At the beginning of 2017, I attended my second PAX South in as many years. PAX is a game development conference here in San Antonio that showcases pro and independent game developers’ work for PC, console, handheld, and board games. Being a board game lover and a graphic designer, I had sought entry into that industry for a while. And since my twenty-year-old son was a dedicated streamer and an advanced player of first-person shooters, I figured three days at PAX would be an excellent opportunity for father-son time.
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While weaving in and out of row after row of exhibitors’ booths, my son heard someone call out behind him, “Hey, <team name>!” and turned to find the voice in the crowd. Luck had it that my son was wearing a hoodie sporting the logo of this semi-obscure e-Sports team that one of the exhibitors knew personally. In minutes, I had lost my son to an in-depth conversation with this game designer. It wasn’t long before he sat on the exhibitor’s computer, looking into some issues they were having. By this time, my son had built multiple computers from scratch, so I guessed it had something to do with this particular skill set.
After PAX, my son started serving as that company’s social media manager. Two months later, they invited him to their headquarters in Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada, for what was to be a two-week visit. To our parental shock and sadness, this visit became a year-and-half paid gig as their project coordinator.
Long story short, months before the game’s release, their major funder walked away, causing the project and ultimately the company to end. My son returned, down-trodden but with a wealth of game development experience.
It was the friendships he made there that turned out to be priceless. Flash forward two years, and the two major players in that game development company invited my son to join them in starting a new game and app development company called HiveHub.
By this time, he, my wife, and I were all working from home due to COVID-19, so when he received the invitation, I was right there. I offered to design their corporate logo.
Identifying a Company’s Vibe
I’ve spoken about corporate identity design [corporate-identity-design-branding-rebranding] before—the considerations, the pitfalls, etc. I knew that, first, I needed to capture the personality of their company. Did they see themselves as serious or light-hearted? What was their long-term vision? What separated themselves from others in their field? Did that have specific likes/dislikes regarding color, shape, type, etc.?
Design Considerations
Once they answered these and other questions, I understood what they wanted: a sophisticated, but techie appeal; to communicate that they were a central source (a hub) for related services; and they were more on the light-hearted side, so long as it was clear that they were highly proficient, confident, and experienced.
The Logo Mark
I almost always start a corporate logo design [corporate-logo-design] with the typeface. Often, I find that because the type is a subtler communicator, if I begin with a graphic or logo mark instead, the type receives less focused attention. It’s easy to mistake that, once I create the mark, I’ve accomplished enough. But the truth was that I had an idea of the logo mark from the moment my son share the name, HiveHub. So, for this logo, I wouldn’t have been able to focus on the type. I had to get the logo mark out of my head.
The hexagon shape of a beehive’s cells risked cliché, but I could see in my mind that the extended elements of the hub would make the mark unique. I presented three concepts along the same lines. To my slight disappointment, they opted for the straight-on, simple treatment. In retrospect, I feel they made the right choice.
Logo mark concepts, showing how a single mark can be presented many ways.
Color
The simplest of my decisions for this work was settling on colors. I knew from experience that the mark needed to be honey-colored. While that also risked cliché, the more significant risk was in losing the mark’s meaning. The hex shape must be treated with care since it is common to many industries.
Hex shapes in the different colors can communicate many things:
Blue: Healthcare
Light Gray: A net
Dark Gray: A network
Green: A fence segment, or chemicals
Pink: A toy
I could clarify any of these with the addition of another symbol—a bee, for instance—but it’s far too easy to go quaint. Certainly those symbols can be used in conjunction with a logo, as we’ll see in a later post, but I would never suggest adding it to a logo out of concern that, if the company grew or pivoted, they’d immediately outgrow it.
Type
The first type of experiment I attempted failed miserably. I wondered if I could mirror the “V” in “Hive” to suggest the hexagon element I wanted to incorporate. No.
Next, I ran through a few weighs of Brother 1816 until the width matched the mark in the type size I wanted with the mark. I toyed half-heartedly with putting a node element above the I. The result was weak. And I tried to spice things up by elongating the verticals of the Hs. Again, no. The best fit was a direct presentation fo the type.
As is always the case with digital type, I fine-tuned the letter spacing and may or may not have fudged the V’s width after multiple people found it to steal attention.
Logotype concepts, showing how what looks good in your head doesn’t always bear fruit.
The Finished Logo
The finished logo, all in all, came together relatively quickly. I attribute the directness of its design to having had a week to contemplate it before receiving the go-ahead from HiveHub.
Examples a few of the hundreds of pieces I’ve created as a part of TwelveStone Health Partners’ ongoing corporate identity I created and have been gradually evolving since 2013.
