Shining Forward: Designing the Visual Identity for Capellic’s New Team

At a Glance

In June 2024, Capellic merged with longtime strategic partner Echo&Co. Our mission didn’t change—we were and still are dedicated to supporting nonprofits—but a larger team expanded our spirit and goals. 

Now we needed to be our own client, and commit the time and expertise to updating our own visual identity to reflect our growth. We spent about 12 weeks running stakeholder workshops, drafting visual identity concepts, and revising (the same process we use with our clients). 

In November, we were proud to launch a new visual identity that reflects our relationship-based approach, our depth of expertise, and dedication to our craft. (And a few weeks later, news of the new visual identity was picked up by The Drop Times).

Our Challenge: Balancing History with New Horizons  

Joel Bush and Stephen Musgrave founded Capellic in 2012. More than a decade later, the team had worked with nationally recognized organizations, built a reputation for excellence, and had significant brand equity. 

The Echo&Co team added expertise in program & content strategy, user experience & visual design, and online accessibility. We were all excited about shaping our future. Through a new visual identity, we wanted to honor our history and brand equity, and also capture the spirit of our expanded team, values, and priorities. 

Visual Identity Foundations 

The word Capellic is inspired by Capella, one of the brightest star systems in the night sky. Capella appears as one big bright star in the sky. But, with the right telescope, you can see it’s actually two binary sets of stars. 

We love our name, because it reflects how we approach our work with each other and with our clients: as individuals and teams coming together to build something spectacular. 

Embodying that approach through design became our core goal. As we went through the discovery, definition, and design stages, we returned repeatedly to these key questions: 

• How can we best illustrate our core belief in the power of collaboration?
• What tonal notes do we want to hit to reflect our personality?
• And of course, the all-important one: Does it t-shirt?

From Concept to Vibrant Outcome 

We crafted a custom wordmark, based on an underlying grid that creates alignment and flow between letterforms—and with heavy weight characters in all caps that creates a solid and uniform presence.

Our initial approach for our icon emphasized the idea of many coming together to form one brilliant new team. We tried versions that introduced angles to be more specifically astral, and versions with new colors and intersections that emphasized cohesion and collaboration.

Ultimately, we landed on an icon depicting a pair of two points of radiating light, in a simple and geometric style. They represent the partnership we have with our clients—an alliance that shines brighter than the sum of its parts.  And together with our wordmark, creates a modern and adaptable new logo that embodies our new future together.

Our visual identity redesign also introduced:

• Bolder and more saturated brand colors to reflect our team’s energy and enthusiasm
• A leaner, highly flexible variable typeface, to reflect our agility and
• A design system that’s simple, elegant, and looks great on a t-shirt!