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Lower Cape Carpentry

Brief from client 

Create branding for new carpentry company.

The logo is framed in a pentagon or a house shape, combining clean lines, a hammer icon and wood grain to lend to the natural process of building houses. The robust clean lines exemplify great building character.

The type treatment is set in all uppercase because the logo is meant for bigger deliverables i.e. truck signage, lawn/job-site signs, and clothing; with smaller versions needed for web and few print collateral.

The inline title characters are another nod to how building and remodeling can be clean and intricate at the same time. The narrowing of characters like 'a' and 'w' allow for better readability, differentiating the otherwise geometrical sans serif.

The clients vehicles are white so the color selection is strictly meant to grab attention.

3 Comments

j.o.y's picture
238 pencils
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You say "The robust clean lines exemplify great building character." - but I don't see clean lines. In the type maybe, but the symbol is organic. The lines in the house need much cleaning up around where they meet the house. And the stroke around the hammer is very thick and awkwardly shaped. More importantly, there is nothing groundbreakingly interesting about using a house shape and a hammer to represent "home builder." This looks more like your first idea and you went straight to the computer with it. Needs more exploration!!!

Jeff Denis's picture
2 pencils
Idea
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Hi Jeremy,

Idea: is fine. But the hammer inside the house let think they only do interior work. There is an opposition between what you logo and what is written.
Symbol are simple and easy to understand.
Typo: Nice work. "The lower cape" font recall to the house structure while "carpentry" front to the inside.
Color: Red is not appropriate. It is catchy sure but it induces the ideas Force, Energy... And carpentry work is related to stability, long lasting, immobility.

adamshap's picture
3 pencils
Typography
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There are a few things I agree with and some things I do not agree with in this logo.

First, I work with a lot of construction companies, contractors, plumbers, truckers, etc... and a lot of them use the color red. So I'm not so put-off by the use of red and I actually think red can work just fine for these industries.

Similarly to the use of red, a lot of construction companies, home builders, etc... use either houses or tools as symbols within their logos - so I think that this is also appropriate for this industry.

However, just because a particular direction makes sense, it doesn't mean that you have to go that route. In my opinion this logo would be more interesting if the symbolism was a little more original in concept, possibly directly relating to the roots of the company or the goals of the company rather than simply what the company does.

Now lets take a closer look at the two elements of the logo: the mark and the type.

I agree with j.o.y in that we don't really see the clean lines that you refer to in your brief. The house looks fine, and the grain I think will largely depend on personal opinion (not sure if intentionally made not smooth to look more organic or if it was unintentional). But the hammer and the offset path you added needs a little cleaning up.

It appears that you offset the path of the hammer with the 'bevel' setting, as opposed to miter or rounded. Maybe play around with those settings to get a better offset. Also, the offset probably shouldn't be the thickest line in the logomark - try matching the weight to the house or to the grain. Lastly on the mark, the hammer should be straight between the handle and the head of the hammer. Currently that section widens towards the head.

In terms of the type, I like the style and I think you have chosen a proper tracking for the typeface. You do not need a phone number in a logo and that should be removed. Tagline is fine, but whenever I see a phone number or email address in a logo all I can think of is, "that designer wasn't able to educate their client on when and where to place certain content."

With the phone number removed, you can increase the size of the type and thin out the dividing line.

Overall nice job! If you haven't already try playing around with a red/dark gray theme. It may make the overall design more visually interesting.

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