Logos, Brands and Identity

Creating your logos and brands – a visual identity

We live in an age of logos and brands. You immediately know when you see the “swoosh” of Nike what to expect. This goes for nearly all companies these days. If you look at British Airways’ logo you will see that it’s really very similar to Nike’s but different enough not to infringe copyright and trademark law.

Many people these days will not buy anything unless it is branded, the logo or label is almost of more importance than the price or quality of their purchase.

For this reason it is important to create your “brand”. In these days of internet shopping, bookings, research etc., visual identity is a must. You know when you are on Amazon or eBay by their logo at the top of the page. Their packaging carries the same identity brand. Television stations overlay their logo on their programmes so that you know who made the show.

This is what graphic design or communication design tries to do for you – to create your brand.

On this page you will see examples of logos, letterheads, compliment slips and business cards that I have created for various clients. In some cases the client had strong ideas of what they wanted to see. In other cases the ideas were left up to me to create a brand.

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Logos and designs

Satya Dhaam Farm and hostel. Uttar Pradesh, India.

Satya Dhaam already had their logo designed. It’s a good logo that some see as a butterfly and others see as a woman in a yoga posture. Originally the logo was flat colours. I offered to make it more “shiny”, a bit more modern. I also painted this logo on the front of the house which you can see here in a time-lapse video of the work being carried out.

The redesign of the Satya Dhaam Logo was done in vectors and saved at different sizes and with different file formats. It is used on their website which you can see by clicking this link.

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Property Management Zone – Costa del Sol – holiday property management

A company specialising in renting out your holiday home when you aren’t using it. Looking after all the legalities of rentals in Spain.

This logo was created from scratch for the client and also created in vectors and saved in various sizes and formats for flyers, website, business cards etc.. In the example here the image is a .png with a transparent background.

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MAD – angelcakes

A logo designed more for fun for a friend with a brand she wanted to establish. Again in vectors and again (in this case) a transparent .png image.

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Online shop and French holiday gîte logos

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LaPilar – Shop in Córdoba, Spain

This logo was created for printing on a plastic film for a small stall/shop in Córdoba, Spain. Created in vectors with the colours taken from the proposed flag for the Spanish Republic (Spain is still a kingdom).

The lady that owned the shop is called PILAR. As is quite common in Spain, your name is quite often preceded by the definite article. In her case La Pilar. She had used the mathematical symbol π before and I decided to carry on the tradition as she and it were well known.

In the area she is a known republican stocking republican paraphernalia whose grandfather had been shot by Franco’s men in the Spanish Civil war and buried in a mass grave (something still denied by the current Spanish “Partido Popular” political party).

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Sho Shin Kan Aikido dojo, marbella, Spain

This logo was already in use in that the type and man were already being used. I was asked to tidy it up and add the “star-burst” behind the man. I also had to make it ready for use on the internet and DVD covers.

Personally I loathed the four different fonts used and did try and persuade the customer to at least make the roman alphabet the same font. The Japanese characters were hand lettered but could have been changed quite easily in these days of internet access.

The more ornate characters to the left of the image I believe was the calligraphy of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba.

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CitySS, Marbella, Spain

CitySS were a financial company working on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. I was asked through a third party to design them a logo loosely based on the European flag. This logo was done as a bitmap image as against using vector based design.

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Deep6 – underwater yacht surveys

Deep6 UNDERWATER were a yacht inspection company based in Fuengirola, Málaga. They used ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to inspect the undersides of yachts in the marina, thereby negating the fees charged to lift the boat from the water or the use of a dry dock.

This layout was also used on their letterheads and compliment slips

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Neptune Pool Solutions – in-water pool repairs

Neptune Pool Solutions are a Panamá based company who specialise in pool leak detection, under water tiling and repairs. I designed the logo and built their website in both english and spanish. In the case of this logo the client, a deep sea diver, specifically wanted The King of the Seas” in his logo. Designed using vectors and saved in multiple formats and sizes. This image is a transparent .png image.

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Company Identity – business cards, compliment slips etc

Bazaar Africa – online African Craft Shop

Bazaar Africa are an online African Craft shop. They specialise in handcrafted African goods, sourced where possible from charities and projects designed to empower unemployed people, single mothers and people suffering from HIV and other illnesses. All the crafts come from the eastern countries of Africa, Kenya down to South Africa.

I was asked to build them their online shop and to create their identity. What follows are some of their stationery etc featuring their logos. The more observant of you will notice colour changes in the images. This is because some images are for screen (RGB colour space) and some for print (CMYK colour space). In reality all the colours are visually the same.

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Business cards

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Mochdre Day Nursery and out of school club

This designs and logos were commissioned by the Mochdre Day Nursery in mid Wales. It was used on their stationery and out side the nursery buildings.

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