Why Love + Money created a liquid-inspired identity system for luxury collectable marketplace Altr

From ‘decentralised autonomous organisation’ Lucidao, Altr is the world’s first luxury collectable marketplace transacted on the blockchain; aiming to bridge the gap between the physical and digital luxury spaces. Being the first of its kind, it was in need of a showstopping identity; courtesy of international digital creative agency Love + Money. 

“Altr’s offering is innovative and unlike anything in the market, so we knew that the aesthetic had to feel a little futuristic,” Creative Director Danny Pemberton tells us. “The products are exclusively high-value, so it also needed to feel a little luxurious. But ultimately, with all of our work, we’re essentially striving to communicate the core brand meme, or idea.”

Here, that idea is also contained within the brand name itself: ‘Don’t just trade. Altr.’ The aesthetic, therefore, needed to communicate the idea of transformation. “Altr allows collectors to move their assets between the physical and digital worlds – in a very real sense, upping the ante on the traditional idea of financial liquidity,” Pemberton explains. For this reason, liquidity was the central direction of the brand’s 3D imagery. “It gives the work a lovely in-between twilight feeling, where it's perhaps not immediately clear if what you’re looking at is analogue or digital.” 

Klim Type Foundry’s Söhne was chosen for the headline and body text, whilst the logomark is set in Kaftan Serif by Victor Bartis. “We chose Söhne because even though we don't know exactly what the future decentralised apps will be (yet!), we do know that we want to have a couple of common ingredients across that brand suite eventually,” Pemberton notes. With this in mind, Söhne was the perfect choice thanks to its well-cut, classic and versatile qualities.

“As for Kaftan Serif for the logo,” he continues, “we played a lot with the idea of portals and transfigurations. Kaftan’s ‘a’ reminded us of a portal. It’s got a lovely liquidity to it,” fitting the concept derived from the brand name perfectly.

Altr’s running theme of fluidity also extends into the colour selection. “What does a real-life Ferrari look like if it’s been converted into a digital token?” Pemberton asks. “We started playing with light and dark palettes as a way of representing these two states, and then our friends at someform took these explorations to another level with their 3D work. The final colour palette fell out of their incredible work,” he concludes.

Altr

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