- Sector
- Architecture atelier
- City
- Guimarães
- Services
- Branding & Identity, Web Design
- Duration
- 9 weeks
- Year
- 2024
Traço Atelier: an identity built to survive other hands
Brief
Traço is a small architecture atelier in Guimarães, run by two architects who had been operating for a few years on word of mouth and a logo a friend had designed in an afternoon. As their project list grew, so did the inconsistency: the logo appeared in three different colour versions across signage, business cards and a half-built website, and their sign-maker had guessed the typeface wrong twice.
Approach
Branding came first, as a full Brand Guidelines package — not just a logo, but a written specification a sign-maker or printer could follow without calling the atelier. Web Design followed, built to showcase completed projects as the centrepiece, with the new identity applied consistently from the header to the footer.
What we delivered
A complete identity system with written guidelines: logo lockups, palette, type specimen, applications.
A Business-tier website structured around a project portfolio.
Outcomes
The new identity now applies correctly across signage, print and the site, with no studio calls needed to clarify it.
The atelier's sign-maker got the new signage right on the first production run, after two earlier misses.
The rebuilt site now serves as the atelier's main reference when quoting new residential projects.
"The brand guidelines meant our sign-maker got the logo right on the first try — that had never happened before."
Miguel P., principal architect, architecture atelier, Guimarães