2019
L'Autre Soie
Participative visual identity
L'Autre Soie is a project halfway between social housing and a third location, in Villeurbanne near Lyon, France. Located within the perimeter of the "Carré de Soie" district, it will combine housing reserved for people in difficulty as well as places dedicated to culture and the social and solidarity economy.
The ambition is to make L'Autre Soie a creative and attractive place in the city, with strong citizen involvement. Everyone, in its diversity, will be able to find their place and have a social, cultural and economic environment that contributes to the development of their capacity to act. The project is led by an economic interest group composed of Alynea, Aralis, Est Métropole Habitat (EMH) and Rhône Saône Habitat (RSH). They are also supported by the CCO, the cultural centre of Villeurbanne.
We imagined a visual identity as a manifesto. A manifesto to make the link between us tangible and concrete. A rule of the game inviting us to do things together. As a collective and participative work allowing us to question the principle of otherness. A space for free, open and developing expression.
Concept
The logotype is an invitation to connect the "Other" ("L'Autre" in French) to "oneself" ("Soi" in French / the use of "Soie" being a play-on-word in reference to the district of the project).
It only exists once the dots are connected. No matter whether the dots are connected physically or mentally, it is in this action that the words become signs, and the logotype appears. The rule of the game is not only binary, since a third point slips into the project name, as an invitation to hijack the rule. This logo "L'Autre Soie" is continuously reinventing itself, while retaining the coherence and recognition necessary for a brand.
Typography
The visual identity created for the project is based on the Storno typography. Its very "standardized" design contrasts with the joviality of its big dots on the "i "s, allowing for many graphic games. It is a typography that only exists in one fat. A form of minimalism limiting superfluous effects within the layout. Therefore, only the scale of the words can be used to establish reading levels.
We also imagined a name architecture for the different entities of the project. Probably more a poetic game than a functional proposal. This principle inspired the invitation card for the inauguration... L'autre quoi ? moi ? toi ? toit ? Soie ?... ("The other what? Me? You? Roof? Soie?...")
The Ordinary Adventure
Organised by the CCO, an inauguration day entitled "L'aventure ordinaire" (The Ordinary Adventure) provided an opportunity to invite a hundred volunteers over a weekend to reflect on the future directions of the project. On Sunday, the general public was invited to discover the exhibition presenting their reflections.
In addition to setting up the exhibition, we proposed a symbolic inaugural gesture to the officials and the press.
Participative workshops
In order to reveal the visual identity to everyone, we also proposed participative workshops to help them understand the values of otherness, exchange and experimentation of the project.
Each person was invited to reflect and illustrate their relationship to the other by drawing on supports studded with dots to be connected.
Participate!
About a hundred drawings were made during the workshop... and today the system is extended online on the site of L'Autre-Soie.
To access the site, the user is invited to link 'LAutre" to "Soie", in line with the participative logic of this singular and "living" project.
L'Autre Soie is an adventure of collective design which allowed us to question the role of visual identity outside the traditional institutional and commercial fields. Feel free to read our approach in detail in this article on our blog.
Imagine a place where accommodation, housing, social and solidarity economy are mixed in a city with everyone, where culture allows us to draw a link between the other and ourselves.
L'Autre Soie is a great project of urban solidarity, social and cultural innovation that will take place at 24 rue Alfred-de-Musset in Villeurbanne, on the site of the former IUFM. Carried by the GIE Est Habitat and the CCO, this place will bring together, on 23,500 m², different forms of housing (rental, shared, accession, accommodation, hostel), cultural facilities (concert hall, studios, creative residences...), reception and coworking spaces, with functions of training, animation and social and solidarity economy.
The aim is to create synergies between public policies on housing, social action, economic development and culture. L'Autre Soie project is part of the wider scope of the Carré de Soie project, a major urban project covering 500 hectares straddling the municipalities of Vaulx-en-Velin and Villeurbanne, at the instigation of the Metropolis of Lyon and the Cities. This ambitious urban transformation aims to reconvert wasteland that has been transformed by economic and residential development, the creation of facilities and public spaces, while ensuring the link with existing districts and the enhancement of the industrial heritage.
L'Autre Soie will be a creative and attractive place in the conurbation with a strong citizen involvement in the design and implementation of the project.
Thanks to an adapted and diversified housing offer, all publics, including the most vulnerable, will find their place in an inclusive city district, which will facilitate residential itineraries. The project will give pride of place to initiative, service and exchange. Actors committed to solidarity L'Autre Soie supports the economic model of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and will welcome companies to strengthen the social, economic, cultural and civic integration of the various publics. Actors engaged in various fields (training, employment, housing, civic life, etc.) will propose various activities and will help to create dynamics of inclusion.
The animation of a social and cultural innovation laboratory, which will be based on shared artistic creations and on a cultural activity of metropolitan influence. This laboratory will mobilise the inhabitants' own resources and their capacity for commitment around the cultural and social projects they will carry out.
Project expertise:
Logo creation, visual identity and graphic guidelines.
Logo creation, visual identity and graphic guidelines.
Type of client:
Cultural communication agency for theaters, concert halls, festivals, dramatic and choreographic companies. Heritage, museums & cultural spaces. Institutional communication agency, public communication for cities and territories, government institutions, social partners and public administrations.
Cultural communication agency for theaters, concert halls, festivals, dramatic and choreographic companies. Heritage, museums & cultural spaces. Institutional communication agency, public communication for cities and territories, government institutions, social partners and public administrations.
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