VISUAL IDENTITY

AMPLEFORTH

CREDIBLE CAPITAL

We partnered with Ampleforth to architect a multi-brand system, a complex architecture spanning 4 brands, designed for both intellectual rigour and capital readiness — applying behavioural segmentation, on-chain analysis, and strategic design to transform an algorithmic asset into a trust-first protocol brand.

The result? A visual system that increased perceived clarity and credibility, contributing to a ~14% lift in $AMPL price and a combined market cap of $79.5M. This wasn’t a redesign — it was the strategic expression of base-layer belief delivered as part of a strategic reinvention led by community architects, Benzimra & Co.

‍We built a brand architecture where maths meets meme—and both win.

INDUSTRY

BLOCKCHAIN

LAYER-1

YEAR

2024

ELEGANT ECONOMICS

‍AmpleForth is an elegant mathematical solution to volatility and inflation, with all the seriousness of redefining global fiscal protocol.

Built for developers, economists and systems thinkers, the protocol offered functional brilliance but carried the visual anonymity of an early-stage whitepaper.

The challenge? Design a brand that reflects the elegance of the theory behind it, with the restraint and impervious confidence of institutional investors.

This wasn’t a visual rebrand, it was a strategic engagement designed to operationalise clarity, strengthen developer trust, and architect a dual-brand system capable of earning cultural and capital-market attention.

Ampleforth’s ecosystem spans both its elastic base token ($AMPL) and its governance layer ($FORTH), each requiring distinct strategic and visual positioning. We therefore designed not one brand, but a coherent multi‑brand architecture that honours both technical reliability and democratic community governance.

Belief abstraction

Ampleforth’s unique proposition—an elastic, non-dilutive asset class—had the intellectual weight to claim leadership in decentralised finance.

But the design and brand lacked the systemic clarity and digital gravitas to match its innovation.

This was as much about architectural clarity as aesthetic polish: AmpleForth needed to signal monetary logic and precision, shared control and participation; with it's founding pieces reinforcing the message.

We partnered with Benzimra & Co. to shape a visual and strategic system to communicate Ampleforth’s foundational strength, whilst preparing the ecosystem for its next chapter: the community-led token, $SPOT.

We created a shared skeleton and distinctive voice for each brand—embedding cohesion across channels while preserving role-specific credibility.

STRUCTURED SIGNALLING

We focused on building both intrinsic value (functional elegance, developer confidence) and extrinsic clarity (brand recognition, strategic trust). In high-similarity markets like Web3, emotional clarity outperforms mere distinctiveness alone.
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Academic rigour in brand design is not cosmetic. Meaningful Difference analysis finds that 70% of B2B tech purchase decisions are emotionally driven but later justified rationally. We designed for that sequence.

We applied branded house logic — establishing a brand skeleton shared across both assets. This type of structural clarity is a key accelerator of brand salience and trust, especially when launching adjacent propositions.

ON-CHAIN CHANGE

We used a hybrid strategic model combining emotional journey mapping, on-chain user patterns, and Kantar’s extrinsic-intrinsic matrix to identify points of brand friction across developer and investor personas.
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o Developer interviews on trust signals and readability
o On-chain community behaviour and governance participation
o Competitive audits across DeFi design systems (e.g. GitHub, Etherscan, Uniswap)

Developer retention and on-chain participation are now critical metrics for protocol legitimacy. As seen in proprietary research across our Web3 clients, trust in design and clarity of protocol architecture significantly impact institutional adoption .

Design Execution

The identity was governed by what Ampleforth stood for: safety, clarity, and mathematical elegance, with a community-level fan-feel for those who build with it daily.

‍Grid System: Based on graph paper and code editors, with spacing anchored to the geometry of the logotype’s "m". This enabled modular, hyper-readable layouts built for simplifying complex financial content.

‍Typography: Sans and Grotesk fonts were selected to balance and readability—conveying both intelligence and precision.

‍Motion System: Micro-animations evoked the rebasing mechanism: elastic, proportional, and smooth. A dynamic metaphor for Ampleforth’s algorithmic supply changes.

‍Colour: A monochrome system for foundational clarity, accented with soft code-editor hues (electric blue, green) mirroring dark-mode developer environments.

Protocol proof

By applying a branded-house strategy, we allowed AMPL and FORTH to co-exist visually, share core assets, and differentiate by function: algorithmic stability vs decentralized governance.

The result? A layered brand structure enabling clear ecosystem growth.

‍Market momentum: $AMPL price increased ~14%, to a combined market cap of $79.5M across $AMPL and $FORTH.

‍Capital-level validation: Coinbase Ventures invested $1M into SPOT, with the asset launching on Base.

On-chain credibility: FORTH sustained 16 months of consistent inflows, enhancing governance legitimacy.

‍Developer uptake: AMPL rebasing feature moved onto Avalanche, expanding protocol access.

‍Community engagement: Developer activity on GitHub and Telegram increased significantly.

economic precision matters

Ampleforth had the intellectual and technical merit to lead, but its brand lacked the emotional clarity, structural coherence, and visual credibility needed to earn trust from developers, differentiate in a crowded market, and attract institutional capital.

Aligning brand identity to cognitive drivers—developer trust, economic precision, governance clarity—we supported direct ecosystem outcomes:

o A 14% price lift
o $1M Coinbase VC backing
o Developer-driven enhanced interoperabilit
o And a modern visual ecosystem that communicates trust on every level.

When design reflects systems, belief and engagement follows.

The brand now conveys the intellectual credibility needed to keep attracting global institutional DeFi partners.

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