Context Fund is a venture fund and studio that aims to raise $100 million to fund and build AI companies that create tools for founders and investors. Its vision is to make entrepreneurship and investing more accessible.
I was hired by Context Fund to create:
- a brand identity to help them stand out in a competitive landscape
- website
- brand pack and brand guidelines
- slide and document templates
Context
The brand name was already chosen before the start of the project. The name Context is apt for the AI-first venture fund and studio—Context values having a comprehensive understanding and approach, and also is a reference to the context window in AI, a textual range around a target token that a large language model (LLM) can process at the time the information is generated.
Process
- Define organization values. These values will anchor the brand visuals and voice.
- Analyze competitive landscape. Survey and analyze the competitive landscape and identify how Context can be differentiated
- Create mood boards. Based on the established organizational values, find examples to see how the team reacts to these.
- Explore brand ideas: Provide options for Logo, visual branding, and voice, with examples of how it might appear in the context of a landing page, poster, etc
- Create final brand book and website. Deliver final catalog with logos, colors, fonts and other basic styles, plus contextual examples.
Values and Brand Personality
A major driver for the brand is the founder’s deep ties to Silicon Valley as an ML research, founder, and investor. Naturally, the brand values reflected the professionalism of a venture capital firm, but also had a modern and innovative twist that would appeal to young founders and a wider investor base.
Logo
After an exploration of numerous options, we chose the final logo design that appears like a ring of interconnected ribbon twisted over three times, representing the three key elements of the company—AI, investors, startup founders.
Visual Identity
The final design utilized abstract aerial images of land and sea landscapes, a reference to “context” as seen from a bird’s eye view, or seeing the big picture. The images also connote the majesty of nature while referencing science as it relates to all of humankind, just like how AI can impact all of civilization.
Along with a neutral color palette, and serif body typography, the visual identity evokes a respectable and knowledgeable character, with calm and grounded energy as expected from responsible and experienced investors and founders.
To complement the seriousness of the images, I used minimal graphic style for charts and diagrams, and bold sans-serif headers to represent the technology and innovation aspect of the brand.
Content
In addition to the visual identity, I created the content for the website to make sure the copy was appropriate for the target audience - investors as well as founders. Articulating the goals of the fund and venture studio in a way that attracted investors and founders alike.