Cityspan

Corporate Identity for Social Services Software Provider

Manmade’s rebranding of Cityspan helped to establish this software company as a credible player in the growing grant management software market.

When Cityspan approached Manmade, the company needed a new identity to support a shift in their business strategy. During the company’s 10-year history, Cityspan had focused primarily on selling their software to social service providers to monitor, manage, and report on their services. Now, they wanted to focus on selling their software to the cities and municipalities that fund social service providers, who would then also use Cityspan software.

We began work on the new identity by conducting research to better understand Cityspan’s competitors and target customers. By auditing 17 of Cityspan’s direct and indirect competitors, we identified several opportunities for differentiation.

From interviews with Cityspan, we gained a close understanding of target customer needs. We learned that while general perceptions of Cityspan were overwhelmingly positive, the company faced considerable resistance from internal IT teams who were apprehensive about working with external software vendors.

With these insights, we developed a new identity that focused on the idea of collaboration. We designed a logo mark that suggests a meeting of minds, and customized the font Unit to give Cityspan a unique, ownable logotype.

Color was critical to our approach. We retained the strong yellow from the old identity and used it as a means of differentiation, as none of Cityspan’s competitors use this color. Positive associations with illumination, insight, and public works also made yellow an appropriate choice.

For added vibrancy, a blue/black wordmark gives Cityspan an additional brand color. To keep printing costs low, we developed a set of templates and pre-printed sheets to enable Cityspan to print their own stationery and collateral as needed.

Since the new identity launched in fall 2005, Cityspan has successfully signed contracts with more than 50 cities and municipalities, including San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. CEO Mark Min has attributed a large part of his company’s success to our work, saying that the new identity has been critical in building the Cityspan brand.