ID Barbers Logo & Brand Identity Project – Progress so far

ID Barbers Logo & Identity Proposal.

This is one of a few ideas for a brand new identity. It’s focus right now is on the main logo, but the project will expand into other areas, including marketing, advertising, interior and exterior decoration. Creating the right identity for her is crucial at this point to distinguish herself above regular mens barbershops. The client is opening a new male hairdressers, or barbershop, here in the UK.

Brands happen, you don’t make ‘em

There is also the branding aspect here, as she plans to sell ‘ID’ hair products at some point, and possible open further shops if this is successful.

So always mindful you can’t exactly ‘create’ a brand, the hope is it will become one.

This is a work in progress, but wanted to share my progress so far. It can be interesting to see a work in progress, opposed to the final outcome., just to see where the thought process is heading. More interestingly, how far from these initial ideas the final logo will look. Maybe it will remain the same, maybe another idea altogether.

Location, Location and Location

There are a number of aspects to this logo, not all immediately apparent. A significant part is actually a location concern. The shop is a Grade II listed building, very old and full of oak beams and original brick work, situated in a lovely village. The overall feel needed to be clean, stylish but in keeping with general feel of the village. The client had certain aesthetic tastes with the interior and exterior decoration of the building. I wanted to take these account where possible.

Avoid the Cliché

The brief also made it very clear that this was to avoid typical male barbershop clichés, specifically styling with red and white stripes and the like and overall over the top cliché imagery. The shop would be open to all ages, it needed to hint at the style conscious young men as well not alienating the older generation. There are a few sport shops that cater for the skateboarders and bikers in the same road, so a logo was needed that didn’t conjour up an old fuddy duddy male barber.

The shop will include plush sofas, sound system, 42″ LCD and Playstation 3 of all things for those waiting for a trim.

The Logomark

The logomark, the ‘ID’ needed to be able to stand alone for signage purposes as well as working alongside the main ‘barbers’ wording. So without adding to much clutter to the logo as a whole, I wanted to incorporate a subtle hairdressing association within the ‘ID’ letters.

I was able to integrate a reasonable non cliché association with the letters ‘ID’ with a comb/grader/shaver/clipper.

We are playing with subtle variations with this main idea.

Below is a photo of the shop front, it’s a crude mock up of a version of the logo within the very narrow sign space above the window. This is in no way a final image, this was just to show the client a rough idea of the dimensions of the logo I was proposing for this space. For example, the building number and telephone number would also fill up space left and right.

Below is a possible alternative to having the logomark alongside the main wording. This may help with some people not seeing that the ID logomark is in fact letters, and not just a symbol. It’s all up in the air at the moment, so these are ideas being put on the table and debated. If we can ensure that the ID can both look like a symbol as well as clearly being the letters ‘i’ and ‘d’, then this would be the preferred route.

The typography

I have again used a favourite typeface of mine, Gotham Super Duper Light. The client loves it and I feel it works well. If this is the final choice, I will be making minor modifications to the lettering to make it more unique for this project. But also, the ID originated from the free font, MOO!, which you can download form this site. It gave me a nice solid platform to make some changes to its appearance. Some of the ID versions also use various styles of Slab Serif as it’s basis, each with modifications.

Have looked at using a serif face for the main wording, as this feels more attuned to the styling of the ID, where I used a slab-serif as foundation. But not convinced it gives off the right feeling. The client loves the logo for the UK housing decor chain, Habitat, so I used Minion in one example.

A way to go yet

We have yet to finalise the logo, as there are a few other possibilities on the table, as well as general refinements and colour palette to be determined at later stages. But so far so good and I am happy with the direction, as is the client.

Colophon

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