Corporate Identity:
50+ Companies Branded and Counting
With more than fifty corporate identity successes under my belt, benefitting large and small companies and individuals in about every industry nationwide, I understand the considerations that go into the corporate branding. As your corporate identity advocate, I’ll point out pitfalls and opportunities alike at all stages of the branding or rebranding process, from brainstorming the perfect corporate name to seeing your corporate logo projected 100 feet tall on the side of a skyscraper, and every crucial step between.
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What Is Corporate Identity?
Your Organization’s First Impression
Straight to the point, a corporate identity is your company’s personality. It’s the first impression to prospective clients, partners, investors, etc. A weak corporate identity is the equivalent of a weak handshake. It’s like not being able to look that other person in the eye. A strong corporate identity is just the opposite: it’s a confident handshake and eyes met.
All the pie charts, all the case studies, and all the fancy presentations won’t entirely make up for a weak corporate identity. Personality and professional offerings are great, but if your branding is off-target, amateurish, or dated, there will always be that little bit of doubt in the other party’s mind.
Let’s avoid that, shall we?
My goal is to make your organization look like you want to look in five, ten, fifteen years, the times you dreamed about when you decided to start your business in the first place. You may only be five friends in a tiny office with folding chairs, but to the world, to your prospects, you’ll look like a Fortune 500 company if that’ your aim. Alternatively, if your aim is to look as down home and approachable as possible, then that’s what I’ll create.
Your brand should communicate that marketing message, in as clean, tasteful, and appropriate manner as possible. Correct corporate branding design is not about my personal style — I actively try not to have one, so I can remain malleable — it’s about identifying, bringing into the light, and effectively communicating your company’s innate personality in visual form.
Your Organization’s Lasting Impression: Defending Your Corporate Brand
Once you corporate banding is created, it is very important that it be applied in a consistent professional manner. A professional designer should know this and will likely follow a corporate identity guidelines, but it is equally important that your corporate brand is being applied correctly by others.
You will often distribute your corporate logo to publications so they can create in-house ads, to service bureaus for application on t-shirts or other promotional materials, etc. It is key that you have someone advocate to these parties for correct application of your corporate identity.
Your Organization’s Evolving Impression
Not to confuse the issue — after having spoken strongly about maintaining your organization’s corporate branding — but in the rarest of circumstances, it is possible for a graphic designer skilled in creating, applying, and upholding corporate identity design to gradually modify your corporate brand. This can only be achieved gently, over the span of months, and over many pieces at strategically chosen points.
No matter where your organization’s needs fall, I am the person who you need. Creating, applying, and defending corporate identity is my area of greatest passion and experience.
Corporate Identity and Your Professional Organization
What is included in a corporate identity?
What is included in a corporate identity is something designers have been trying to answer since the dawn of the undertaking. In my many years in the trenches, I’ve found two ways to “package” branding so that my clients can budget for the work.
Branding packages
Logo only: The simplest corporate ID package is just a logo. Early on in a company’s life especially, that’s all that a new company can afford. And frankly, sometimes it’s all that’s needed. Because I had the rare luxury of never needing to market my services for my first couple years in business — I was working as a plugin design department for a plugin marketing company — I sometimes felt silly or vain for even having a logo.
Basic: The next and most common tier is considered Basic. It usually includes a logo, business cards, letterhead, and an envelope (though envelopes are being requested less and less each year), all of what is traditionally called a stationery set. I will also include one or two additional pieces, based on the client’s understanding of what “basic” is for their business,. On occasion, I’ll be asked to add one or two items that would normally be considered special, like email template, etc., but more on that later.
Presentation-centric companies will consider a PowerPoint/Keynote template as much or more essential than even business cards. In that case, I’ll throw in a template with three slides — cover, internal page, and internal page with sidebar. Another client who is very personable, will place a note pad at that same level. Regardless, whatever is included, the work will be estimated and billed per item.
Marketing: Here again, there is room for discussion as to what makes a comprehensive corporate identity, but it will include any or all of the items that are ever considered basic — logo design, business cards, letterhead, envelope, notecard, pocketed folder, and presentation template.
Additionally, a comprehensive set will also include pieces geared toward marketing — templates for sales sheets, case studies, white papers, digital and print ads, infographics, reports, and anything else specific to a client company’s needs.
This can be a challenging proposition because unless the client has actual content they won’t really know what layouts may serve them best. For this reason, I usually suggest creating pieces in their corporate identity one-at-a-time as they arise naturally. This doesn’t allow for a bulk design discount, but it’s my experience that more is saved overall when the actual content does come in and the client recognizes the need for template edits.
Special: Sometimes, usually prompted by change or a sudden need to take advantage of a new opportunity, a client will need special pieces/projects designed. Any first-ofs must be designed to seamlessly fit with the company’s corporate identity, old or new, to avoid the jarring or unprofessional effects I mentioned earlier.
