Back in February we were approached by Wakeham, a new company in the asbestos industry who offers training and consultancy. The company required a full set of branding as well as brochure and website.
As with every design project, we start at the beginning – the logo. They felt that their industry was particularly male dominated and wanted a logo which was strong and bold yet quite simple. After an initial discussion we concluded that the logo could center around these themes:
- Utilise the “W” of the company name
- Focus on the “A” in the company name highlighting Asbestos
- Use the three strands of the business (training, management and surveying)
- Focus on some imagery or representation of asbestos
Other than requiring a strong, bold logo, Wakeham didn’t have any other specific requirements in mind. The logo was to be used online as well as brochures, stationary, invoices etc, therefore it had to work on all types of media.
Stage 1 – Sketching
We started by utilising the “W” of the company name combining it with shapes representative of the three strands of the business (training, management and surveying). A lot of time was spent sketching “W” type shapes. We wanted the logo to look contemporary as our research had shown that competitor logos were very dated, we therefore needed something different, something fresh and alive. However, we were also aware that the logo had to appeal to a B2B market as well as B2C so therefore had to look somewhat corporate.
Once again we combined the three strands of the business concept when focussing on the “A” in the company name. As Wakeham are a consultancy we liked the idea that they can handle all aspects of your project and so developed several umbrella type designs.
It’s easy to get carried away when you are designing and creating a logo and once we looked over the logo’s we decided to present the following concepts:
The client immediately liked one of the logos. They did have a few minor adjustments to the tracking of the text and the corporate blue colour so we experimented with both these aspects.
From the logo the stationary was then developed. This was quite a seamless leap and the logo transfered well to the letterheads, compliment slips and business cards.
We then started work on the brochure, Wakeham supplied all textual content as well as a rough layout. They wanted the brochure to be simple and easy to read and as there was a lot of textual content we decided to break the layout into sections. We ensured the contact information was repeated on the brochure so people could find it without too much trouble.
Wakeham had few minor text adjustments with the brochure, but overall they were happy with the design and the corporate branding that was emerging.
Using the style of the brochure we created a simple, clean website. Again the contact information is repeated on every page, allowing users to get in contact easily.
This was a great project as the client had some initial guidelines and ideas and knew a lot about their market and who they were trying to target. However, they also gave us enough free rein to explore other possibilities and ideas.
So what does everyone think? Did Wakeham Asbestos choose the right branding? We would love to hear your thoughts.
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on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Posted In Branding, Devon, Graphic Design, Logo Design, News, Portfolio, Web Design | Tags: Branding, Graphic Design, Logo Design, Portfolio, Web Design
you have done some excellent designs for these sites and in terms of surveys from other asbestos designs you have done a good job.
Thank you for your comments and your kind words.
Steve
We are delighted with the end products, we have received lots of positive comments about our stationery; in particular how professional they look and feel. We would like to thank both of you for the excellent service you provided and we won’t hesitate to recommend you to anyone committed to getting a new business off to a flying start or to anyone still using mediocre design and stationery.
That’s a really great piece of work mate, the final prints look great
Hi Ian – I am so pleased that you have received some excellent comments, it was a pleasure working with you!
Hi Toon – Thanks for your kind comments, we are really happy with this project and how each of the pieces tie together.
Nice work, Steve! Great to see your sketches too. Keep it up.
Hi David,
Thanks for your comment and your kind words. You sometimes get clouded with your own designs and it is very reassuring to receive positive feedback from fellow designers.
Really appreciate it.
Steve
No worries at all, Steve. I appreciate what it’s like to get a little praise now and again.
In your article you speak in the third person. I’m curious who’s in your team.
Hi David,
It is just my wife (Lucinda) and I. We have always worked together and have quite different skill sets which we think works really well. Lu comes from a fine art background whereas I come from more of a multimedia one. So between us we can bring very different ideas and concepts to a project.
We have worked together for so long now that it would be hard to imagine working alone. Even when one of us handles a project in its entirety, we still receive input from the other.
Steve
That’s fantastic that you work, successfully, with your wife.
My girlfriend works in a sick children’s hospital, so we come from very different backgrounds.
There are obviously pro’s and con’s to working together and also in the same field. It is sometimes very hard to take a step back from the design world as we are both constantly thinking and talking about it (Our post on ‘When should a designer stop designing’ is a perfect example!).
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