ALL HANDS ECOLOGY

PROJECT INFO

THE CHALLENGE

Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) and KALW Public Media came together with a bold ambition: to build a cultural hub in the heart of San Francisco where arts, media, and community voices thrive. Located in the historic Warfield Building in the heart of Market Street, this hub would be a highly visible collaboration between the two respected organizations. While both were moving into the Warfield Commons space, our challenge was to build a brand that focused on their combined ambitions and the future tenants who would ultimately bring the building’s mission to life.

The brand required a foundation strong enough to reflect a potential national model, flexible enough to grow with new partners, and soulful enough to feel authentic and rooted in the neighborhood’s history. It needed to speak to philanthropists, local media, neighbors, and the public. And it needed to come together quickly, as their team needed to secure additional occupancy immediately.

HOW WE SOLVED IT

To activate the brand quickly, we kicked off by developing an interim splash page to support immediate leasing needs. Leveraging the colors and fonts from KALW & CAST’s brand identities, we provided a web presence for prospective tenants while our teams partnered to develop the right brand strategy.

From day one, we knew that Warfield Commons was more than a building; it was a launchpad for cultural power. Our work centered on elevating the idea that culture can lead—it is foundational to our economy, democracy, and daily life. The brand doesn’t just describe a building, it expresses a living ecosystem, designed for cross-pollination, where creative power grows.

We were inspired by the dandelion — resilient enough to grow anywhere, deeply rooted, and endlessly regenerative. It symbolizes incubation through its tightly held seeds, amplification through the way ideas disperse and multiply, and renewal through its constant return. This symbol, expressed through an Art Deco lens to honor the building’s historic architecture, allowed the brand to express growth, possibility, and momentum in a single, unified vision. The tagline, Seeding the stories that shape us, distilled the building’s mission into a simple, resonant promise

Carrying this story through messaging across the new website, we centered the partnership between CAST and KALW as a force multiplier—proof that when public media and community-centered real estate come together, something larger emerges. The website celebrates the diverse tenant organizations and invites the public into a place where art, media, and community converge. Vibrant colors and photo treatments reflect the energy of the tenants and the ecosystem they are building together. Warfield Commons will grow in the coming years, so we built the website in a way that makes it easy for their team to update as new tenants move in and their event program kicks off.

With a flexible brand in hand, Warfield Commons now shows itself as a cultural hub, with deep, permanent roots, designed to amplify stories, nurture talent, and celebrate culture.