In 2010 Grampian Society for the Blind, one of Aberdeen’s oldest charities, needed a rebrand. Their existing logo was dated and their range of services had recently expanded to include the deaf community, so a new name and identity was needed to reflect the extended client base and range of services.
Finding a name
The charity’s exisiting name had 2 main problems: ‘Grampian’ doesn’t actually exist as a region anymore (in the mid-1990s it was split into Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Moray), and there was no mention of the deaf and hearing-impaired client base.
GSB staff and clients were invited to suggest a new name, and from that a shortlist was compiled. From that list North East Sensory Support/Services seemed most promising.
First ideas
Initial sketches were done before the name was finalised so that early concepts could help with the decision. The obvious eye- and ear-based imagery was drawn and discarded in favour of two other directions: a purely typographic logo, and a logo using a more abstracted icon.
One of the sketches that looked quite promising for the icon was of two strands coming together and crossing over, which actually came from the outline of a roughly feline-shaped eye. Another idea was based on a picture of a sound wave warped into a circle, which resembled both a sunburst and the pattern of the iris of an eye. After a bit more development, this was dropped as I didn’t feel it was working.
Client choices
So the early concepts were developed to present to the team at GSB, both in grayscale and in colour options. Typically, when a client is presented with several logo concepts, a “pick ‘n’ mix” scenario develops, and this was no different. It was decided to try using the icon from one concept with the text styling from another.
Getting it right
A series of changes were then worked through: the position of the icon was moved from the left of the text to the right and then back again; the wording changed from ‘support’ to ‘services’; various colour combinations were tried, and finally, we had something approaching a final iteration. Surprisingly, the final version is quite close to the original concept, despite the many revisions.
When the tagline was decided, several more iterations of the logo were done to determine the appropriate size and position of the tagline.
At this point the team at GSB were very happy with the logo, as was I, and all that remained was getting the proposed new name and logo approved by the board of directors, and accepted by the clients. To support the proposal, stationery designs were created and signage for their Aberdeen premises was mocked up to show real world applications of the brand.
The logo was approved at the AGM in November 2010 and the new brand officially launched in March 2010.
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Clare Crossan says
Looks fantastic.
Another job well done!