Branding / Identity / Strategy

Our commitment to prototyping and building for alternative systems starts with Kinstruct. Built in-house from concept to launch, Kinstruct is a platform for collective project-making: a space where communities can co-design what comes next.

The identity system reflects the platform’s values — participatory, and open-ended.

Context & Challenge

“What kind of tools do we need if we’re serious about designing for more community-centered systems?

We weren’t interested in building another platform(?) that simply connects users or optimizes engagement. We wanted to create something that could help people practice co-ownership, co-creation, and co-responsibility — not just as ideals, but as everyday actions.

Ceiling of an industrial or warehouse space with exposed metal beams, a drain pipe, and a fluorescent light fixture.
Colorful sticky notes on a table with handwritten words and sketches, including phrases like "Kinship + Construct," "Refrain from 'Platform'," and drawings of a lamp, a grid, and the word "staffed" with an arrow.
A bulletin board with a complex web of colorful strings connecting various tags, papers, and photos, forming an intricate network.
A workspace with a laptop keyboard, colorful sticky notes with hand-drawn sketches of structures, and a Sharpie marker.

Approach & Process

Kinstruct is as much a design question as a product. We approached the identity system as infrastructure: a modular framework that can be adapted, extended, and localized by its users.

Instead of defaulting to "clean" civic tech tropes, we borrowed from community planning meetings, municipal forms, DIY mutual aid signage, and speculative design tools. We explored naming, narrative, typography, and iconography in parallel — treating each as a way to extend the core values of openness, reciprocity, and care.

Logo:
An abstracted side view of scaffolding reflecting, that the work is the community’s. We are more than just a static platform, we are an ever-evolving tool that grows with our users so they can continue to build.

Name:
“Kinstruct” merges kinship and construction

Identity System

Some highlights

Typography:
Our logotype’s foundation is Jakarta Plus, by Gumpita Rahayu of Tokotype. Our app’s main text is Atkinsons Hyperlegible by the Braille Institute. Both choices reflect our commitment to accessibility and supporting work from underrepresented designers.

Color Palette:
We used earth tones, derived from Carlos “Botong” Francisco’s Bayanihan painting. An art work that represents the values we aim to strive for.

Logo of k-instruct with a ladder icon and the tagline 'Scaffolding community-led collaborations' on a light green background.
Comparison of two bookshelf graphics showing that the right one is stackable vertically and follows brand book guidelines.
A mural depicting laborers carrying a bamboo structure, with a man looking out from an elevated platform.

Art Direction for Photography & Graphics

more process,
more candid,
more natural.

A group of people gathered around a table with a yellow poster sheet that has the word 'POLITICS' written in the center, with various related terms connected around it, such as 'SOCIAL ISSUES,' 'TELECOMMUNICATION,' 'HUNG MINDS,' and 'AWARENESSES.'
Group of girls presenting on stage at Girls Congress event, with a woman speaking into a microphone, holding yellow paper, and a large screen displaying 'Prototype Presentation' in the background.
A group of young women gathered around a table engaged in a discussion, with notebooks and papers in front of them, in a room with a large painting on the wall.

Kinstruct is scheduled to launch its pilot program this Fall.

Stay tuned for another case study of how we built the digital product