The Flourish logo is… done!

Well it’s been a long time coming. A lot of heartache, blood, sweat, tears and frustration. But here it is. The Flourish logo.

Fonts

The font communicates warmth and approachability and we love it. It’s called Perec by PampaType and is so new that they’re still developing the complementary fonts so watch this space as we add to the identity in future. We’ve used Super Negra for the logo and  Super Blanca for the tagline. PampaType describe the typeface as “a sensitive sans grotesque with a good variety of styles for text and display. Versatile, delicate and contemporary.” And if you follow the link through to the Perec homepage you’ll see the “versatile, delicate and contemporary font” that I have my eye on! Hang it, here it is…

Isn’t that font at the bottom delicious? Perec is perfect for us: it’s warm, approachable, slightly feminine but strong and clear at the same time. There’s nothing fussy about it, but at the same time there’s a certain, something, about it – the curve of the “l” and the “i”, and the flick of the “u” that has that attention to detail and modernity that we just couldn’t find in any other font.

And of course there were rivals for Perec. We looked long and hard at Museo – a very modern slab serif. It’s a favourite of ours and we considered it carefully, but I don’t like the way the “u” bends both ways on this font. And whilst we prefered Museo’s “o”, we knew we were going to doctor that character, so it was less of an issue. And the curves and flicks of Perec just felt more right than museo.

The icon

I think this was the element we struggled with the most. We were so resistant to doing anything as obvious as adding a leaf to the words that we tied ourselves up in knots trying to be clever! Hence the grass, which just didn’t work – too fussy. But the leaf is stylish, simple and great for use on it’s own as a favicon (see next to the http:// in your menu bar) and also as an icon on our twitter profile. Thank goodness we realised we were trying too hard and went back to our gut instinct. I love how Caroline has executed this – simply, clearly and stylishly. It’s the clarity element of what we do.

The colours

I’ll be blogging more about our colour palette in another post as there’s plenty to talk about on that! Let’s just focus on the green. We’ve used pantone 384 which is a strong, muted, Autumnal colour which has the right balance of punch and welcome. Green communicates balance, sustainability and growth. So it’s a good colour for us. And just works so well with the visual imagery and the name.

And I was desperate to use orange, I really was! Orange is fun, sociable, creative and abundant – it’s essential we incorporate it into the brand. But it just didn’t work with the name and icon unfortunately. So orange will come in the rest of the identity somewhere – I haven’t given up on it just yet, but “flourish” was just crying out for green, and in the end we gave in.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who helped us get here. The friends, family, colleagues and other graphic designers who gave us feedback, ideas and focus. And most of all, to the brilliant Flourish designers who pulled it off! Thank you all.

Hurray!

in About us, Branding, Case Studies, Colour Psychology, Graphic Design, In The Studio This Week, Logo Design, The Flourish Identity