IWD Agency is an eCommerce agency that specializes in building, maintaining and tweaking the Magento platform for small to mid-sized companies around the world. After a few months as a new junior designer hire, I was given the daunting task of revamping the companies word mark. Below, you’ll see my design process for the new logo, as well as examples of that branding in use from across my portfolio of work.
To start the creative process off, the owner and I had an informal chat about directions for the branding. He presented a handful of ideas to me ranging from web and sports logos that he had been saving in a folder on his computer. His vision was clear, he wanted to bring a youthful energy back to the company’s visual identity.
Though the company’s original logo held sentimental value, it was starting to show its age – a cardinal sin for web-based companies. In the hopes of creating a word mark that would last IWD into the next decade and beyond, I wanted to strip it down to its basic components and start tinkering from there. Below, you’ll see how I started off – by playing with clean, modern type faces and basic shapes.
Before my initial presentation to IWD’s stakeholders, I held off the cuff conversations with individuals to get an informal poll ahead of a more formal presentation. In these informal talks, the core tenets of our new brand decided to become more clear. IWD wanted to be youthful, personable, and on the cutting edge of technology. The final consensus being that they were fans of most of the options, but not married to any one yet. Below are the designs I presented in this first meeting of the minds.
After narrowing our vision and critiquing the current options, the stakeholders sent me back to work one more that focused on a personal connection with our clients. Back at the drawing board, I began by looking at logos that inspired a more personable relationship. I wanted to focus on friendly shapes, meaning ditching the more sporty sharp edges in favor of inoffensive curves and lines. I was wanted to go back to the idea of basic building blocks, not only in design but also on the web. I set out to create a logo made entirely from 1s and 0s. Below, you’ll see the second line up with the newest logo attempt.
At the final presentation, the stakeholders (including the owner and senior designers) decided to move forward with the newest logo iteration – finding it to perfectly encapsulate the tenets that had set out for me. And we decided to lean hard into our new youthful energy with bold and brights colors, and playful textures and layouts.
Over my two years at the company, I was blessed with the opportunity to continue to expand upon and evolve our new visual identity. From emails to page layouts, business cards and signage, the new branding succeeded in bringing IWD Agency’s brand into the age of the modern web.
