Olea
Making energy renovation financeable.
Oléa finances energy renovation across France. It works as a delegate of the CEE scheme, the mechanism that obliges energy suppliers to fund savings made elsewhere: buildings insulated, industrial processes upgraded, consumption cut.
The company changed its name mid-project, from Veonia to Oléa. Brand Appart built the new identity around it, then the art direction and the homepage of the site.
The challenge
A name change mid-flight
The identity was already in progress when the company became Oléa. The work had to absorb a new name without starting over.
A scheme almost nobody understands
Obligated parties, beneficiaries, delegates. The CEE mechanism has to be explained before the offer means anything, and explanation is where most sites lose the visitor.
Energy, without the clichés
Wind turbines, green gradients, engineers pointing at solar panels. The sector has a visual vocabulary and every part of it is already taken.
Brand Strategy
A symbol, not a pun.
Oléa means olive tree, and the obvious move was to draw one. We argued the other way. A wordplay only lands for the people who already know the etymology, and it buys nothing from everyone else.
What the company needed was a mark strong enough to be recognised on its own, in a sector where the client rarely remembers who financed the work. Recognition first, meaning second.
Brand Identity
A rising sun cutting through the letter.
Four icon routes were tested, including the leaf and the tree the name invites. The one that won is a rising sun cutting into the letterform: symbolic without being literal, and legible at any size.
The palette settled on a vivid green with a cream accent, chosen over three alternatives for how it reads in the energy sector. The art direction leans on illustration rather than photography, because a stock image of an engineer pointing at a panel says nothing a drawing cannot say better.
Deliverable
Identity, art direction, homepage.
We rebuilt the identity, set the art direction and designed the homepage: logo in all its arrangements and export formats, colour system, illustration direction, and a home structured around what Oléa actually does, from its role as a CEE delegate to the sectors it covers, the tertiary decree, its services and its financing routes.
The system was then handed over to the partners taking the build forward, with the homepage as the reference every other page follows.
Result
A scheme made legible.
A visitor now understands what a CEE delegate does before scrolling past the fold, and finds their own sector named, whether that is residential, industry, offices or agriculture.
The mark works without explanation. The name can mean olive tree for those who know, and the logo never depends on it.
Testimonial
Working with Brand Appart means having a true partner, attentive, responsive, and creative. I especially appreciated their ability to grasp the essence of the project from the very first conversations and to propose meaningful solutions without ever losing sight of efficiency.
