SPEAR CAPITAL

The Brief

Spear Capital is a private equity business that provides international growth capital to established SMEs in Africa. Spear’s brief was a verbal and visual identity overhaul – to transition the brand from tired and inconsistent to aspirational and modern with a visual style that celebrated their African roots and focus.

Project Overview

Key Deliverables

+ Brand Strategy
+ Customer Interviews
+ Brand Identity Design
+ PowerPoint Presentation Design

Creative Partners

+ Room 13 Design
+ Nish Creative Design Studio
+ Irvine Partners

The Creative Challenge

Spear Capital has a dual focus on profitable and responsible investment as well as a number of key stakeholders – the portfolio companies in which they invest and their global private and institutional investors. The new verbal and visual identity needed to balance the brand’s financial and business expertise with their deep commitment to uplifting their core regions of operation. This required a brand personality, language and visual style that was simultaneously credible, aspirational and authentic – a beautiful creative challenge.

The Strategic Solution

A number of the brand’s investees, investors and employees engaged in one-on-one interviews, sharing first-hand insights into their perceptions of the Spear brand and its value. This deeply shaped the resulting verbal identity and strategic repositioning of the brand. Visually, we moved away from the literal use of a spear in the brand identity. The new logo is a series of geometric shapes in the shape of an “S” that represent the idea of different parts (portfolio companies) making a whole. The shapes are also reminiscent of an African pattern. A key element of the new visual style was the brand’s imagery. Most of Spear’s competitors display Africa in a somewhat condescending manner, with typical “safari-style” stock imagery. We wanted to rather capture the vibrancy of the region, hiring a local photographer to capture real images of Spear’s portfolio companies in action. The results brought the brand to life with boldness, colour and authenticity – perfectly in line with Spear’s brand values.