Why Caserne treated Tech Icons more like a gallery than a feed

The Brand Identity: Before any visual decisions were made, Caserne decided that Tech Icons feels much more like an exhibition space than a typical media platform. The Montreal-based studio’s identity for the London-based intelligence platform – built for investors, asset managers, sovereign funds and institutional decision-makers – treats every story as something to be approached rather than scrolled past, with white as the structural foundation of the entire system. “The starting point for us was to think of the identity not as a conventional media layer, but as a curated space, closer to a gallery or a museum than to a traditional digital publication,” explain

s Ugo Varin-Lachapelle, Creative Director at Caserne. “While the palette includes shades of grey, white is the dominant field. For us, it represents absolute transparency and a sense of transcendence, a neutral surface that allows content to coexist without interference.” This framing has practical consequences. Reportage photography and commissioned work from AI artists – a recurring feature of Tech Icons’ editorial output – are placed with the room a gallery affords its artworks.

The homepage is structured almost like a terminal so that each story carries weight rather than competing with a dozen others for the same glance. That restraint, however, had to coexist within an editorial reality. Tech Icons covers a high volume of material across five verticals – editorial, benchmarking, data infrastructure, ratings and institutional research – and serves an audience whose attention is finite. Caserne built the grid around that constraint. “The audience is made up of busy people, including investors and decision-makers, who do not have the time or attention to navigate unnecessary visual noise,” Varin-Lachapelle notes.

“You arrive, you scan and you understand what matters within seconds. The grid is flexible, but not in a way that compromises consistency.” Caserne worked across a controlled range of colour that carries a subtle association with matte metal surfaces, introducing a sense of materiality without the saturated neon palettes that have become category shorthand for innovation. Red appears as the only accent, reserved for buttons and small interface moments. “Red carries universal associations with life, blood, energy, courage and fire, making it inherently powerful,” Varin-Lachapelle says. “Because of that, its use is intentionally constrained.

The system is designed so that red is always visible and immediately legible, but never overwhelms the content.” Typography pulls in the same direction. Rather than reaching for the engineered, sharply geometric typefaces that most tech platforms default to, Caserne chose something with editorial weight and longevity, prioritising long-form readability over a literal signal of the category.

Interface references are present in the system but kept deliberately quiet – softened corners, the framing of cards and images, familiar interaction patterns – cues borrowed from product UI. For George Mironov, Director at Tech Icons, the decision to keep the visual system free of generated elements was deliberate, even though AI runs through the platform’s research, data processing and work with licensed datasets that sit beyond standard consumer models. “It had to feel deliberate and constructed,” Mironov explains. “Working closely with Caserne was an intentional choice.

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This article discusses a unique approach to brand identity that could influence how design professionals think about digital engagement, making it significant and relevant for brand strategy professionals.