Open Path

Branded by Landor

If you are anxious to be a parent but need some help, and fortunate enough to live in Northern California, there's hope.  But only because a designer  found it for you.

Formerly the regional branch of a larger non-profit, Open Path was spinning out, to better provide "many options and opportunities for family building" to people who need help in conceiving, carrying or adopting children.  So it needed a new identity. Landor Associates offered to help. Its planners boiled the communication goal down to the phrase "one source, many solutions" (Landor calls that a "brand driver"), which drove a full name generation effort. In a master list of 500-plus ideas, the naming team was delighted to find the creative "Open Path" solution to be available.

On day one of design explorations, Henri Kusbiantoro studied the letterforms in a range of type treatments, looking for meanings in the letters themselves as well as in their graphic forms. In "ope" he saw "hope," but (he says, and I believe him) without yet seeing its connection with the last letter in "path." That happened on day two when, thinking of the sun more than anything else, it occurred to him to try  a circular wordmark (an idea that Landor's New York office had used so effectively in The Paley Center design solution.) And voila -- there was hope.  One of those moments we live for.

Naturally, the client loved it and would accept no other solution. And that is how Open Path became "A beacon of hope to many families in Northern California."

Credits:
Naming and design:  Landor (SF); Executive Director Deborah Chae-Crudo,
naming director Anthony Shore, creative director Kisitina Venegaz, identity designer Henricus Kusbiantoro