Creating a brand identity for a brand new company is always a challenge. Which is why it’s always useful that your client comes to you with the phrase “let’s include a dragon somewhere…” – we were sold. Our identity for Focus positions them as a authoritative voice in the fire risk management space with a flexible brand, take a look at how we created it. Did we mention it includes a dragon??
A New Identity for Focus
The Brief
We’re starting a brand new commercial fire safety company. We’re dynamic, we have a huge amount of experience and we’re looking to disrupt segments of the industry. We need a brand that positions us as authoritative, young and professional. We like the idea of it including a dragon…
Something with a dragon eh? We can see a character being the protector of people, stern, serious… We’ll get to work!
The Solution
As always the first step was to grab pencils, pens and the iPad to start with some initial sketches. Giving some authority to a dragon character is pretty easy; getting the pose right proved a bit more difficult. I decided in the end to go for a profile pose to mimic the reverse of a coin. The dragon character had full royal ascension…
Initial sketch
Construction lines to refine shapes
Initial digital concept
Developed concept
Once through a pile of variations, refinements and digitisation the logo needed something else. Yes, a shield to symbolise protection is pretty cliché – but with a dragon, heraldic symbolism seemed pretty appropriate.
The colour palette just had to be strong reds and oranges and we knew there had to be a dark and light version, and both had to be striking.
Focus were keen on sponsoring motorsport which came with the challenge of making sure the logo looked great on racing overalls, vehicles, helmets and more. Also, they had a fleet of vans in various colours (but mainly black).
The Feedback
The brand that Storytellers created is perfect for what we need. They really ran with the dragon theme and created something that really gets our customers talking.