A brand built around growth and connection Cultivar Communications
Service
Brand Identity
Role
Freelance Designer
Year
2025
Cultivar: in English, a plant variety developed through cultivation; in Spanish, “to cultivate.” The dual meaning mirrors the founder’s own dual cultural heritage and the brand’s focus on intentionally nurturing community. A logomark of repeated leaf shapes visualizes it: a field spreading outward, helping the community flourish. The symbol ties the identity to the founder’s personality, shaping it into a declaration of who she is and what she is here to do.
Understanding
Understanding the Client & Project
Cultivar Communications, founded by Anya Hanna, a professional with corporate experience, helps small businesses and nonprofits in the food and agriculture sectors. The firm provides high‐quality communication tools typically reserved for large brands.
The identity needed to carry two things at once: Anya’s dual cultural heritage, and her commitment to nurturing community through her work.
Insight
Exploring Two Conceptual Directions
Idea 1. Grounded in Gettysburg Heritage
This idea drew on Gettysburg, where the business began, using local landmarks and native plants so the brand feels rooted in the community it serves.
Idea 2. Visualization of the Founder’s Essence (Selected)
This idea centered on the founder herself: her taste, her heritage and her personality. It was selected, and the rest of this page shows how it was built.
Translation
Visualizing the Name
A communications firm works the way a farmer does. Cultivar finds the value in each client and cultivates it. The client’s business, and the community around it, grow toward their goals and mission. The logomark illustrates this metaphor in its simplest form: farm produce shapes repeating and spreading outward in a pattern, like a field coming into harvest. It carries the brand’s vision: “Growing connection. Reaping results.”
Every choice in this identity had to do one thing: feel like her, both who she is now and who she’s still becoming.
Expressing the Founder Through Color
Throughout her journey of discovering her loves in life, she realized that jewel tones represent her.
To ensure sustainable brand identity use, the palette has four color pairs to categorize clients as the business grows. Since main clients include small businesses, nonprofits, and purpose‐driven organizations, each group needs a tailored approach to express their authentic voice. The founder can use these colors strategically as the brand evolves.
Balancing Human Expression & Professional Trust
The primary and secondary typefaces aim to communicate trust through a genuine human connection while maintaining a professional appearance. I chose Cormorant Infant and Inclusive Sans because their combination reflects the founder’s calligraphy talent and her distinctive style of writing glyphs.