There are a few common scenarios:
When a client changes locations, they will rely on me for internal and external signage design and framed wall art showing displaying company information.
A client’s first trade show will require the creation of any number of materials and digital products ranging from digital and print ads, to branded merchandise, to trade show display, handouts, t-shirts, and on an on, depending on the client’s budget and marketing goals.
Often with client growth comes a need for graphical wrap design for new fleet vehicles.
The list of special circumstances is extensive. The number of different directions along that trade show support can go with all of the different types and different dimensions of materials that can be included in a trade show presentation necessitates the services of someone like me who has 30+ trade shows under his belt. You need someone who understands individual printer’s specifications, has trusted vendor relationships, and who can oversee and guarantee timely production and shipping of materials to your office or the trade show venue.
Branding Stages
With all of what I’ve laid out regarding branding packages, I’ve had far more success creating the starting corporate identity set initially then designing each of the additional pieces one-at-a-time as the need arises.
This requires the client to be willing to possibly pay a little more per piece, but as I mentioned earlier, they save overall by reducing the likelihood of template edits when the work is done blind at the beginning of our relationship. Working in this way also reducing the chance that a particular piece will be unnecessarily designed early on. If I design a case study template but you never find the need to use it, that effort and expense will have been wasted.
The bottom line though is no matter which path you choose to go, I’ll be your advocate, offering suggestions along the way based on my experience helping organization of all sizes. Corporate identity is hugely important undertaking for any company. And though it may seem simple in some ways, the work lies in the dedication to consistency, from the outset and as new work arises. I have that dedication and the experience to see even the most complex of branding jobs through, on time and on budget.
Where is your corporate identity?
Scenario 1: You Need a new or redesigned Corporate Identity
New organizations: There’s little more exciting to an entrepreneur, regardless of how many companies they’ve started, than creating the corporate name and corporate logo, seeing that new name on business cards. Then later seeing it appear on any first item of its kind. As sentimentally important as the design of your corporate identity is, it is even more so a step in your corporate evolution to take a step away from emotions.
Existing organizations: You may be a company who started out under one business model but finds itself in different enough a situation to justify a name change. This can happen any number of ways:
Some businesses move horizontally, finding success in a peripheral field, i.e. — Larry’s Lawns now makes a killing installing residential fountains. So, Larry’s Fountains.
Some business evolve from specific to general, i.e. — Larry’s Lawns does lawns but also, those fountains, gardening, home security installation, solar, roofing, etc. Now “Lawns” has become a marketing limitation.
Some businesses grow in the opposite direction. Maybe Larry’s General Contracting should just be Larry’s Lawns after all.
And some businesses find surprising growth, so that logo your daughter-in-law drew doesn’t convey the next-level professionalism your organization now needs.
Sadly, some companies just get cheated, left with a inappropriate, unattractive logo that did the job for as long as the business owner could stand it but now it’s got to go.
Whatever the reason, good or bad, your corporate identity design or redesign should be handled with lawyer-like care, with attention to detail and giving consideration to a large number of factors you as a business owner may not think of without professional guidance. I’ve rescued designs for more than a few companies, and I’ve given birth to a good many more.
Scenario 1: You Need a new or redesigned Corporate Identity
In many cases, you will be content with your corporate identity but are for whatever reason no longer working with the designer or form who created it. But time goes on and as new events, products, etc., come into play, they must appear as seamless additions to your current site, trade show setup, collateral or whatever you need.
I have continued about as many corporate identities as I have created from scratch. And that includes continuing the look and feel for companies whose current branding the organizations knew were outdated, unattractive, or for whatever reason was in need of updating, but they weren’t yet ready for a professional update.
No problem. Whatever your corporate identity need is — new, renewed, or continued — that’s where an experienced graphic designer dedicated to your brand comes in. I can design “down” as easily as I can design “up” if you want to think about the topic in those terms. So regardless where you are at with your corporate identity, design, redesign, or continuation, I’m your company man.
Your corporate logo is your company’s first impression to prospective clients and customers. First impressions are hard to overcome, and most of the time you won’t be there to try.
It is crucial that a seasoned pro with tons of branding experience leads you through the process. And that’s where I come in.
With more than 60 companies of all sizes branded and rebranded from the corporate logo design to everything that comes afterwards, you can trust that I know the pitfalls and opportunities presented in this very important time in a company’s evolution.
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EVALUATING YOUR CURRENT CORPORATE LOGO
The first step is to detach as much as possible from any personal feelings or other connections you may have with your current corporate logo design, to look at it with new eyes, to look at it as much as possible like your clients and customers will be looking at it. If you’re unable to, try to ask a handful of strangers, people who don’t know you or the company, what their impressions are of the company that this logo represetnts.
