RUA - Real Urban Action
Bringing your neighborhood to life,
one story at a time.
COUNTRY
Portugal
INDUSTRY
Media Technology
SERVICES
Branding
DURATION
8 Weeks
Mapping Stories
Rua is a living map of local news, stories, and initiatives that, neighborhood by neighborhood, bring people together, encourage participation, and inspire change, the map where the city comes alive.
By turning local stories into spatial information, RUA helps citizens, organizations, and media outlets stay informed and connected to what’s happening around them.
Designed to strengthen civic engagement and increase the visibility of underreported areas, RUA is a community-first solution with a strong social impact and a clear focus on empowering active participation at the local level.
Create a visual identity that is simple, flexible, and instantly recognisable, one that communicates clearly across different contexts and formats while staying consistent, adaptable, and memorable.
Define and amplify the brand identity
Clarify Rua’s personality and voice to create a consistent, distinctive, and memorable presence across all touchpoints.
Design a versatile and adaptable visual system
Develop a visual identity that works seamlessly across digital, print, and social formats, while remaining flexible for different products, services, and target audiences, and communicating Rua’s hyperlocal focus.
Foster community connection and trust
Encourage participation, make local stories and initiatives accessible, and position Rua as a reliable, approachable, and inspiring hub where the city comes alive.
Crafting the Brand from the Inside Out
We started by building a solid brand foundation with the client. Through discovery meetings and reviewing existing materials, we gained deep insights into their brand positioning, visual identity, and communication opportunities. These insights shaped our strategic approach creating a cohesive, flexible brand that drives recognition, engagement, and impact across all channels.
We developed the brand name and verbal identity through a collaborative workshop with key stakeholders. Together, we explored the emotional resonance of language and different perspectives on cities and urban environments.
WHAT WE DID
- Brand Strategy & Architecture
- Brand Personas Brand Personality
- Brand Personas Brand Personality
Just as the verbal identity centers on movement, community, and human-centered experiences, the visual identity needed to feel equally dynamic and alive. This brand required a system that could evolve with the pulse of the city.At its core is a distinctive symbol that shifts in meaning as it rotates and multiplies, each transformation revealing new layers that mirror the fluid nature of urban life. This adaptability reinforces perspective and the interconnected stories that shape a city.The logotype complements this fluidity. Each letter carries intention, creating rhythm and coherence between wordmark and symbol. Local references anchor the identity in Lisbon: patterns inspired by Portuguese tiles, colors drawn from the city's natural tones, and editorial touches that evoke journalism and street culture. Hand-drawn lines, sound-inspired icons, and newspaper-style imagery add raw, human texture. The result is a visual language that's energetic, adaptable, and rooted in place, a system that moves, grows, and connects people, just like the city itself.
WHAT WE DID
- Stylescapes
- Brand Concept
- Logo System
- Color and Type System
- Art Direction
- Brand Manual
- Brand Kit
To ensure clarity and scalability, the brand extends into three sub-logos, each tailored to a key audience while remaining visually unified.Each sub-brand inherits the core identity's movement, adaptability, and human connection, with subtle shifts that reflect its specific purpose. The result is a flexible system that supports targeted communication and grows with the brand's ambitions.
To bring the identity to life across key touchpoints, we developed a set of foundational brand assets designed to ensure clarity, consistency, and immediate recognition. This included a pitch deck for strategic presentations, a landing page to introduce the initiative and engage diverse audiences, and a full stationery system to support formal communication. Together, these materials translate the brand’s visual and verbal language into practical, polished tools, ready for activation across digital and physical environments.
WHAT WE DID
- Stationery
- Pitch Deck
- Landing Page
Cohesive Brand Identity
Unified verbal, visual, and sub-brand system for a consistent story.
Scalable Assets
Flexible pitch decks, landing page, and stationery ready for growth
5.0
Lídia and her team are incredibly talented, creative, and proactive in understanding our vision and designing beautiful branding and materials to communicate with our partners and the community.
Time and time again they go above and beyond, providing much more value than just the visual brand work that was originally scoped, always with lots of communication and always on time. We are constantly complimented on our visual design (all Phi!) and we have every intention of expanding our partnership as we evolve!”