A steel company with no face. Now it has one.
ARPEI was already operating, with customers and technical capability, but no logo and no visual system. Two months and several meetings with the owner, partners and investors later, it had a logo, an identity manual, a website, stationery, and jackets, pens and mugs to wear it on. They still use it.
- Year
- Around 2008
- Relationship
- Independent client
- My role
- Design, website and delivery coordination
- Duration
- Two months
- Decision-makers
- Owner, partners and investors
- Team
- Me, plus production suppliers
Every item was a new decision
Without a logo or a manual, every card, page or jacket meant deciding lettering, colors and proportions all over again. And several people had to agree.
Align, design, document
I ran the visual-direction meetings, designed the logo, wrote the rules into a manual and prepared every application for its supplier.
Seven fronts, one face
Logo, manual, website, business cards, jackets, pens and mugs, all handed over within the two months.
A running business with no identity
ARPEI worked in industrial services, engineering and steel-related fabrication. It had real commercial activity, but nothing that represented it consistently to customers, suppliers and partners. The owner decided that had to change.
The challenge wasn’t only drawing a logo. A website, a business card and an embroidered jacket have very different production demands, and the brand had to be recognizable on all of them.
What I owned
I worked directly with the owner, partners and investors through several planning and presentation meetings. I translated their expectations into a visual direction, designed the logo and documented how to use it. I designed the original website and prepared the files for every application.
The approach
- Agreement first, applications second. With several people approving, the direction had to be shared before anything went into production.
- A logo built to take anything. Designed to work tiny on a card, in a website header and embroidered on a jacket.
- A manual for the suppliers. Written rules stop every printer or embroiderer from interpreting the brand their own way.
- Production through specialists. Stationery, embroidery and promo items went through suppliers, so a small operation could deliver a lot.
What changed
ARPEI went from having no logo to presenting itself one way, everywhere. And the identity is still in use today, which is the clearest outcome: it became part of how the company shows up.
There was no measurement program after delivery, so I won’t invent sales numbers. What I can say is what was delivered, and that it’s still there.
Seven deliverables, one identity
Everything that shipped in the two months.
- Logo
- Identity manual
- Website
- Business cards
- Jackets
- Pens
- Mugs
The same face, everywhere.
Does your company need a face too?
Dani is waiting in the office with a form and Daniel’s card.