Building a brand

The new face of Alt Goes Mainstream

We are thrilled to announce our new brand as we gear up for the release of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We have already had over 6,000 post views and we’re excited about what’s coming next.

We knew we needed a new look and feel for the Alt Goes Mainstream content platform. We knew we needed someone who has classical design training but at the same time is alternative in their thinking.

Our search led us to Emily Kolodny, who came highly recommended from multiple sources. She is a brilliant designer, working as the Head of Brand Design for Lob, a very successful startup. She also designed the brand for Alt, one of the most exciting companies in the alts space.

We presented Emily with her task. Design a brand for a new trend in finance.

Simple, right?

We told her she needed to come up with podcast artwork, with legs for a larger brand, to represent alternative investments spanning traditional finance (think private equity, real estate, startups, late-stage tech companies) all the way to more alternative alts (we call them “alt alts”), like sports cards, sneakers, collectibles, art, wine, etc.

We wanted the Alt Goes Mainstream artwork to speak to the full spectrum of people interested in alternative assets: rabid sports fans who love the hobby of investing into sports cards, sneakerheads who love trading shoes on StockX, bitcoin maximalists, wealth managers responsible for preserving and growing the wealth of their clients, institutional investors who allocate to large private equity funds, and beyond.

And, to make it even more complicated, we wanted to stick with the name “Alt Goes Mainstream,” which is quite a lot of text!

We went through several iterations to get just the right mix of gravitas to pay homage to more traditional alternative assets and the flair to represent how culture is colliding with the world of investing.

Here is the new face of our podcast and content platform:

At first glance, you of course see the familiar dollar bill. This signifies that alts are very much a financial asset and connected with traditional alternative assets like private equity and real estate.

Within the dollar bill, Emily incorporated aspects of the alt alts space - like sports cards and sneakers - to hint at how finance is changing before our eyes.

The bitcoin symbol sits alongside the traditional dollar symbol to imply that crypto is taking hold as a more mainstream financial asset.

The heading - “The United States of Cool Things and Passionate People” - is a cheeky allusion to how integral passionate, engaged users – who create community – are to creating a new asset class.

Thanks Emily for your incredibly detailed and meticulous approach, which resulted in creating such thoughtfully designed work that speaks to all the exciting things going on in the alts space!

And check out Emily’s website to see more of her awesome work. You won’t want to miss it.

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