Branding Design
Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash
Branding, but not the cow kind. Company branding is an incredibly undervalued endeavor, but we all know the most reputable brands: the golden arches, the Nike swoosh (I did an entire paper on the development of the swoosh in high school), and Apple. Further still: I recognized a new Amazon warehouse in my hometown simply by the color palette on the building. These companies put so much effort into establishing their brand that they no longer need their company name for us to recognize them.
So, how do we establish a brand? It turns out branding isn't so simple, but I used my brother's newest business venture as practice. Tony and his friend, Nolan, created Lawrence Welch Contracting LLC after working for other contracting companies and deciding to branch out independently. This project is great for a clean slate on company branding since they are just starting the business and don't officially have a set brand plan.
Who are you?
The best place to start is narrowing down the values, goals, and purpose of the business. For instance, Lawrence Welch Contracting LLC values its Oklahoma neighbors and aims to provide quality contracting services to local homeowners at affordable prices. Therefore, their mission statement is: "Lawrence Welch Contracting is a locally-owned contracting company designed to provide homeowners in northeastern Oklahoma with quality services without straining their budget."
For branding, the goal is to promote the business in the community by earning new clients and community trust. These goals lead to the brand's purpose: "We're here for local homeowners to support local businesses. We aim to earn your trust by providing local homeowners with quality services without straining their budgets." I created a brief brand message to keep in mind while creating the rest of the brand plan. The primary aim is to promote the business in the community, so the company can earn new customers and build community by offering quality services at an affordable price.
Competition
Before we get too deep into branding, let's jump over to the nearby competition.
Foremost Roofing Systems and General Contracting is located a few streets away, but they primarily specialize in roofing and recently started other home renovation projects. Their website has some functional features but is not easy to navigate. However, they do have a distinct logo: a red and black bird.
Goldenrite Roofing and Construction only does roofing (at least according to their website), so the "and Construction" is a little misleading. Also, their logo is distinct but indiscernible (either a crown or a roof, maybe) with a simple gold and black color scheme.
Gorilla Brothers Landscaping and Remodeling does everything related to remodeling except roofing. They are a little more well-known than the other competitors, but they don't have a single distinct logo. Instead, they use heavy gorilla imagery on their website but use various typefaces, colors, and symbols.
Visuals
With all of this in mind, let's start visual design for the company. Since the company hasn't settled on colors or logos yet, I have total artistic freedom with their brand. As far as colors go, they should have some simple but comforting. The competition uses warm colors like red and gold, so I chose a dark, calming navy. Using TinEye's Multicolr Seach Lab, I found some great images to go with my color palette and created a mood board. I followed the same guidelines for the fonts and found PT Serif and Poppins Light to be "simple but serious" typefaces to represent the company.
Then, I started creating logo options for the company. I particularly wanted to use the "L" as a chimney with a roof graphic, so I started designing with the company acronym. Then, I started playing around with just the roof graphic, but I wasn't satisfied. I took a break from my computer and took my dog for a walk around the neighborhood. At the time, my neighbor was building in his driveway with tools scattered on the pavement. It dawned on me: what if I use tool graphics to form the letters in the logo? This gave me the perfect imagery for their company, and the boys loved the final design.
I used the best logos, the color palette, typography, and the mood board to design a brand board on Canva. The brand board helped me visualize the key points of the brand story.
The brand story takes the most important parts of the company and allows me to focus on the values and purpose. Start simple with the brand name and slogan. Then, I expanded on their mission statement to create a more thorough brand description and added a team story.
Brand name: Lawrence Welch Contracting LLC
Slogan / Summary: "Expert doesn't mean Expensive"
Brand Values: we're here for local homeowners to support local businesses.
Language/keywords: expert, quality, affordable
Tone of voice: cheerful, chatty, informative
Brand Description: Lawrence Welch Contracting is a locally-owned contracting company designed to provide homeowners in northeastern Oklahoma with quality services without straining their budget. At Lawrence Welch Contracting, we make sure every project is above our clients' standards. Here, we stand behind our work and ensure every customer will walk away with a smile.
Team story: Two local boys on a mission to help our Oklahoma neighborhoods. Tony has an extensive background in contracting services. Nolan has experience in product sourcing. Together, they created a one-stop shop for all your home renovation needs.
Want to see the complete brand plan? Download it below:
For your branding projects, I recommend keeping the values personal to you. I happen to be close to this project, but you might not be. So remember to take a break if you get stuck and think outside of the box.