Canadian Independent Music Association
Taking an NGO from pencil pushers to business builders.
What I did.
To bring more clarity to CIMA’s business, I created a core idea of ‘make it’. Then used it as a springboard and a creative device to showcase their services, skills and offerings but also bring that much needed thrill and passion to their brand.
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Deep dive strategy; interviewing stakeholders, music makers and other industry relevant music folk - I built a brand strategy by listening to the people who it mattered to the most.
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Creating clear, pithy positioning and focused messaging frameworks, contributing to the crystallization of brand identity architectures.
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Getting to a solid creative brief, providing an air tight core idea and working with the creative team to bring strategic thinking into tangible assets.
The situation
The current landscape of the Canadian music industry has long been dictated by the major labels, lack of diversity in artists and genres, inequity in payment models and a lack of resources for national touring. CIMAs work is to erode these monopolies and inequities.
The Approach
CIMA are dedicated to getting Canadian artists outside of Canada and into the global market. They lobby the Canadian government to improve infrastructural barriers and increase funding and grants. They provide resources for music makers to improve their operations and increase their sources of revenue. But they aren’t just a government lobbyist, or a library of resources, or even a hungry group of bleeding hearts. We needed to move away from the misconception of bureaucratic pencil pushers to trendy, sexy, change makers. We had to push beyond their self identification of music advocates – to being in the business of building. Building careers. Building businesses.The Strategy
We wanted to position the concept of building business like the building of a movement.
Movements make statements with design, movements are inclusive, movements build language. Movements empower, educate, right wrongs, drive progress. Working with the creative team and identifying these characteristics allowed us to form a temperament and an essence that informed our creative direction and development.
The idea
To bring more clarity to CIMA’s business, we created a core idea of ‘make it’. Make it to the world stage, make it abroad, make it happen, make it better. Make it.
Creative execution
Matching the aspirations of music makers and the strong foundations of the people at CIMA we paired a bold compact display typeface and a clean sans serif to symbolize the journey of a music maker building their career, block by block. The main CIMA brand uses a neutral palette to contrast the vivid and loud life of a music makers career. CIMA’s wordmark is comprised of custom block shaped letterforms giving a sense of strength, stability and timelessness.
