Last week, we shared an emotive article reflecting on our story so far. That piece touched on the core themes and principles that have brought karpatkey to this moment in our history. In doing so, we sought to gently close the current chapter, and to turn the page to what comes next…

Now, we begin our next chapter with a significant change: karpatkey is now kpk.

This piece introduces the new brand and themes, and explores the changes to our design and identity. It aims to explain what the new name means for our organisation, strategy and future plans, and to set the tone for a year of significant change.

Identity

kpk is an evolution of our existing identity, and a refinement of its design language. The new brand is clean, simple and distinctive, with a clear connection to our origins. karpatkey will always be celebrated as the birthname of our organisation, and an important part of its legacy. However, in a business that’s often far too complicated, these changes are aimed at streamlining and clarifying our identity and sense of purpose:

“kpk aims to deliver simplicity, security and scale to help our industry grow.”

The new kpk organisation will echo this simplification across our entire range of products and solutions. We will focus on developing and distributing our core non-custodial asset management solutions and technologies, delivering a seamless end-to-end experience for clients of all shapes and sizes.

In iterating on our existing formula, we pay homage to karpatkey’s past activities and successes, while opening the door to change. This builds upon current developments like the opening of our capitalisation table through the recent fundraising round, and upcoming plans for the launch of our token. In sum, our new identity reflects a period of rapid growth and change, and the opening up of our organisation to the world.

Elements

The new branding involves a range of new design elements, that refine our existing style, inject narrative and unlock options for customisation.

At the core of the new design sits our Grid of line elements, which frequently encase or sit behind graphics, text and other narrative components. The Grid is a metaphor for units of account, reflecting a standalone-yet-extensible quantity of design space to capture our activities. As an organisation focused on financial accounting and organisational accountability, the Grid is a deliberate reflection of the value proposition we bring to the world.

Perhaps the best example of our Grid’s new uses comes from seamlessly deploying the space to fit infinitely-many different partner brand elements and colours within our normal scheme. kpk exists to serve our partner organisations as the real heroes of DeFi’s story, and so this partner-centric approach embraces that role.

Historically, fractal geometry has also been a distinctive design element of karpatkey’s branding. This takes pride of place in the new kpk icon, which simplifies the core dragon curve of our previous icon. However, the new branding places fractals on a pedestal, as a distinctive and exceptional item to refer specifically to kpk on its own. As such, fractal designs appear less frequently and with more purpose, to preserve the special quality of this iconography.

Themes

The rebrand and new design language is also underscored by a few core themes, which should emerge naturally from the brand, identity, design and copy. These include:

• Space – in line with our mission of scaling DeFi, we make use of broad space to give the impression of significant magnitude and proportion. Empty space also reflects adaptability, which is one of our core values. Spacing is used to intuitively point the reader through the different components of a design.
• Minimalism – wherever possible, we seek to limit the volume of components used, instead deploying clever design to achieve an outsized impression. Each element of our designs should feel thoughtfully placed and sophisticated in its use. By focusing on simplicity and concision, we aim to reflect the speed and direction of our industry across our content.
• Tradition & Innovation – though we aim to inspire a sense of modernity through our simple and clean design, we aim to pay respect to tradition throughout. That respect is embodied using neat lines, simple typeface and consistent greyscale colouring. In doing so, kpk embodies a range of dualities: progress and stability; innovation and reliability; and cutting-edge advancements and time-tested principles.

The Next Chapter

We’re delighted to finally share our refined branding and identity, and to formally embark on this new chapter in our history. These plans have been a long time in the making.

Our thanks are owed to our entire network of contributors, partners and investors who supported these efforts. And as we look forward, we are excited by the prospect of an increasingly open and accessible brand and organisation. There’s a lot more to look forward to in 2025. 👀

Thank you for reading!