Building Africa’s Future Through Architecture, Story, and Community

Across the African Continent, Architecture has been modernised by importing blueprints and implementing practices that often fail to fit the local realities. Construction is rushed, function is not considered and stripped og dignity and character. Our cultural heritage is overlooked in favour of trends and 'modernisation'.

Our Challenge was to build a brand that carries out the building process from end to end (design and build) while referencing our cultural heritage, house responsibly and with dignity and document African Architecture for posterity and impact while fostering collaboration in the industry.

Garneta was created to fill this need, not as another firm, but as an ecosystem for African Architecture.

Our Approach

To properly define Garneta Africa as an ecosystem, we capitalised on its subbrands by identifying the purpose each serves, who they serve and the difference it makes. With this in mind, the big picture of what Garneta Africa set out to do came into focus: To Redefine African architecture on the African continent.

Using this as our compass, we crafted a verbal identity that reflects Graneta's personality, creative, indigenous, and structured, paying homage to and being inspired by its heritage, while showing empathy, and remaining focused on achieving creative and precise execution.

The visual identity was created by balancing architectural symbolism with African creative expressions:

• The logo, a structured wordmark designed to showcase doors as a symbol for opportunities and discoveries.

• Vibrant and diverse colours drawn from the African landscape and systemised to fit each of the subbrands

• Patterns, shapes and textures created from African art and designed to be signature motifs for physical renderings.

The result is a brand system that speaks with clarity, confidence, and dignity; structured yet imaginative, African at its core, and global in its outlook.

Measured Impact

• Created a unified brand architecture that clearly explains four sub-brands without fragmentation.

• Developed visual and verbal identity systems grounded in cultural heritage and precise execution

• Crafted messaging pillars and campaigns that resonate with investors, homeowners, artisans, and media partners.

• Designed launch campaigns that generated pre-launch anticipation across multiple audience groups.

• Introduced a digital-first brand presence with a research-backed website to balance storytelling and ease of use

The Evolution

Garneta has evolved beyond the typical architecture firm into a brand that honours Africa’s cultural heritage and demonstrates to the world that African architecture can be innovative, sustainable, and globally relevant.

For homeowners, Garneta means dignity and a sense of belonging.

For artisans, it means craft with purpose.

For partners, it means trust and collaboration.

For Africa, it means a future designed from within.

For Garneta Africa, it begins with people; it is rooted in heritage, and we design for the future.

Project Team

Sheba Ham - Creative Director, Lead Strategist & Web developer

Jemima - Art Director, Brand Strategist, Brand Designer & UI Designer

Peace Akinola - Marketing Strategist

Temitope Lawal - Motion Designer