Tekuma Brand Identity
·Tekuma helps shape what life in the cities of
the future will look like. Spun out of MIT, the urban
innovation practice has worked on projects across 20
countries, advising governments and sovereign wealth
funds on communities that last. Ashfall created an identity
that carries institutional authority alongside
future ambition.
the future will look like. Spun out of MIT, the urban
innovation practice has worked on projects across 20
countries, advising governments and sovereign wealth
funds on communities that last. Ashfall created an identity
that carries institutional authority alongside
future ambition.
A leadership transition gave Tekuma an opportunity to take stock, clarify what the firm stands for, and shape the experience of encountering them for the first time. The ambition was dual: a brand that could command respect in the corridors of power, while still signalling the future they are working toward.
Ashfall created a new identity system designed to carry both. Crisp, engineered forms and reflective surfaces establish authority, while restrained motion and subtle behavior bring a sense of humanism and future. A vibrant signature element sets the tone for the whole system.
Core Creative Concept
Tekuma’s approach to urban design pairs future-facing humanism with institutional authority.
The new identity expresses this through controlled contrast: crisp outer forms and engineered, reflective surfaces, softened by restrained motion and subtle behaviour. Across typography, mark, and animation, it communicates seriousness and capability, with momentum held just under the surface.
The signature element
Tekuma needed a visual shorthand for the future they help cities build.
The signature element is that shorthand: a tangible 3D form that feels engineered yet alive, reading as both metal and glass. Used across touchpoints, it anchors the system in futurism with institutional weight.
From strategy to execution.
Tekuma approaches cities as creative acts, and urban design as a humanistic practice. The identity translates that worldview into a working system, where typography, icons, and layout carry the philosophy and give it a lived, future-facing presence.
Iconography
The icon system is built from two shapes: circle and square. The visual logic comes from urban planning itself: grids, lines, simple geometries that echo Tekuma’s work.
Every icon is animated. The system was designed to move, so the symbols register as motion before they register as decoration.
Built for Digital
The brand system is most fully realized in
digital contexts, where every element works in concert:
motion, typography, layout, the signature 3D form
responding to interaction in real time.
Layout principles
The layout system is built on two interlocking grids. A four-column, eight-row primary structure controls rhythm, margins, and typographic alignment. A nested secondary grid places visual assets, photography, and 3D elements more freely, without breaking the overall structure.
Because the rules are structural, the system scales across formats: square social posts, horizontal keynotes, vertical documents, long-form reports. The same underlying logic, different outputs.
Typography
Feature, a condensed elegant serif, paired with technical Aeonik Fono, anchors Tekuma's typographic system. The serif carries institutional weight, while the monospace brings precision for specs, systems, and detail work. Together they hold the brand’s central contrast in type: authority with experimentation, legacy with the future.
Sharp on the outside, rounded on the inside, the wordmark takes its cue from the brand’s central tension. The effect is an elegant futurism with institutional weight: monumental, confident and slightly secretive
Color Palette
Tekuma’s palette is built on maximum contrasts: A black and white foundation, with greys calibrated for different uses. The only colour comes from a single vivid gradient, carried over from the previous identity. It’s a thread of continuity used to sharpen the new system’s intent: monochrome restraint for authority, but with a single, highly charged accent for energy.
Designed to scale
Designed to scale, the identity retains its coherence as it stretches. The system moves from compact squares to wide and long formats without losing structure, with grid, typography, and motion adapting cleanly across sizes and contexts.
Emotional response
Tekuma’s identity is designed to land
emotionally on first contact. Before you read a word, it
establishes tone, credibility, and a sense of depth, drawing
you in ahead of conscious interpretation: felt immediately,
understood over time.
Ashfall Team
- Leslie Uy
Alex Predusel
Forrest S. Wright
Martin Ehrlich
Nicolas Garcia
Mubeen Qassim
Anoukia Perrey
Martin Egrt
Dominik Budimir
Valgeir Valdimarsson
Kryštof Ježek
Tekuma
- Marwan Abou Dib
Naomi Hébert
Kun Qian