Young General Contracting
Building a brand identity
for construction company YGC.
Brief
Increase visibility of business in order to generate more work and secure future clients.
About YGC
With many years of experience in construction, the client decided it was time to start their own business in renovation construction for young upper-class clients.
Local Competitors
When looking at competitors in the industry it was clear that these companies geared their branding towards a modern minimal design approach.
Finding Design Direction
This practice helped guide the client in understanding more about their business and how they want it to be perceived by target audiences.
Persona
This persona highlights the customers goals and frustrations providing insights on opportunities that will highlight the companies values and skills.
Mood Board
Mood boards were a great way to get a clear design direction from the client. It was a good way to work through different styles to find out what exactly the client liked and didn’t like.
Sliding Scale
This sliding scale helped the client have a good visual understanding of their target market. This is also a tool that aids in brainstorming design ideas as well as validating design decisions.
Concept Sketches
high-end, client focused, and craftsmanship were key descriptors for YGC.
My goal was to create a logo that would stand the test of time and honoured these core values.
Vector versions of the most successful sketches
I chose sketches that best reflected the preliminary research and insights discovered during the design preparation process.
Challenges
The challenge I faced was creating a balance between high-end, minimal and modern aesthetic with a seal design concept. The risk with a seal concept is that the logo could look outdated or rustic which is not the goal. With careful consideration of fonts, colours, and shapes I was able to keep the design clean, sharp, and modern while maintaining the seals’ symbolism.
Exploring Typefaces
As a construction company, I felt that a strong, heavy typeface would be best suited for this brand.
The qualities of Acier Bat provide the balance that I was challenged with in the design process.
The decorative aspect of the lines “filling” the type lends well to the Seal concept of the design without giving in to an old-fashioned or vintage aesthetic. The bold sans-serif shape of the letters gives the logo weight, sharpness and overall modern look.
Presentations
Presenting the client with a diverse display of alternative layouts was important in highlighting
that minimal design can provide for more marketing opportunities.
Colour Palette
The simplicity of this colour palette makes design elements such as logos easy to use.
Final thoughts
Working for a construction company was definitely out of my comfort zone. However, extensive preliminary work and plenty of communication, I am confident that this brand design was a success. The seal design, heavily laden with the theme of trust, quality, care and authenticity hit the mark on the targeted key values the client was trying to communicate.
Deliverables
Logo, logo mark, brand colours, social media (IG+FB) designs
website, business cards, wearables (t-shirts)
