Level Orange

A few months ago, I took on a logo project and was tasked with designing an identity for a new venture into “green” upscale housing development. The biggest selling point of these new communities was that they would be constructed in parts of the country that were not necessarily conducive to “eco-friendly” housing, due to climate and/or economical factors.

Since these projects revolved around energy-efficient construction using the latest technologies and building materials, and were to be marketed to young, savvy professional types, two fundamental qualities had to be conveyed: 1) the environmentally sound design and 2) a sense of youthful, almost-nurturing practicality.

Having the name Vivaio (an Italian word meaning “garden” or “nursery”) already selected helped immensely, as it immediately shaped my thinking and gave me an excellent starting point. As you can see here, my first and strongest instinct was the image of a seedling, not only because of the “green” aspect, but also because of the nature of the venture itself.

While the client had some great comments on these, they also wanted to see something a little bolder and not so simplified. Oddly enough, I had decided from the outset to build a clean, simple design, but perhaps I had gone too far in that direction, to the point where there was no “life” in the mark itself.

So I went back to the drawing board, literally, and starting working on some more illustrative ideas, while at the same time trying to find a natural “V” in the art. Here’s a later batch of options, now refining the seedling mark and finding a balance of strength and sensitivity.

As the process went on, something that also became important was how the logo would work in various uses, including community-specific signage and other materials. My first idea was that the logo could be integrated into the name itself to establish a wordmark, but something got lost in the process–both the name and the logo took the wind out of each other visually. So, instead, I worked with a more traditional logo/name orientation, which allowed for some more interesting options when including the community name. As for type, I tried a variety of faces, but the two that seemed to offer the cleanest-yet-most-organic letterforms and also visually complement each other were Avenir and Penumbra Flare.

While I enjoyed being able to do some logo work, I never did get to see what the client chose as the final logo. I had to let go of the project when I picked up a full-time contract, but the here are the last options I sent their way. My personal favorite is the third shown here (also at the beginning of this entry), as I think the “egg” shape combined with the seedling really drive home the ideas of nature, youth and shelter.