Tekuma started off as a student-led design project, with pop-up exhibitions around MIT’s campus. The idea manifested itself during a game of basketball, after a handful of students had experienced a critique with little to no attendance. Countless hours had been spent in the studio, designing and making. Too much good work had gone unseen, and that had to change.
Since, Tekuma has evolved and the team has grown. With a business model and paying customers, it quickly outgrew MIT’s campus. The need for a new brand identity was eminent. One that stayed true to the core our mission: enhancing the experience of space through art.
Art needs space, space needs art.
In spring, Tekuma placed a call for an artist-in-residence summer program and was blown away by the visual strength and attitude of Kwaku Opoku (Reez), a Parsons student originally from Ghana. Kwaku left Parsons’ dorms for Boston and worked with us the entire summer to understand and redefine our identity. Here’s how his design process started:
‘’For this iteration, I tried my best to rid myself of trying to combine every single thing the company stands for and, rather, put its core values at the fore front of the logo. Art and space have the ability to change one’s perspective.
I started with perspective, one of the first things we’re taught when addressing three dimensionality and form. So, with that in mind, I tried to create a flat but also three dimensional logo that conveyed perspective.
By adding perspective, the dynamism of not just the logo, but also the company and its ability to effect change on the way we view spaces is represented.“
Behind each work is an artist with a unique story. Sharing those stories is key to building a spatial experience that displays artworks in an engaging way. By combining the idea of a frame with a visual representation of perspective, Kwaku’s designed logo echoes the way in which Tekuma works to construct narratives in space.
And with that, we present to you our new brand identity. We hope you like it!