Creative Spotlight goes behind the scenes to some of the awesome campaigns and projects made by Cebu-based design studios and agencies that don't get the hype they deserve. This week, we're highlighting the work of Dual Story, a purpose-driven brand consulting agency rooted in strategy and creativity.
Branding for an Engaged Citizenry
In 2023, Dual Story’s annual anniversary project was a collaboration with the local government of Alegria to create a visual identity that invites its citizens to embody the municipality’s essence of Que Alegre (“what joy”).
Alegria may seem like a brief passing point on the way to more popular destinations in the north. Only a curious few stay to see what the municipality has to offer beyond its most popular tourist spot: canyoneering in Barangay Compostela. Ready to share what lies beyond the surface, Alegria strengthens its development roadmap through three pillars: (1) Responsible Tourism, (2) Organic Agriculture, and (3) Investment Support.
“Que Alegre!” and “Beautiful Alegria” are the municipality’s tenets. The agency’s place branding efforts had to fortify these.
The Challenge
“What makes Alegria, Alegria?” was the question the agency wanted to answer during their five-day design sprint. The agency had to use intuitive anthropological markers per barangay while seamlessly merging it with the municipality’s 2028 development roadmap.
Dual Story’s Insight
Every barangay in Alegria is protective of its own identity and assets. Compostela is known for canyoneering. Lepanto is known for agriculture. Poblacion is known for its heritage sites. Sta. Filomena is known for artisanal fishing. Because of this, the agency chose to create a modular logo that could be taken apart and assembled together. The form, a sharp triangle, subliminally mimics the A of Alegria. The colors chosen reflected the dominant color palette of residential households, which were anthropological markers of the municipality’s collective taste.
The Process
The team conducted its due diligence by doing asset-based community checkups focusing on the municipality’s industry drivers: tourism, agriculture, and investment.
We worked closely with Alegria’s government offices, including the Sangguniang Bayan, Sangguniang Kabataan, and Municipal Tourism Office, to empathize and align with the constituents in co-designing a brand that reflects of how they want to see Alegria. A basic Design Thinking and Branding Workshop was also conducted.
These agency and private citizen consultations, along with the workshops , assisted the LGU in taking on the challenge to see Alegria with fresh eyes. We fostered open and inclusive conversations, stepping in as facilitators to ensure stakeholder voices–such as the municipality’s farmer representatives, mothers, entrepreneurs, and youth–were heard.
Anecdotes and Funny Stories
“After trekking all the way to Mt. Lanaya’s base camp, Dual Story’s intern designer Tiffany Miranda, developed a really bad stomach flu. We hoped she would recover. We didn’t want to be the one to break the news to her parents that their daughter was sick on her first unsupervised trip. She had to work on the graphic elements while nursing herself back to health. She slept it off for a night, and came back the next day ready to work on the designs. Many of the elements from the logo came from her hard work. She had to power through because we were presenting to the Mayor and Councilors the next day.”
“Heat, sweat, and the worry of being way past my destination are only few of my traveling concerns. We almost landed in another municipality because my colleague and I were both shy to say “Diri lang!” to the bus conductor. We had to sleep with one eye open, locked at the window pane, just to make sure we wouldn’t get lost.
Thankfully, we arrived. Yes, we had to walk a few hundred meters back in extreme heat because we missed our stop, but we arrived.”
JM GONZALES, COPYWRITER
“Fast and oily food is our usual go-to whenever we work. So being in Alegria was quite a shift for our stomach. So much fresh seafood, every day!
We were beyond stuffed. The government of Alegria ensured we were well-fed, so we had so much food. Did we mention that the food was chef’s kiss?”
SOPHIA OLVIS, RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT OFFICER
+63 915 567 8842
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