Peti kupe
BRAND STRATEGY, BRAND NAMING
ANALISYS
I was hired to create a brand strategy and brand name for the new multipurpose cultural venue in Zagreb, hosting parties, concerts, exhibitions, and other events. The venue itself is placed in an old, historical building, which was preserved by adaptive reuse. Although it is known that the building was part of the big railway complex in the neighbourhood, the exact use of this particular building was unknown. The client expressed his desire to discover the historical background and incorporate it into the new brand of the venue.
Extensive historical research has shown that the building was a railway facility and one of the several carriage maintenance workshops dating back to the imperial age of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
At the beginning, the purpose of this particular building was heavy-duty maintenance and repair of wagons, but over the years, it was repurposed for the cleaning service and maintenance of passenger coaches. The railway complex employed many young men, so over time they have established their sports club and cultural and musical societies. The sports club had its own football and cycling departments which were especially popular. The cultural and musical society offered a range of activities such as singing and dancing, drama, jazz orchestra, and musical courses for accordion and guitar. The visual arts section stood out especially, as it was the only amateur school in Croatia at the time and nurtured generations of amateur painters.
SYNTHESIS
Besides having an interesting industrial history, the building itself boasts a heritage of social gatherings, cultural activities, music, the arts, and creativity. Working in the sections filled people with positive energy, encouraged socialising, and promoted quality leisure time. The history of space is closely tied to wagons whose primary purpose was to travel and bridge the distances between distant destinations. Music and art are metaphorical means of transportation to new, more interesting, and different places that we cannot physically reach. Like a railway, they erase spatial and temporal distances, taking us to other cities and countries, to different decades, to the past and the future and connecting us with other people.
Each activity at the venue is a form of imaginary travel. It led us to the brand positioning: Travelling to the unknown, embodied in the brand attributes, is railway-like by using elements of heritage in naming or design. Attribute traveling is used metaphorically to refer to journeys into the unknown, where one encounters new people, countries, and ideas through music and the arts. Cultural and educational attributes reflect the pride we take in all the efforts made to introduce new and unfamiliar music and experiences to our visitors.
IMPLEMENTATION
The name Peti Kupe is a reference to the building's previous use, which involved the maintenance and cleaning of passenger coaches. 'Kupe' (in English, 'coupe') signifies a passenger coach, while 'Peti' (in English, 'the fifth') alludes to both a specific passenger coach number and the venue's house number. The railroad and travel heritage of the venue serves as a metaphor for the contemporary and dynamic experiences visitors can expect to encounter through music and culture.
The poster design draws inspiration from vintage tickets printed on grainy paper, featuring essential information like the departure date, destination, class, and coach number. The logo design cleverly incorporates dual symbolism, representing both the Roman numeral for '5' and the capital letter 'K’.