Since its founding in 1983, Arquia Caja de Arquitectos realise and foster cooperative credit, in order to respond to the professionals’ specific savings and credit needs. The foundation funds and leads economical programmes in order to support its members working towards an end goal aimed at socially improving the community.
We introduced Arquia Foundation, a banking group focused on professionals in the field of architecture, to the world of digital publication with the award winning ‘e-temas’ – a collection of e-books with the aim to support the members of the banking concern and work towards a socially improved community. Now it was time to take another step towards the digital environment, this time with our consultancy services in strategic communication.
Arquia Foundation is possessing a great sensibility of understanding the funds of projects related to creation. This could widen their member group, that’s mostly built by architects, to a diverse group of creatives with need for economical advisory and understanding of their professions.
“The idea was to redefine Fundación Arquia into an independent media and showing how the architecture practice is changing through a journalistic approach and the visions of a selection of non-architecture influencers.” Rafa Martínez COO & Partner at Folch
We understood that the communication of Arquia had cracks in the foundation. Their online platform worked within multiple layers, the outstanding content was hidden inside folders, inside folders. The inception scenario in the website caused problems, and the excepcional content was gone to waste.
Their archive of articles and essays was precious and extremely valuable, yet being unattractive to browse and unorganised. We decided to create an editorial line that could give new life to this important archive. We needed to shape an interesting and relevant editorial product to widen the influence of the foundation, capture the current members and introduce them to the foundation’s expertise, besides reaching new segments of audience.
By pushing the architectural field beyond the practice and exchange ideas with diverse creators, influential in the field, we could reach a new audience and introduce them to the brand and its services.
Arquetipos became the answer to this thinking. By highlight the ideas of Arquia through a new platform, featuring interviews with the influencers of the architecture practice, we could broaden the communication to a new segment group. With a new content, yet always connected to the existing archive of Arquia – giving it an upswing through new platform and content.
We started by curating three profiles that would meet the need of this expansion of content; Mariluz Vidal from Openhouse Magazine, a biannual publication, looking into the private homes of diverse creatives around the world. Omar Sosa, designer and founder of Apartamento, widely recognised as today’s most influential, inspiring, and honest interiors magazine. Eugeni Quitllet, one of our times most innovative industrial designers, from object to space, his unique vision of rethinking our surroundings has contributed with ever-evolving design innovations. Editorial Director at Folch, Vincenzo Angileri, interviewed the profiles and over all guided the conversations through the path of the nodal connections between their practice and architecture, with the aim of highlighting the more relevant talking points.
“Like satellites revolving around the planet of architecture, the interviewees of Arquetipos influenced architecture without strictly colliding with its practice. This editorial approach understands the profound interdependence between practices and show architecture within a bigger picture.” Vincenzo Angileri, Editorial Director at Folch
The key colour yellow was already a strong corporate element for the foundation, and to keep the consistency of the brand was necessary. By pairing the serif typeface Lyon from Commercial Type Foundry elegant looks and intelligent, anonymous nature with the charismatic sansserif Gräbenbach from Camelot Typefaces, we could find a clever expression for the interview format. In combination with the art direction in photography nurtured by simplicity and tranquility, the profiles are photographed in their natural environments through a unifying grayscaled filter. The young local photographer Martí Pujol portrayed the profiles in a coherent series.
The platform is not designed by sections, but instead highlighting the content from the very start. Based on a strong navigation friendly interface, the user lands on the current interview where the respondent is presented through a grayscale image and introducing quote. The rest of the interview follows a smooth scroll and easy-to-follow interview format with breaking slideshows with selected works of the profile. When scrolling and reading the interview – a top menu appears, where content related to the topics of the conversation are highlighted. All in order to increase the visibility to the already existing outstanding content. Developed by Llos.
