Go big on branding | Bespoke brand design in Oldham, Manchester

Day Nursery

To create a logo to reflect the nature of the childcare business for use on signage and website.

The client came to me with a completely open brief, with no concrete ideas or initial thoughts to how the final design might look. Initially my main focus was to put the client at ease and build a mutual trust for me to guide them and develop a strong vision for their business. This was achieved through fully understanding their aspirations and advice on how to move the brand forward. A number of design routes were supplied, depicting the friendly, caring nature of the business, appealing to both children and adults. The final design uses a friendly hand drawn typeface, combined with a cute house illustration, helping to reinforce the feeling of a safe and protective environment. The client was overwhelmed with the result and it has been used on signage at the nursery and online.

Forest marketing consultancy

To create a brand logo and supporting literature for a new insurance policy aimed at hotels and the hospitality market

After discussing in detail the client’s requirements a number of logo design routes were presented. Simple typographic routes were considered, alongside options including a monogram, and calligraphy. However, as the name ‘Crownplan’ was a given, it seemed natural to concentrate on creating a graphic element of a crown for the brand. A number of options were supplied and through thoroughly understanding the brief and client feedback, colour options were explored, resulting in the final green and gold logo shown. As part of the initial brief, in order to present the brand as a whole, the logo was applied to stationery, policy wording booklets, document folder, product literature and product mailers sent out to hoteliers.

Premium wedding cake designer and shop

To create a logo to represent the beautifully hand-crafted nature of this artisan cake business.

The client came to me with a very rough idea of using some kind of calligraphy in the design. With this in mind I experimented with various design routes developing this idea. My design ethos is that every element of a brand logo needs to be there for a reason and I wanted to create a way of using the calligraphy concept to represent the nature of the business. The result was the Introduction of the three tier cake scrollwork with the addition of the heart flourish beneath the wording. Furthermore, as the client is such an integral part of the brand, in essence, ‘she is the brand’ it was felt very important to include Suzanne’s name in the design, adding value and assurance to any potential customer. I now have a good understanding and relationship with The Frostery in Uppermill, Saddleworth and continue to work with Suzanne, creating advertisements, tags, Christmas promotions and have recently designed gift vouchers and a presentation wallet for her flourishing business.

Furniture designer

To create a new, funky logo, business card and flyer to reflect the designer‘s unique style.

This was a really creative brief and one which I thoroughly enjoyed bringing to fruition. In the first instance several routes were developed (see below) with the aim being to create a logo that was both young and funky, whilst retaining a premium feel to reflect the quality product. As the designer focused primarily on children’s furniture, it needed to work for both children and adults, with of course the adult being the purchaser so it didn’t want to be too childish and more quirky in appearance. The chosen logo represents a drawer whilst rounded corners reflect the shapes found in the furniture, a distinctive chunky typeface, pastel colour palette combined with clean uncluttered typography compliments the furniture and retains the brand’s sophistication.

Temporary power distributors

To create a new brand logo which could then be used for a presentation pack.

The client wanted a simple, impactful typographic route and this was achieved by introducing a black circle which would be easily identifiable with the wording being secondary. The objective was to engage customers in the first instance with the circular shape and quickly associate this with the company name. The typography used was a simple sans serif typeface in strong vibrant colours of red, yellow and white to maximise the contrast to the background, resulting in an effective brand logo which could be easily applied to any design platform. Following on from the logo, a presentation pack was designed to showcase the business, which consisted of an outer folder with page inserts. The circle theme was continued throughout, echoed in the folder flap design with circular icons representing each sector of the business.

Forest marketing consultancy

To create a new logo and promotional printed items.

I already was working closely with this consultancy, producing creative concepts for a number of their clients, so I was really excited about creating concepts for their own brand identity. Initially, a number of design options were proposed, with the favourite being this monochrome route which in an abstract way displays a back to back, ‘F’ for Forest, and as a result in doing this forming a graphic icon of a tree which could then be used as a strong stand alone design element. To demonstrate how versatile the brand was, it was developed onto stationery design concepts and a calendar focusing on the monochrome style which used beautiful photography of black and white objects, animals and art as a theme to run throughout the calendar.

Construction company

To create a simple brand logo reflecting the nature of the business for use on stationery and vehicle livery.

The client wanted a new logo with impact to display on his livery and also adapt well onto a business card and letterhead. After supplying several options to choose from It was felt that to create optimum stand-out, a bold colour palette was needed and a masculine black, red and white were chosen. Furthermore a target device was used to add focus and interest to the design, created from the two letter ‘C’s and all held within a lozenge shape for instant recognition when out on the road. The logo was then implemented on stationery with the target device being used prominently on the business card and as a watermark on the letterhead.

Independent marketing consultant

To create a new brand logo for a green home inspection provider.

A number of different design options were presented, all displaying a simple, clean approach to reflect the nature of the business. The company provides home inspections to assess how green a property is through energy efficiency, use of sustainable materials and human and environmental health factors. After carefully considering all the design options the preferred design was a graphic, humorous representation of an investigator with wording all held within a circle to add impact and make the logo look like a stamp of approval.

Dental practice

To create and develop a new logo for a dental practice used for branding the new premises, promotional literature and posters.

