In recent years Fondazione Cariplo’s communication has developed quantitatively and qualitatively, reaching ever larger audiences. At its 25th year, the foundation has therefore wanted to start a reflection on the image and communication of its brand, to verify its adequacy with respect to the times and values that its work expresses. D+S work started from a question: how could a design-led participatory process involve diverse stakeholders to form a new philanthropy brand identity? Once the values have been defined, a brief was developed; it was after given to some students of Politecnico di Milano, which gave back creative ideas for the rebranding of Fondazione. Six final ideas were selected, re-elaborated and made uniform by Inarea society.
• Design in Organization
• Design Thinking
• Strategic Design
The ultimate goal was to define a new brand image and communication strategy for Fondazione Cariplo that reflected its values and was in step with the times. In order to succeed in this, D+S set itself the goal of creating a participatory process with engaging the inner and outer stakeholders of Fondazione. The outer ones came from innovative communication and marketing field, while the inner was a part of Communication Sector of Fondazione Cariplo. This made it possible to have an external, fresh and innovative outlook but at the same time also a sense of ownership of the internal employees.
Several employees of the communication and strategy departments were involved as internal contributors. These were involved in two creative workshop sessions to define the existing perception of the Cariplo brand. At the same time, activities and tools to bring out possible directions were used. Thanks to the analysis of the results of the workshops, it was possible to draw up a Creative Brief, which was later used to engage young communication designers from the Politecnico di Milano, who went through the brief to define brand identity proposals. The research team, in collaboration with a design consultancy in branding, selected the final proposal. On 22 February 2018, the new brand image was presented to the public.
