Challenge:
The charity were happy with most aspects of their existing identity, but their logo design did not align with their values and felt jarring with its slices and sharp edges. They approached me to design a new logo that would convey the warmth, joy and humanness of the organisation, and its bold, competitive spirit. They gave the key words simple, joyful and versatile.
Approach:
I began by looking back at the LW brand book which is brimming with personality and is eloquently written. It communicates the character and tone of voice so well, and it was clear that this wasn’t being conveyed in the logo design.
Our initial discussions centred around the joy and playfulness that was missing in the existing logo. The charity exist to create opportunities for disabled children to learn to swim and fall in love with the water, so we wanted to bring that fun energy in visually.
I created a set of moodboards from my visual research to demonstrate my thinking and collate the visual inspiration. Ideas explored here are: expressive/moving typography (top left), hand-drawn, imperfect logos (top right), ‘level up’ concept (bottom left), retro sports brand (bottom right).
With the first round of logo concepts I explored clean graphic styles as well as hand-drawn ideas. The team liked aspects from several of the designs, but number 3 and 6 were chosen as the favourites here. The feedback detailed that the movement and playfulness of these logos were very liked, and they felt curious and adventurous. They liked the hand-drawn aesthetic, as it made the designs unique. They wanted to see a combination of concept 3 and 6 for the next round.
For the second round I focused on creating hand-drawn logos. I had a lot of fun with these as there are so many ways to visually represent the subject of water and playfulness. The distortion of the letters with wobbliness or the addition of water droplets gave these designs soul and character.
At this point we realised that the values of confidence, boldness and challenge weren’t quite present enough in the designs we were considering. We also discussed the varied audience we needed to consider - children and their families, swimming pools and teachers, as well governing bodies who would be integral in future business decisions. We discussed how aspirational Level Water are and that a cleaner, more graphic logo may be more appropriate.
I revisited one of the logos from the first round of concepts to push further, as well as developing more graphic versions of one of the hand-drawn logos. With this round of design I incorporated some graphic elements to nod to themes of ‘levelling up’ and ‘play in the water’. The elements are designed to echo the shapes found in the lettering, and they add a pictorial aspect which creates a more memorable logo design.
Solution:
The final logo is a clean, bold wordmark that feels sporty as well as friendly. The typeface style nods to the retro aesthetic often found in watersports branding. The letters V and A positioned one above the other creates a pleasing mirror effect, creating a flow through the wordmark like a river, a nice reference to the Level Water outdoor swim events. The all upper case lettering creates a confident tone of voice, though the curves of the V, W, A and R soften this with their playfulness.
The typeface is called Marvin Visions which was designed by Mathieu Triay, a design technologist and super nice chap. Check it out here.
The decision was made to remove the pictorial element of the logo as we didn’t land on an icon that resonated with all of the team. We all loved the wordmark and we discussed the opportunity to work in some icons and graphic shapes into the wider brand identity in the future.
I designed a shorthand icon which features a retro-style water spurt graphic, with the initials LW. This will be for use on smaller branded collateral or where a shorthand icon is needed, such as for stickers or social media.