cau-visual-id — Lucas Reitz

paralela I

photography
barbican centre
nova scena praha
lh 187 bruxelles
cbr bruxelles
brugge triennial
terroir catarina
terra pavillion
venice biennale
olivetti
casa cassol
ims
sesc pompeia
habitat 67
james-simon gallery

award / funding / publication

CAU Visual ID (2025)

Brazilian National Competition
Honourable Mention, Top 3 finalist

Click here for the full proposal

CAU 2025 is a brand rooted in popular Brazilian architectural knowledge. It reflects the diversity of the country's modern, peripheral and self-built landscapes. In Brazil, the struggle for a dignified home is marked by social inequalities and exclusion. CAU-Brazil’s Council of Architecture and Urbanism is a fundamental institution in combatting social and climatic inequalities, as well as in promoting ATHIS (Free and Public Technical Consulting) policies and urban plans.

By referring to housing as a historically crucial agenda, the proposed identity is inspired by construction of a fairer and more egalitarian future. The brand evokes the bricks, the raw and fragmentary shapes, and the ability to adapt when celebrating our architecture.

CAU 2025 is concise, versatile and quickly adaptable. It balances seriousness and boldness by pointing to a contemporary architecture. It transmits institutional austerity and reinforces the guiding role of CAU within Brazilian architecture. First of all, the CAU 2025 ID represents emancipation. Young and prospective, the brand signals to Brazilian architects who believe in transformation through simplicity and adaptation.

It constitutes a family of variations based on the logo of the acronym CAU/BR and the descriptor of the Brazil’s Council of Architecture and Urbanism. This family is divided into:

> Complete Brand: of institutional and sober use

> Reduced Brand: designed for wide graphic application, ensuring readability at different scales

> Compact Brand: ideal for social networks, clothing and more daring and dynamic communications.

The typographic component is the central element of identity and, therefore, cannot be changed or replaced. The brand is highly adaptable to various purposes and has the colour Tijolo (natural brick) as the main symbolic reference. Colours and shapes refer to the urban landscape, elements of Brazilian architecture and instruments of the trade.

The CEAU-CAU/UF and FPRES/CAU brands are variants of the CAU/BR brand and maintain their essential typographic elements, such as the empty A and the Bar ( / ). The CAU 2025 brand proposes a strategic repositioning of the Council, using bold shapes and colours to dialogue with new professionals and audiences. Its secondary colours reinforce an innovative CAU, committed to environmental, social and technological advances in the field of architecture and urbanism. The combination between soft shades and the main colour Tijolo aligns the CAU with the communication of the main regulatory bodies and promoters of architectural culture, without giving up the institutional sobriety and Brazilian identity.