Holocene unveils new brand identity
The new look "sits at the intersection of fluidity & form – reflecting both Holocene’s mission and its technology."
Knoxville-based Holocene has unveiled a new brand identity that the start-up says “sits at the intersection of fluidity & form – reflecting both Holocene’s mission and its technology.”
In a blogpost this week, the company that is a participant in the 2022 cohort of the “Innovation Crossroads” program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and also a participant in the Spark Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee Research Park said two guiding themes were abundantly clear from the inception of the start-up:
- Technology. We had conviction around a technical approach to direct air capture (DAC) – namely, a liquid + low temperature + thermochemical system – that we believed had the highest potential to turn lofty DAC dreams into a reality.
- Inspiration. We knew the name of the company would be Holocene, serving as a nod to the Holocene Epoch and our mission to play a role in restoring the climate stability seen over the ~12,000 years prior to the industrial revolution.
Over the past two years, Holocene writes that it has been fortunate to build a company that is ready for a brand identity that can serve as its visual foundation for years to come. So, as the process started, there were three guiding principles:
When we kicked off the effort, we started with 3 guiding principles:
- “Everything but the name” was on the table. “We were open to evolving every piece of our brand identity… besides the name. The name is too core, and connected, to our mission to be changed – a non-negotiable.”
- Tone & Personality. “We wanted our brand identity to represent a tone and personality that is (a) ambitious, but reliable (b) technical, but approachable, and (c) inspiring + distinctive.”
- Logo & Identity. “Lastly, we knew we needed a new logomark, or icon, as we did not have one. And we wanted the entire brand, starting with the logo, to be unique from our peers (many employ circular marks and mountainous imagery).”
The results of that process are further described here.
Anca Timofte, Chief Executive Officer, and Tobias Rüesch co-founded Holocene in 2022 and added Keeton Ross as a third Co-Founder last August. The start-up is developing a technology to ultimately remove gigatons of carbon dioxide from the air. In addition to funding through the “Innovation Crossroads” program, Holocene has also secured coveted funding through the Bill Gates-backed “Breakthrough Energy Fellows” and last September announced that it was one of 12 companies to share in a $7 million buy facilitated by Frontier Climate on behalf of buyers Stripe, Shopify, and H&M Group.
