Around the time when Web Summit announced Lisbon as its new home, the city was being referred to as Europe’s hottest tech hub, but it was also constantly being compared to other cities. We knew the Lisbon brand wasn’t living up to its full potential, and Lisbon’s City Hall knew it too. After hearing enough of these comparisons, we went on a long journey looking for the essence of Lisbon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with the help of the most important players — the community itself. This special space — “the ecosystem” — needed a real identity and useful digital tools to align itself with what the future held for the city of Lisbon.
Client: Lisbon City Hall • Country: Portugal • Role: Design & Art Direction • Year: 2017
The brand took off from the city hills (the metaphor again). The way it shapes us and how we shape the city was the motto for building the logo. Several prototypes were made until the final result came out. Even before that, the naming process itself took us to more than 300 different names. Made of Lisboa was the right choice, the proper allegory for this new Lisboa, where things take “of”, where business are made “of” everythings that involves this restless city.
We ended up finding the right words and the right “place” for this community. Made of Lisboa, where the word Lisboa sits on three of the seven hills of the city (São Roque, São Jorge and São Vicente) and the letters undergo a slight deformation, resulting from the steep slope of the hills.
This new Community of Lisbon-based innovators was meant to be the link that connects the city and the ecosystem. It should be the reflection of an entrepreneurial mind in a city like Lisboa. The essence of the city + the innovative minds = brand identity.
By bringing the community of entrepreneurs in Lisbon to help define and position the city, we ended up creating a new brand, an online platform, and directory of everything and everyone in Lisbon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Made of Lisboa platform was named an Official Webby Awards Honoree of 2017
Seeing as Made of Lisboa was made for the community, with the community, it was welcomed with open arms. Hundreds of entrepreneurs and companies joined the directory. The community and Lisbon will continue to grow and to change, and so must Made of Lisboa.
