Squared

Client brief

"Squared" is a UK-based firm providing services to hire Security Personnel for events and gatherings, for homes and apartments, etc.

Problem statement

As an upcoming firm in the industry, the client required a logo for the company letterheads, business cards and their website for brand identity.

Product scope

As the UI Designer, I was delegated with the task of researching potential outlooks for the logo and designing it to suit the needs of our client.

The outcome of the logo also had to fit perfectly with the client's merchandise, such as company letterheads, business cards, promotion flyers, their website and future mobile application.

Discussing with the client, they were unable to provide a specific duration in which they needed the logo to be completed. Given my expertise and the average time period taken to come up with a logo, the Project Managers set a period of one month including a buffer time.

Process

As a first step, with the information provided to me on the background of the company and the services they offer, I jotted down several words that align with the word "Security";

• sword and shield
• keyhole
• fingerprint
• iris
• lock

Next I did the proceeded to research the word "Security" on Google Images. This was done to ensure I hadn't missed out any other potential ideas that shouts "Security". Once I got passed this, I looked into variations of what competitors, to cross-check their logos with the words I jotted down.

Once I pictured the initial idea, I kicked-off on sketching some designs.

* Step 1: Sketching out designs

After the initial sketching I sat down with the Project Managers to present my ideas before forwarding them to our client.

We decided to go through each of the sketches thoroughly and shortlist a few designs we thought would be better compared to the others. We decided the following designs were more suitable over the others.

* Step 2: Adding colour to the shortlisted sketches

While I proceeded with designing the shortlisted logos using colour, I designed a few more ideas that I thought have the potential to be the "Squared" logo.

At this point the sketches were starting to take shape and look better with colour. So we decided to move onto the next phase of choosing a suitable font and colours.

* Step 3: Choosing a suitable font

Amidst a vast variety of fonts, we decided to stick to fonts belonging to the "sans-serif" font style. We ended up with 8 fonts that we liked among hundreds.

Having chosen a few fonts, up next was choosing a colour.

* Step 4: Choosing a colour

Since our client didn't have any specifications or preference on a colour, we had the freedom to choose a colour for them. And so I started adding various colours to the fonts we chose.

Next I sat down with my Project Managers to run the colours through them and we decided to shortlist the "blue" and "green" colours. However, we also decided to try making the chosen colours to be of a lighter shade than I designed them.

After a quick alteration to the shortlisted colours my Project Managers and I immediately decided that the "Blue" colour we shortlisted was the perfect match for the logo. It was then time to apply the chosen colour and the fonts to the initial designs shortlisted.

* Step 5: Applying the selected colour and fonts to the initial logo designs

Of course as the curious person I am, I didn't only add the chosen colour and fonts to the shortlisted logos, but I created a few new variations too, and with good intention.

Of the above logos I presented to the Project Managers, one logo stood out above the rest, and it happened to be a new logo variation I designed, which I was hoping they would select. By this, I immediately knew that we were all on the same page, because the design that stood out appeared to be a "negative-space" logo using a font only.

The logic behind this design was to make the letter "Q" appear as a "keyhole". I took it a step further to give an impression of a keyhole with a "key" in it.

We sat down for one last time to figure out the alterations that can be done to the selected design, and with this it was back to the drawing board for me to further refine the selection.

* Step 6: Refining the selected logo design

For starters, I immediately got rid of the line running down the center of the letter "Q" that was supposed to be interpreted as a "key".

Except for the "first" refinement, the other refinements were merely rotating the letter "Q" to make the logo appear a little out of tradition.

Outcome

During a period of a month we managed to create a logo for our client, "Squared", who were very pleased with the final design as it looked traditional, yet modern and usable in many ways. This logo design opened up the avenue for us to secure a contract with "Squared", to build their mobile application using the logo we designed.