Don’t lead them. Ask them things like, “How big do you think this company is?” “How long do you think this company has been in business?” “Is this a foreign or a domestic company?” “What business do you think this company is in?” and “Is this company still in business?” Some or all of their answers might shock you. Just try to go in expecting the worst, because most company logos can use improvement. You’re not alone.
Not all of the logos below in my design portfolio tell specifically what each business does, but all of them tell a client or customer that there is a certain level of sophistication. They all impart a clear mood or tone of the company’s business. They all indicate that the companies are probably current, not decades old. And they all communicate a certain proficiency and confidence in what they do.
So now you’ve either seen it or seen it through strangers’ eyes and you understand it’s time for a change. But how can you transition your company into the next phase without that logo that’s meant so much to you?
Maybe you scratched it out on a napkin during a special, inspired moment when you were first starting out. Maybe your favorite niece was an artists and you were proud to let her create it. Maybe initially you didn’t have any money to do it right. Whatever the reason, you owe it to yourself to hold that old logo in your memory, but to move on. You, your employees, and your company’s success depends on it more than you can imagine.
YOUR CORPORATE LOGO’S REACH
In addition to being your company’s first impression, your corporate logo design has a wider reach than you might imagine.
Every design decision you will every make for your company, must relate in some way to the corporate logo, from the color of your trade show booth, to the orientation of your logo on vertical banners, how small it can appear at low resolution. It informs what your business cards look like, your sales sheets, your brick and mortar signage, your website, your app, your company vehicles, and a never-ending continuing list.
Additionally, your new corporate logo has the power to create whatever image in your clients’ or customers’ minds. If you’re a 10-person shop, an improved corporate logo can suggest that you could be a 100-person operation. What I try to do when creating a corporate logo is identify what the perfect business in your area of expertise would look like, what tone they would set, what reaction they are trying to elicit, and work from there.
Now Is Always time to evaluate your CORPORATE LOGO
So again, decouple your emotions from your current corporate logo. I’ll help you right your ship, using the wisdom and guidance I’ve gained over my years as a a professional designer who has done this hugely important work successfully dozens of times before.
Simply put, white space is an empty area surrounding a design element. And don’t be mislead by “white” and “empty” because the design element isn’t always surrounded by a field of pristine white, but possibly a texture like grass or sky or some other regular background. But the effect is that in relation to the featured design element, the area around it is empty. “White space” is simply a convenient term.
Why Is White Space a “Beautiful Thing”?
Now you know WHAT it is, WHY is it? And what makes it a “beautiful thing”? To understand why designers have relied on white space since the beginning of Design, one must understand its effect on a viewer.
Because we’re basically animals, when any of us with normal, healthy vision looks at a designed piece, they generally see elements in a predictable order:
Faces
Color
Symbols
Edges
Text
You can imaging how difficult things could get for a designer if this order were set in stone. Fortunately, we have work-arounds and among the most powerful of them is white space.
There’s one thing I left off the list above because it’s not really a thing, but the phenomenon of comparison. You see, more than any specific type of element, humans pick on differences more strongly than about anything else. Our eye shoots right to the piece of spinach between the boss’s teeth. We can’t NOT see the one out-of-step solider. We notice the child among adults at the business meeting. And it seems there is no turning off command of our focus.
And that’s where the magic of white space finally comes into play. If you need the text to be seen before or more prominently than, say, the model who is speaking, leverage white space in two directions:
Framing. By placing the element of focus—the text, in this case—in a semi-central location in the design and by giving it a lot of room on all sides, we see it as special or important.
Diminishing. Conversely, by removing white space from around a design elements that might otherwise steal attention, we communicate to a viewer that the element is less consequential.
Of course there are better and worse ways to utilize the concept of white space but at its root, it really is that simple.
A blunt but successful example of using white space is how we always see “Got Milk” campaign or the Nike swoosh presented, by themselves and with ample space around them. But an experienced designer will consider white space in every aspect of design. The spacing between headlines and paragraphs, the tightness of lines in the title of a book, or how much space there is between elements of a business card are all examples of how white space is a conscious decision a seasoned professional makes at every point of design.
It is often the single most notable difference between design work that a viewer will subconsciously categorize as “pro” versus “amateur”.
In this digital world, one might expect printed anything to be passé at best, if not outright obsolete. But printed stationery design is still a not only a thing: it’s a necessity. Digital stationery isn’t a replacement but an addition to an individual’s or a company’s list of corporate identity needs. I have branded and rebranded 50+ large and small organizations nationwide, including full print and digital stationery.
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