Ananta
Services
- Discovery & Strategy
- Naming
- Brand Identity
- Visual Identity
- Messaging
- Brand Collateral
- Web Design
- Digital Strategy
Ananta is a memory care and assisted living community developed by Oppidan on West Cliff in Santa Cruz, California, serving active retirees, care-oriented seniors, and the adult children helping guide their care decisions.
Edition Studios led the project from naming through a full brand identity and pre-sales collateral suite, tasked with building a brand that felt warm, sophisticated, and distinctly Santa Cruz rather than clinical or interchangeable with a generic senior living chain.
The Work
Edition grounded the brand in two creative principles set at the outset of the engagement. The first was local culture: every design decision needed to complement the casual, coastal character of Santa Cruz rather than compete with it, drawing on the city’s boardwalk energy, redwood groves, and surf culture. The second was accessibility as inspiration, treating readability and clarity not as a compliance checkbox but as a design driver, expressed through easy-to-read typefaces, high-contrast color combinations that exceed accessibility standards, and an approachable tone throughout every touchpoint.
Naming moved through eight candidate directions rooted in the Santa Cruz coastline, before landing on Ananta. Derived from the Sanskrit word for infinite or endless, the name was chosen to symbolize the calm and wisdom that comes with aging, giving the community a name with meaning rather than a purely geographic label.
The visual identity paired a modern sans serif and serif wordmark with nostalgic typefaces for decorative moments, reflecting the brand’s blend of sophistication and warmth. Edition built an icon system around local landmarks and coastal motifs, lighthouses, monarch butterflies, seagulls, shells, palm trees, and cliffside silhouettes, developed as brand illustration rather than a conventional logomark. A warm neutral palette layered with vibrant earthy accents, fun patterns, and retro beach photography direction carried the coastal, nostalgic feel across every application.
