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Urban Works is a Non-Profit based in Santa Cruz. They provide free activities for disabled people and focus on helping them build a community. I made them a logo and branding guide. I also created multiple business materials like business card templates and letter heads. Lower on this page I will be showing the in depth process I often take to create branding and logos.
Branding Guide & Business Package
The Urban Works logo is energetic and bright, but I made sure to not make it childish because the target demographic is mostly adults. The Icon of the logo depicts multiple semi-abstract people holding hands around the letter "UW". This represents the community that Urban Works is trying to build. The people are different colors from one another to represent diversity, because Urban Works serves people of all different walks of life. The "UW" is a grunge style paintbrush font to make the logo feel less corporate and also because the client requested to represent art in the logo which is a major part of Urban Works. The colors were selected to represent the Santa Cruz Ocean while also making sure to keep them bright and welcoming. The Icon is designed to feel more fluid so it elicits both energy and the ocean. The font for the word mark "Urban Works" is a modern slab-serif typeface. It was chosen because it is modern, bold, and easily legible, but also because it is slightly less corporate, and more "hip" then a plain sans-serif typeface.
I give the board of directors a multi question form to fill out that I created for branding and logo design. This form is used so people without design experience can communicate what they want in their branding. People often have a hard time vocalizing what they want so this makes it a lot easier. I then boil down the answers to the main points and concepts. I also request them to send me any other material (inspiration, previous logos, logos they like, material they made themselves, etc.). Afterwards I compile the info into one page.
I take all the information from the last step and make multiple refined sketches. These start as multiple messy sketches that I use for ideas and then get refined into slightly neater sketches to show multiple ideas for the board to choose from. They incorporate both material sent from the client and the answers received from the form. These sketches are to show ideas, and are not final, and not supposed to indicate final color either. I then on a zoom call explain the drafts, what they represent, why I made the choices I did, planned alterations, and which ones I believe are better options. These sketches are then voted on with a ranked choice voting system. Two of these are chosen to be made into draft logos, then everyone gives notes on desired changes or things they want to see in the draft versions.
I create the two selected logos into vector drafts. With these drafts I present multiple color and type options based on the answers to my original questionnaire. I then give my opinion on which of those options are the most viable and the reasons they make the most sense. (I normally explain to them my top two color and the top two type options). Then a vote is held on which logo of the two they want to choose. After this a second vote is held on which typeface and color choices should be used on that logo.
Once the final logo choice is made, I make final additional touch ups and send the logo over for approval. Once I get approval I work on creating the rest of the branding with that logo. This includes typefaces, colors, brand guidelines, ect. I then start creating other business material like business cards, letter heads, and make sure previous company material conforms to the new guidelines. I also create mono-color (light and dark) versions of the logo and a black and white optimized version.
