BRAND STRATEGY • BRAND IDENTITY • WEBSITE

Created as an educational resource centered around food and the urban food process, The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture was founded to bring together community leaders, farmers, elected officials and residents interested in the benefits of growing food in city neighborhoods.

Willoughby first worked with The Center over a decade ago to help the organization evolve into a more memorable name and brand identity system that would communicate in a bolder and clearer manner to stakeholders and the public.

So we stripped away their more complex, functional name and replaced it with a simpler more emotional nomenclature: Cultivate KC. The word Cultivate means to grow, to improve and to tend, all of which Cultivate holds true. And KC? Growing community involvement is core to their mission and KC is their community.

Recently, the Cultivate KC team returned to because, as often happens with living breathing brands, the system had gotten too complex as they had introduced new locations, programs and events over the years. So we worked with them once again to streamline their brand architecture and update brand communications and clarity for today as they move into the future.

The evolved brand identity system reflects the roots of Cultivate KC and where it’s growing with a system to unite its various programs and events. The typography is clean and simple with a flourish of leaves for balance. The bolder color palette represents the bright and varied colors of the vegetables and fruits that are at the heart of everything they do. The complete system was brought to life on a refreshed brand standards and website experience.