‘OKU’ stands for ‘okutinda’ which means ‘building a bridge’ in Rutooro, a regional African dialect. They build bridges for entrepreneurs, connecting talent with opportunity by creating partnerships between African entrepreneurs and Swiss businesses, where ideas and skills are exchanged for experience and mentorship. By creating opportunities for aspiring African technology entrepreneurs, their aim is to help build a sustainable Africa. We helped to add clarity to their business, distilling what was a quite complex model down to simple but charming messaging and a striking graphic language that deliberately felt different to anything else in the ‘growth accelerator’ sector.
At the heart of the identity is a logo that features a rotated ‘K’ representing the bridge that OKU create between talent and industry and Africa and the West. The letterforms in the logo are then reorganised to create patterns that are decorative but also communicate various aspects of the business such as one-to-one mentorship and community.
The typography from the logo is rearranged to create symbols that highlight the various aspects of the OKU offer.
The website takes users through the OKU offer step-by-step and includes details such as two clocks showing the time in both Zurich and Kigali.