The client had just moved into new, contemporary, re-furbished premises in Hadfield and wanted a new logo to match the building. Initially, a number of design routes were presented, exploring various design concepts relating to dentistry. The chosen route, focuses on the capital ‘H’ for Hadfield, modified so that the initial becomes two teeth biting down. A fresh, modern colour palette completed the look and was perfectly fitting for it’s surroundings. All the interior decor was painted and carpeted to match along with window decals to display the logo. The result was a strong cohesive brand look which was continued onto promotional posters and other printed communications.

Global freight solutions company

To update and re-fresh existing logo.

The client initially came to me, asking for a business card design, using their existing logo. They were happy with the current design, but didn’t possess any existing artwork to use. After carefully discussing with the client that I felt the logo would benefit from some simple tweaks the client agreed to go ahead with the changes. At the time, the client was quite tentative to make any major changes, and so I suggested we just simplify the illustrations making them into silhouettes`and use a more contemporary style. The vignetted background of the oval was made a solid colour and the name Insped was made bolder and in black. These small tweaks made a big difference, which the client was very happy with. The updated logo was applied to a new folded business card design, showcasing their worldwide freight solution business.

Stylist and make-up artist

To create a feminine logo, postcard mailer and business card in a vintage style

As the client requested a vintage feel for the branding, a number of options were created and designed to reflect this from a 1940’s pin-up style to floral and guilted mirrors. The final result utilised beautiful retro style photography and feminine colours combined with a Cath Kidston inspired floral pattern. The logo was simple and classic using retro typography and colours, complementing the flyer and business card perfectly to create a cohesive brand style.

Innovative medical products

To create a new brand logo to be rolled out across other printed material.

A number of different design options were presented, all displaying a simple, clean approach to reflect the medical nature of the business, providing wound care and consumer healthcare products to brand owners. Here we focus on just one of the many designs created, which is based on using the capital ‘M’ encased in a droplet with the grid effect being used to represent protection.

Risk assessment consultancy

To create a simple brand logo reflecting the nature of the business based on the ancient Greek story of ‘The Sword of Damocles’

The story is about a courtier that wishes for the wealth, and luxury of his king’s life. Hearing of this the tyrannical king offers Damocles to swap places and experience all his power and fortunes. However he orders that a silver sword be placed above his head, secured only by a horse-hair. The moral being that he could never truly be at peace and enjoy the luxuries as with power always comes danger. The perfect way of adapting this story to portray the nature of the business was to change the horse-hair for a thick metal chain therefore conveying that the risk is replaced with security and protection.

Pelican PR

To create and develop a new logo for a pop-up restaurant

The client wanted to develop a logo for a new pop-up restaurant concept, with the intention to showcase a fine dining menu created from quality frozen produce for their client The British Federation of Frozen food. With the emphasis being on ‘frozen’ whilst retaining a premium position, the answer was to use an ice image as a background, with a simple snowflake icon, created from fork silhouettes, resulting in a stylish, contemporary feel, perfectly fitting for the restaurant culture and foodie nature of the brief.

Online baby products store

To create and develop a strong brand logo to reflect the nature of the business and stand out clearly from other competitors online.

As always a strong working relationship was developed with this Oldham based business and through clearly understanding their requirements various design routes were explored before opting for the chosen route. As the company’s main products were baby prams and push chairs, it seemed the best approach was to concentrate on making a number ‘4 into a buggy’, and at the same time creating a playful way of saying ’for’. With bright, modern colours and soft edges, the logo clearly states what the business is about and most certainly has helped in the growth of the company, which is now the UK’s number one for discounted prams, push chairs, car seats and nursery furniture, developing from a home online business to stocking their own showroom and warehouse.

PR company

To update and re-fresh existing logo.

After exploring various routes on changing the Pelican illustration, it was felt that the existing illustration style was quite a strong element to the company’s brand presence. Therefore working closely with the client a decision was made to retain the existing pelican illustration style whilst introducing a circle around it. With the strong yellow circle, this now worked much better as it made the logo much more iconic and the element could now be used to greater effect and be easily recognisable on it’s own. When combined with a new font style and text layout the overall logo was brought right up to date. Brand guidelines were also produced to ensure correct usage of the new logotype.

Saddleworth WI, on behalf of local Saddleworth businesses

To create an eye catching, simple logo for an annual event showcasing local produce and products.

As the whole concept was to encourage people to ‘love’ your local independent shops, the main emphasis was to strongly convey this message to the local community, to keep supporting all the wonderful local businesses we have in Saddleworth. With this in mind, a strong visual logo using a hand drawn heart as a shopping bag seemed to be the natural progression. To enhance the artisan feel, a distressed style font and just one colour, green being the obvious choice, were used. The result was a logo with impact and simplicity, which was warmly received and used across various other material such as posters, flyers and a tote bag, given out at the event entrance.

Wholesale carpet supplier

To create and develop a strong brand logo to reflect the business’s premium offering, which could then be applied to other marketing material.

Using on-trend colours of bright yellow and grey, the logo was created using the ‘C’ and ‘S’ in yellow to create a graphic icon of a rolled carpet. This strong brand image clearly demonstrates the nature of the business and its premium positioning within the market place. The logo was implemented across carpet swatches, price lists and business cards.