Elements rebranding!
The birth of a new identity
Creative people have certain, sometimes a bit awkward, characteristics. They are never satisfied, act a bit awkward at times and can adapt like chameleons. But they also have a very keen eye for details, tend to look at things differently and often have the urge to change things. Everything can be a source of inspiration. The way autumn handles its coloring of the leaves, the way waves clash on a pier, an inspiring talk, cool designs by others or even the traffic jam on the way to work can be inspiring. Also, creative people tend to be “visual thinkers” and are masters in recollecting experiences, images, smells, feelings etc. from their memory. Don’t worry, this is not going to be an article about eidetic memory:-)
So, why did I start the article the way I did? Mentioning some of the characteristics of creatives etc. Well, it is that “urge to change things” that I wanted to emphasize. Without this energy, things would not easily change and probably still be the same. We would all sit on more or less the same chairs and have more or less the same houses. “Need” is also a strong motivator to change things, but in this case the “urge” forced me to come up with some concepts and enthuse the people around me for my ideas. But before we are diving deeper into this, I couldn’t resist showing you a “visual” timeline of our logo development throughout the years.
A brief little “visual” history
Ever since I started working at Elements Interactive, I have had this urge (there it is again!) to change the first visual impression the company made on me. It looked “ok”, but not really exciting. In my mind, I wanted to make the company look as cool as the products they were developing… I promised myself to rethink the visual identity when there was time for it. In time, projects kept stacking up (which is a very good thing) and the idea of finding time to come up with and present my ideas for a new corporate identity became more and more unrealistic.
So, I used whatever spare time I could find to start researching our competition and simultaneously start scribbling ideas on paper. After launching a small internal and external research, I found out that the current logo was not versatile enough and that nobody really knew what it was meant to portray. There was no real concept or story behind it, therefore employees couldn’t really relate to the current branding. There was no real emotional connection. Besides that the current logo was not versatile enough, this was something I definitely wanted to change. I wanted to create an identity with a story. Something that reflects our organisation and its employees. An identity that eventually brings everything together.
These are some of the early stage “train/bus/restaurant/lunch break” quick exploration scribbles:
The new story summarised:
The new logo is built up out of different ‘elements’. The isometric cube within a cube represent the building blocks of the products that we build. As the employees are the building blocks of our company. The triangles together form the building blocks of a bigger shape. They rely on each other, just like colleagues do. It conveys different types of employees working together to form a whole. The cube and hexagonal shape convey a sense of stability and hint towards masculinity. It feels stable, just like the products we deliver to clients are to be stable. The hexagonal (isometric cube) shape built with triangles also hint towards complex mathematics and innovation, something the programmers in the company do on a daily basis. The triangles, when pointing in a direction, are typically used to convey a sense of movement/dynamics. Just like the technological sector is constantly moving. As a company we are thriving to stay up-to-date with the latest techniques. We all consider ourselves technical adventurers!
If you stare a little bit longer, you’ll notice that the negative space in the logo forms the letter ‘e’ which is the first letter of our company name and works well as a recognisable mark (you can find different versions of the logo further on in this article). This, together with the unique color palette that attract both males and females, makes the logo unique and something the employees can identify themselves with…
Some characteristics of the new logo:
- Close relation to complex mathematics and innovation
- The colors have a sense of excitement, professionality, calmth(friendly) and trust.
- Balanced red and blue make the logo inviting and attractive
- Strong bold lettering gives it a masculine edge.
- The shape feels stable.
- The logo attracts both males and females.
“Shapes and colors unconsciously activate emotions and cognitive associations”
While we are at it, I quickly want to run you through some psychological information about colors and shapes. This will help you understand some of the choices I made.
A circular logo
Circles, ovals and ellipses tend to project a positive emotional message. Using a circle in a logo can suggest community, friendship, love, relationships and unity. Rings have an implication of marriage and partnership, suggesting stability and endurance. Curves of any sort tend to be viewed as feminine in nature. This is one of the reasons I wanted to step away form a circular logo.
A straight edged or triangular logo
Straight edged logo shapes such as squares and triangles suggest stability in more practical terms and can also be used to imply balance and stability. Straight lines and precise logo shapes also impart strength, professionalism and efficiency. However, and particularly if they are combined with colors like blue and grey, they may also appear cold and uninviting. Subverting them with off-kilter positioning or more dynamic colors can counter this problem and conjure up something more interesting.
It has also been suggested that triangles have a good association with power, science and law. These tend to be viewed as masculine attributes, so it’s no coincidence that triangles feature more prominently in the logos of companies whose products have a masculine bias.
