CN8 Unstoppable – Cristina Neagu, 4 times best handball player in the world
Romanian agency Rusu+Bortun Brand Growers was responsible for crafting the branding for Cristina Neagu, Romanian sportswoman designated 4 time the best handball player in the world. Cristina is an athlete with strong ambition, a constant fighter, unstoppable, with or without the ball, on the field or in her personal projects. Through constant exposure, the energy accumulated on the handball field becomes the inspiration we all need, in sports or other areas.
Behind creating the brand are both Cristina’s work, but also an elaborated process headed by Rusu+Bortun Brand Growers. It involved an audit made with people around Cristina, with personalities in Romanian marketing and 1-to-1 discussions with Cristina about the values she believes in, where she wants to go, what she aims for professionally.
It was for the first time when I was in the situation where I had to choose a graphical representation and a motto to define me as a person and a handball player. It was interesting to find out how others were seeing me and to see how a story is crafted for me. I wish there were more athletes brands in Romania and that they would be active in the public space and become models for young people, not only in sports, but also in life
Cristina Neagu
The agency sought to identify the areas that could potentially associate with Cristina’s personality and built the brand strategy with the aim to reflect reality and the identification traits after the process. Cristina Neagu is Unstoppable: perfectionist, full of determination, with high self-trust and clear qualities of leadership.
Cristina Neagu adopted a brand identity to reflect her values and personality. The chosen symbol (CN8) represents duality between power and feminity: Cristina’s name initials, using different types of letters, one expressing the force and the other – elegance. In the middle, a number of reference for her, 8 – infinity, drawn by the agency especially for this logo, in order to inspire dynamism.
In sports branding, same as in personal branding, we considered certain rules: to have focus (you can be all for everyone), brand values must be authentic, consider Cristina’s life story and to reflect her future, to tell a story, to be consistent and to create a positive impact in the world she is active in. To inspire, to motivate, to shape ways of conduct
Alina Tudose,
Partner Rusu+Bortun Brand Growers.
The branding was handled by Rusu+Bortun Brand Growers (Alina Tudose, Catalin Rusu, Razvan Chifu and Anca Uscatescu) and Sports HUB (Virgil Stanescu and Ana Luca).
Rusu+Bortun Brand Growers also signs the identity for Sports HUB , together with which it develops identities for other 4 renown Romanian athletes: Ana Maria Branza, Mihai Leu, Camelia Potec or Marian Dragulescu.