IYA’s bright identity for KINTENT reflects the impact-driven mission of the production studio

KINTENT is a combination of two key concepts; kinship and content. The creative production studio, founded by Gemma Albone, is dedicated to telling diverse stories that generate positive change, whilst having as little impact on the climate as possible. This is realised through inclusive casting, remote shooting, and a diverse network of creative partners and participants around the world. Sharing Albone’s enthusiasm for positive change, London-based design studio IYA were invited to craft a website and social media content that would communicate KINTENT’s impact-driven and progressive approach to storytelling. 

As part of this, it would need to pair well with the existing wordmark designed by fellow London-based designer Lynn Cariou. “Using a predefined wordmark provided many things to think about whilst starting creative,” Designer Jake Bailey explains. “We were initially drawn to the roundness of the ‘N’s, a distinctive lowercase-esque character within the uppercase logo.”

Taking the shapes as a starting point, the team looked into ‘opening and closing’ the letters and explored the various ways in which the curved forms of the wordmark could be used throughout the identity. This led to a digitally-inclined design system that mirrors the digital-first nature of the company. “We utilised this in the initial brand video,” Bailey continues, “introducing the logotype front and centre, showing flexibility with the core brand ethos, before delving deeper into the logotype and showing what KINTENT has to offer clients once past the first stage of the branding facade.” 

As a female-owned company, KINTENT was also keen to communicate a sense of friendliness and warmth through its brand image. IYA, therefore, opted for Dinamo’s charismatic geometric-humanist sans serif ABC Ginto Normal to complement the bold and rounded style of the wordmark. Additionally, this allows KINTENT to highlight key phrases with its bold caps, whilst retaining a sense of familiarity and softness.

A bright sunny yellow colour completes the look, signifying the hope behind the planet-conscious company. When paired with the website’s gradient effect and dynamic animation, it calls to mind a bright sunrise. Explaining the thinking behind the gradient effect, Bailey notes, “as we began working on the website, we were looking at how we could hide and show content on the homepage. Scrolling down the page, the brand’s message of ‘Creative Work, Consciously Made’ fades into the brand yellow.” This then influenced the portfolio pages, where IYA introduced gradients into the core palette to help lift the content of the page. As a result, the page elements have an added dynamism, and are less overwhelming than solid background colours.

IYA Studio

KINTENT