Study Task 1/ Collaborative Branding - Research - Help Link

Help link research

Following on from the typography lecture that we had, we were all then separated into groups and set a task. 




The task was to: Produce a series of logotypes for a re-brand of you’re given company. Using only type, experiment with scale, stroke, spacing, contrast and alignment to interpret your company. You should consider the following:

• Who is the company?
• What do they do?
• Who is the target audience?
• Where will the logo appear?

We were also told that the typeface's we could use to re-brand the logo was limited to six typefaces an artist called Massimo Vignelli used who we were told about in out lecture on typography. 

As a group of five we all individually started researching the company that we were given which was help link.

Help-Link is a prominent central heating firm in the United Kingdom, which started out in 1998, as a team of 4 based in East Leeds, and has grown substantially over the last 15 years to become a 1000-strong nationwide team. Originally based in Leeds, before moving to larger premises in Castleford in 2003/4, and after outgrowing the 180-staff office, the company's head office is now based at Thorpe Park business park, Leeds as of May 2012.

Help Link also work for the community where they were founded. They take part in projects such as holding the ''worlds Largest Math's lesson'' in 2014 as well as giving away 115 full rugby kits to junior teams worldwide. They also gave funding for the homeless, which was £200,000. 

Help links logo is very simplistic and quite similar to other boiler, gas and also energy company's logos. The colours and the use of the blue seems to be quite a conmen colour that is used in these type of company's such as: 

Although the Help Link logo looks sophisticated and smart I personally do not agree with the colour scheme used, as Help Link is a boiler company and the use of the colour blue I don't think works as blue is viewed as a cold colour and when you think of boilers you automatically think of warmth. Though they have added a small flame symbol at the side of the logo I still yet do not think that it works due to the colour scheme. Personally would use warmer colours such as red's and oranges to give it that type of feel. 

Businesses often go through re-brands and there are many reasons why they do so. Sometimes it could be something simple as, it's old fashioned or the businesses could be bored of the designs. The most common reason is because they want to stay up and current and in trend aligned with other businesses. Although sometimes a re-brand doesn't always work.

This is a popular brand in the United Kingdom called gap which tried to re-brand itself, possibly one of the most know re-branding fail people must know. Luckily after re-branding to the logo on the right, within days it was changed back to it's old logo. The new logo is not as sophisticated and smart as the old logo. 

This Is Apple re-branding their logo, which I personally think works well, it's modernized to keep up with the trendy. Unlike the 'GAP' Logo I feel this new modernized logo is more trendy and sophisticated 

From this research which I gathered from the 'Help Link' boiler company and the re-branding of different logos, I then started to research into a website called 'Behance', where new and up coming designers post there work, to search for branding for boiler company's to see what modern designers these days are creating here are some examples that I found:

Boical is a new company located in Santander that born to be leader in the sale and distribution of spare parts for boilers and heaters. They came to us looking for their naming and branding with which communicate their values.

What I found I liked about this specific design was the use of the colours as it gives out a warm feel and how simple and slick it looks. It makes the company look professional. The typeface used with this logo I think works nicely as the type is thick and bold so it stands out. 

This piece of branding I found below was for an echo-friendly heating company. The design itself I find is modern and in trend I think the use of the colour green works due to the fact that it's an echo-friendly company. The design is simplistic and clear so it's easy to understand what the company is. The typeface also works really well; I like the way the type is spaced out I think it gives it sophistication. 

This research will help when it comes to choosing fonts, colours, and what meaning we want behind the logo when it comes to the next process.