In this case, ARM: Angler Recycling Management.
Our clients, “arm”-ed with a penchant for bass fishing and a background in construction contracting, were plunging headlong into the workings of starting a plastics recycling company. That’s pretty much all the information we were given to design a logo and business cards for the business start up.
So that night we sat down and ground out the process that begins with any of our design projects’ bottom line.
“How will the unique, memorable, and professional nature of our client’s service attract and hold potential customers interest?”
The answer: Capturing the essence of that service by creating a visual representation that will leap out to a customer’s eye, and cause a brain process that will instill a long-lasting association of our client’s services meeting their customer’s needs.
To get from a generic and easily thought up bottom line like this to a working logo, we asked ourselves these questions about our client.
What kind of service is being offering by ARM? (Buying up plastic and paper, and re-selling the recycled products)
How is it different from any of the countless other identical recycling services being offered? (Harder to answer, given the information we had. Sometimes, there is no difference, so we need to make one up)
Who is the target customer base? (Eventually an international endeavor, so anyone in the world looking to either efficiently dispose of or buy up paper or plastic materials)
How is our client’s competition marketing their services? ( A google image search yielded these results. We go from cheapest designs to most elaborate to get a sense of expected quality.)
After analyzing common themes among a good assortment of competitors, and avoiding basic mistakes in logo design http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/25/10-common-mistakes-in-logo-design/, (essentially: effective in black & white, simple, and good typography) we started pumping out a logo study.
We asked ourselves what unique factors brought character to ARM’s recycling service, and decided to pursue the obvious. Our client’s unashamed showcasing of bass fishing. It’s personable. It’s down to earth. It’s green. Yes, fishing (especially the catch-and-release fishing favored by our client) is a healthy part of our green (and blue) earth. Fish+earth + recycling = green + international venture + interested customers taking care of the planet. Ding Ding Ding!
Designs started coming out of this thought process.
Fishermen at the center of recycling?
Fishermen who want their hobby environment protected through recycling?
After going through recycling symbol ideas, we decided to try a more literal “Hey it’s an arm!” approach.
Our client went over these, and actually liked the last one, but his partner preferred the globed designs. Our final product, after a few revisions, ended up on our business card design.
Final Product.
Good luck ARM!
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