Triangles can direct movement based on the direction in which they point (dynamic). Spiritually they represent the religious trinity. They can suggest self-discovery and revelation.
The strength of triangles suggests masculinity. Their dynamic nature makes them better suited for a growing high-tech company than i.e. a stable financial institution when designing a logo. Triangles can be used to convey progression, direction and purpose.
“People see color first, so everything else is secondary.”
- Lori Sawaya
Red
Red is one of the three primary hues and is one of the most powerful and emotion-evoking colors around. It has the highest frequency of all colors. On a painting with several colors, red will be the first one you will notice. Reds feel sweet and innocent when mixed with white to create pinks or activate sharp emotions when used in its purest form (love, lust, excitement). With the addition of black, reds create a darker emotional reaction, such as anger or convey passion. While reds can be used as the primary color in a design, the hue is often best as an accent with other colors or used in more subdued ways. This is one of the reasons I wanted to step away from a completely red mark with black text.
Purple
Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is mostly associated with authority and royalty. It can symbolise power (authority), nobility, luxury and ambition. It hints towards wealth and extravagance. In general, purple is associated with wisdom, creativity, independence, magic and mystery.
Blue
Blues are the hues of serenity, peace and security. The last of the three primary colors that create the RGB color base we use for digital design is used in a variety of design combinations. Blue, because it also creates a sense of calm and friendliness, is the primary color used by popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Blue works well as both a background and accent color and is a shade that most people can relate to, although it can have masculine properties. Darker blues are also text friendly. Darker hues are often used in the color schemes of corporate websites, while lighter hues are more commonly showcased in lighter applications. Blue, which has associations with water and the sky, can also help add a natural feel to a design. In contrast, blues are seldom used in combination with food or in food packaging because some studies have shown that the calming effect from the color can actually suppress a person’s appetite.
All the experimenting with color led to a unique and balanced color palette. While creating the palette, i was looking to find a good balance between warm/cold, masculine/feminine and modern/professional/corporate. It is this interesting contrast that basically “sucks the viewer in”. The secondary color purple (which sits between red and blue on the color wheel) and grey tones are melting both the cold primary blue and warm primary red together. Acting as a bridge between both colors, it forms unity, connection and cooperation between colors. Every color has a minimum of one dark and one lighter hue so the viewer experiences it as a “moving color”. The movement in color complements the movement made by the different triangles in the logo. Using these different color variations together will give the user a sense of dynamics and motion.
The Evolution of the Logo
Like a fine wine… ideas, concepts, designs etc. mature over time. In the previous image you could briefly see some of the stages the logo went through, before arriving at its definitive shape/form. Some things are added, some removed… in short: they grow better, they mature. The same goes for our new logo and other elements. After hundreds of iterations, the logo began to take shape. What started out as scribbles on paper, evolved into a more mature logo. While a choice was made on color palette, shape and lettering…the alignment, margins, spaces etc. were all worked out in details, making the logo mathematically and systematically correct and more pleasing to the eye. I wanted the distances and widths/heights to be perfect because the human eye detects (consciously and unconsciously) lack of non-uniformity.
I often compare a corporate identity to Michael Jackson’s outfits. You could easily identify an MJ outfit. It had a certain style and they were handmade and tailored to his body. A corporate identity is pretty much the same. Like an MJ outfit, you should instantly recognise it and it is tailored to the company it is designed for.
Once all the relationships and distances were set correctly, I made several versions of the logo for different purposes/media. In practice, a good logo is a logo that is versatile and works on different media. E.g. A good logo is still recognisable when faxed (Black/Grey). We now have options when the situation requires it! There is also a landscape version which you can see on top of this website.
Finalising the logo is also the cue to enter a new phase in the identity development. The phase where all the different materials for the identity were produced. All sorts of letters, envelopes, business cards, compliment slips were designed and ideas for visuals and patterns were slowly developing. We also tried to add more emotion to it by selecting primary images that represent us as a company and also complements our identity. We are going to use these in conjunction with elements from our branding. Again… the design is maturing more and more.
We are now at a point where I dare to say that our identity is mature enough to present to the outside world. We have successfully launched our identity recently and we all feel proud of what it has become. As time goes by, we will learn and adapt. You’ll notice that the identity keeps growing to become even more uniform and coherent. The only thing i’ve done is give birth to it and feed it until it was able to stand on its own feet…
Without further ado: A compilation of our new identity!
It all started with the urge to change. The urge to create something beautiful and unique. Hopefully this article gave you some helpful insights of the process behind our newly developed corporate identity. Also, I would be honoured if this article serves as a source of inspiration for others. If you feel like dropping me a line or two please leave a comment below.
Sources:
Originally published at www.elements.nl on February 20, 2015.
