Ülemiste City

Ülemiste City is Tallinn’s versatile and rapidly developing smart business campus, where more than 12,000 people work, study and live on a daily basis. The region was first established as a railway industry at the end of the 19th century and in the 1930s the production moved to aircrafts. During the Cold War experimental technological equipment for the Soviet army and space industry were produced there. The factory closed at the time of the restoration of independence and remained empty until 2005, when ​​Mainor’s leading figure and visionary Ülo Pärnits had the idea to create a smart business city to boost the development of Estonian society and economy.

Since then the ambition to be a leader, create a valuable environment for local talent to develop, grow and succeed, has been a central part of Ülemiste City’s DNA. To express this idea more clearly, Ülemiste needed to update its brand and visual language.

For more than a year we worked closely with the customer through a number of different solutions and came to the conclusion that the classic rigid brand framework is not suitable for a playful, start-up-minded city.

Flexible tools were needed to successfully communicate such diverse topics as a forward-looking conference or a ping-pong tournament. As a result, the customary 3-4 colors and graphic elements brands tend to have were not enough, and so we created a whole spectrum of colour variants and shapes that can be combined according to the type, target group and the desired mood of the event.

Although the initial task was to preserve the existing logo, together we came to the conclusion that it could be done better – the new logo would have to be a stronger symbol, easily readable, simpler in form and express the ambition and progressive mindset of Ülemiste City. Thus we created a symbol in which a careful viewer can see a coat of arms, the letter Ü and an upward driven movement.

In addition to the brand update, a new website, which provides a detailed overview of the content and nature of Ülemiste City, was created. The website is meant to be constantly evolving, just like the Ülemiste City itself.