Duo invests in strategy for Actis

Acanchi and The Partners have collaborated on the creation of a brand strategy and corporate identity for private equity investment company Actis, which relaunched this week.

Actis, previously CDC Capital Partners, has some £1.5bn private and public sector funds under management, and invests in emerging markets to help stimulate growth in poorer countries.

Acanchi was appointed to the project in September 2002, under its previous Springpoint incarnation. It has created the company’s name and developed a brand strategy designed to help it move away from its public sector heritage, says Acanchi planning and strategy director Fenella McCarthy.

According to McCarthy, the name Actis, a combination of the words ‘act’ and ‘is’, was chosen because of its connotations of ‘moving and getting things done’. It also has links to the Greek word meaning ‘ray of light’ and the group liked the ‘power, energy and positive associations’ of the word, she says.

Acanchi also helped manage the three-way pitch process for the identity work, from which The Partners was appointed in September last year.

The Partners senior designer Nick Eagleton says the identity, which features a hand-drawn marque, needed to communicate ‘something universally primal and uplifting’ to represent the global nature of the company’s work.

The marque achieves a balance between the ‘measured, gravitas of a financial brand’ and the ‘more human dimensions’ of the company’s business, he says.

A colour palette of warm reds and ochre moves it away from corporate financial connotations, adds Eagleton.