CFA Institute Reinvents Brand Identity with Award-Winning Design

The world’s leading accrediting body for investment management professionals, the CFA Institute, has unveiled an award-winning brand design system aimed at elevating its voice in a new age of market integrity.

The refreshed brand identity was created by leading design consultancy Elmwood New York, and revolves around a distinctive aperture symbol that communicates the CFA Institute’s prestigious identity and powerful portfolio across multiple brand touchpoints.

The work was honoured at the Graphis Design Awards this summer, in recognition of its creative excellence in expressing “the personal and empowering interactions that make the CFA Institute irrevocably valuable”.

With over 190,000 members in 160 markets around the globe, the CFA Institute has long set the standard for world-class ethics, knowledge and professionalism in the investment industry. Its flagship CFA Program enjoys a reputation as one of the most recognised and rewarding credentials in investment management.

In tackling a brand refresh, the challenge for Elmwood was to preserve this revered status within a dynamic, meaningful system. The CFA Institute needed a brand identity that would emphasize the impact that the not-for-profit has as a positive force on the industry, while showcasing its influence in providing accessible and diverse pathways for a new generation of investment professionals.

“It’s been an honor to work alongside the CFA Institute on this ambitious brand-lift project, which is all about narrating its collective contribution of value to today’s investment world,” says Meg Beckum, executive creative director at Elmwood New York. “Visually, the aperture graphic device gave us a compelling starting point from which to unify and build the organisation’s new design system. Its shape can dynamically open and close: crafting a metaphor for the big-vision potential of a career in investment.

The aperture is made up of bands of closed stripes – reflecting individual agency, and the small decisions that the CFA Institute empowers its members to make every day. These micro-effects feed into the open center of the aperture; symbolizing the profound effect that personal ethics and professionalism can have in driving transformative economic change.

The aperture icon is the glue and guide of the CFA Institute’s new visual identity – used as a parent-brand emblem across all high-level communications and events. It forms a key part of a wider design system that flexes with the new brand architecture - organizing the offering and highlighting the flagships.

“Our new brand architecture does a fantastic job of both simplifying and amplifying our global brand offer for tomorrow’s generation of investment professionals,” says Thomas Berry, chief marketing officer at the CFA Institute.

“The fluid design system not only allows us new ways to express ourselves in multiple environments – it also speaks to our ability to inspire member engagement. It reinforces how, in the fast-paced world of investment, the global CFA community can enable bold new levels of societal innovation and value.”

Ultimately, the refreshed identity reflects the wider strengths behind the story of the CFA Institute. It enables a more confident expression of its market-leading identity; from a flagship capability to uphold professional standards of practice, to the boundary-pushing ideas that flow across its global network of partners, candidates and employers.

“With its focus on personal growth and collective empowerment, this reimagined brand system captures the very best of the CFA Institute experience,” says Meg. “It feels apt that our work to represent an exceptional organization has been recognized by the Graphis Awards for its own exceptional approach to design.”