organisations such as Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, KOKO struggled to communicate its story.

To instil clarity from the outset, we developed a brand architecture that would separate the Kenyan consumer brand from the master brand — renamed simply KOKO.

Defining a clear brand strategy

The brand strategy focuses on shifting the narrative away from being seen as a tech company, and towards innovation; summarised in a bold brand essence: ‘pragmatic innovation to transform lives’.

Communicating people, planet and technology

The projects KOKO develops sit at the intersection of people, the planet and technology — expressing the interplay of these three aspects became fundamental to the development of the brand.

The visual identity sits on a grid system that we built out from the existing logo, ensuring there’s an underlying structure to any brand assets, and imagery of the three key themes to work together; building up a constant image of innovation.

Distinction between parent and sub-brands

Along with the logo we retained the core colour, defining a broader palette to give extra stretch to the brand, yet steering clear of the overuse of green that’s become the default in the environmental sector.

A brand with restrictions in mind

When developing brand assets such as typography, icons and charts we gave special consideration to their use not just online, but also how to maximise their appearance when printed in black and white. The new brand and narrative ensures KOKO can continue to seamlessly innovate in other fields without constant confusion around the great work it’s already undertaking in Kenya.