Portfolio: Corporate Identity
Small Business Identity: Sheffield Tree Care
Sheffield Tree Care is a new company of tree surgeons & arborists who wanted to present a professional image. Argument from Design investigated several options for the design—including Old Master drawings & evocative photos of trees. For the final design, we took a photo of the owner’s favourite type of tree—an oak—and reversed the colouring.
The design is extremely flexible & can be seen in a variety of environments—from business cards & letterheads to t-shirts & vans.
Manufacturing Identity: Distinctive Windows
Distinctive Windows’ logo had to convey the quality of the company’s offerings—and suggest, in a straightforward way, the business that they do. Argument from Design created a one-colour design, split into two (one the full green colour, another a lighter tint of the same colour) to suggest an open window.
The typeface—a variant of Caslon—has a long history within Britain & its special ligatures suggests ancient craftsmanship & an attention to detail—all appropriate connotations for the company.
Product Promotion Identity: Hufu
Perhaps the most unusual job Argument from Design have ever had was the creation of logos for “Hufu”—a tofu-based product that is supposedly textured & flavoured to resemble human flesh. Obviously an idea designed to get a rise out of people, Hufu needed imagery which would convey the history of cannibalism & Hufu’s tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. Argument from Design were proud to step up & create some memorable imagery that would be suitable for t-shirts, barbecue aprons, cookbook covers & more.
Argument from Design created three logos which were a combination of both serious & funny, playing upon old B-movies from the 1950’s & “Far Side” cartoons. We created what we call “Easter Island” (red roundel), the “Hungry Native” (blue roundel) & the sensitively-named “Fat Guy” (rectangle). All feature prominently on Hufu’s website & marketing material.
Media response has been explosive. Most importantly, Hufu & our designs have featured on Comedy Central’s comedic news hit “The Daily Show” (look for the clip called “Flesh In the Pan” by reporter Samantha Bee).
Business Services Identity: Matrix Network
Matrix Network offers SMEs seminars on marketing, sales, legal issues, effective use of IT & more. Matrix needed a logo to reflect their centrality as a “teaching hub” & networking centre for these SMEs. In addition, they needed two designs: one for their website & one for their business cards.
Argument from Design created a logo of individual “nodes” that reach out to one another in order to form a tight mesh of interconnectedness, representing the connections SMEs make through the Matrix Network. Jewel-like colours help the logo sparkle.
The print variation of Matrix’s logo reproduces the logo in tints of one colour to reduce printing costs.
Financial Services Identity: Debt Ltd
The official background of the directors & agents indicated to Argument from Design that debt collection agency Debt Ltd’s logo had to convey a legalistic look. And to save stationary printing costs, the design is one colour: a rich wine-red.
In order to convey a legal background, Argument from Design created a logo based upon the ancient Sheriff’s coat-of-arms. Moreover, we placed it within a monogram—intended to look like a seal.
Professional Services Identity: EWB Estate Agents
EWB Estate Agents wanted a distinctive corporate identity that could be carried across the web, letterheads & business cards. In addition, they wanted their image to convey not only a sense of traditional values, but also a modern outlook.
Argument from Design took a familiar sight in Sheffield—street signs—and based the logo on them. EWB’s logo looks like a street sign attached to the characteristic blond stone of the South Yorkshire / Derbyshire region.