Ingalls brand identity design
This identity design project was completed for Ingalls & Associates, a New York-based consulting, surveying, and engineering firm, established more than 20 years ago.
Jacqueline Ingalls asked me to redesign their brand identity, and to provide accompanying stationery (letterhead and business card design).
Old identity
The old brand identity had been in place for approximately seven years. Jacqueline said she was unconvinced about the new design showing ‘Ingalls & Associates LLP’. Using only ‘Ingalls’ was an idea I endorsed, believing it to be more succinct and memorable.
Jacqueline requested a modern design — clean, legible and ‘to the point’.
Brainstorming and sketches
Brand identity options
I presented two different options.
Identity #1
The second of the two ‘L’s is elongated to give a sense of upward movement, growth, and construction. The idea is based upon the positive connotations derived from an upwardly mobile firm…
— urban sites being developed from the ground up
— permit applications being given the go-ahead
The typeface used is ‘Hoefler Text Black italic’ — a well-crafted design from Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
Keywords: positive, clear, human, growing
Identity #2
In contrast to the friendlier tone of option #1, this logotype is custom-made, rigid and solid in appearance.
The differing angular forms, with ample spacing in between, relate to today’s meticulously planned urban landscapes and the precision with which their design is carried out.
Keywords: precise, solid, bold, unique, modern, clean
Stationery design
Client testimonial
I wouldn’t change a thing. We love it!
I am not often happy with others ideas. I can always find a list of items I would change in order to make it right, and often have to accept something less. I certainly do not feel that way within this experience. This has been most pleasurable! Thank you.
Jacqueline Ingalls
Ingalls & Associates
I very much enjoyed working on this project, and your thoughts on the new identity are more than welcome.
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David, I absolutely think you nailed this one! It’s great that the client loves it also, and allowed for the mark to be removed, along with using just a typeface. The elongated “l” is a wonderful touch.
“Human”, “growth”, “positive”…..spot on! It looks great on the cards also. One of your best works. Congrats
Great work! I think it came out perfect, and that they made a nice choice!
Thanks for peek!
The new logo and stationery is positively beautiful!
Hmmm… i’m not sure if it’s a little too simple for my liking or not. Strange as it’s what I usually admire about your work!
There’s no doubting that it’s a vast improvement on their original logo and it’s an excellent choice of font. I do appreciate the increase in height of the second ‘l’ too. I’m just not sure if it’s missing something… but what would I know! lol
I really like the stationary though, I know that much! Especially the business card.
Thanks for another interesting post :)
At first glance it appeared to be very simple, but when I saw your sketches and read your rationale I was impressed by your thinking. The ‘l’s’ are subtle enough to add value to the logo and the company.
Great brainstorming and sketching process David, but the end result is just ok for me.
The good thing is that the client loves it, and that’s all the matters!
This logo has a very human feel with the italics, serifs and lushious bold font. All lowercase makes it more approachable than some of the sketches done in all uppercase.
Nice work on the back of the business card! It’s very well balanced and I appreciate that you didn’t just go for the simple (and boring!) solution of centering everything; the logo is well integrated with the tagline. Good choice of layout on the letterhead, as well. Not typical, but very functional. Did they not want the tagline under the logo on the letterhead? It would’ve fit well!
I think this is a strong addition to an already steller portfolio, David!
David,
Very well done, as always.
Very clean, and loved the way you used the “L” as an incresing growth for the company.
David,
This is one of my favorite logotypes. The upward movement of the L’s are a perfect touch to a great font. I agree with Lauren that the lowercase has a much more approachable feel while still maintaining a sense of professionalism and class. A much improved mark compared to their disastrous one listed at the top. Nice job David
David,
I love reading through your thought process. It makes me want to start doing my work right away every time. Just wondering what prompted you to pick Hoefler Text Black italic over other fonts for this logo?
The logo looks quite pretty and it looks really impressive on business cards.
David, I like it. I’m wonering if you could explain the process involved in color selection. I see you went from a yellow/green to a sort of slate grey. Was that your idea or the client’s? Great job.
Definitely a huge improvement from their old logo.
I like the logo and I think you did a god job in applying it to the stationery!
I don’t think its missing ’something’, what ‘thing’?
The simpler the better, complexity doesn’t make a logo!
You don’t have to make a design ‘complex’ to justify what you charged the client.
Well done.
I think the most significant role of this design is the elongated “l”. Great idea!
Looking good again David. What was your reasoning behind the colour scheme?
And yet again, the sketches are pristine! I’m sure you re-sketch for presentation purposes!
great job david. I think if more businesses had experiences like this with creative firms I think we would have to worry so much about “spec work”.
btw. I’ve adopted your use of graph paper for sketches and I have to admit it works wonderfully….i just haven’t been able to write such “prestine” notes the way you do…LOL.
take care
i really like it, I do like logos that aren’t too complicated, this one is simple and stands out well, Well Done!!! and I like the elongated l, good work!
interesting one. Not to be mean (David, you know I greatly admire your work), but, imo:
- the typeface is a bit heavy (a bit too much “black” ;) ), although this makes it stand out.
- the dot on the “i” is a bit to much to the left
- the “s” looks a bit detached.
@Imani: yeah, graph paper is awesome, as long as the lines aren’t too dark
I really like the logo; i don’t think the length of the second ‘l’ needs to be justified by it showing increased growth. Just say it looks good! From the look of the Ingalls website they need more than a new logo design!
David, while i love the simplicity and the elongated ‘l’ (very nice touch, btw), and even though I also like Hoefler text, i find the type choice here a little off. it leaves me thinking it looks ‘wobbly’, which probably isn’t necessarily the best feeling one would want to get when seeing an engineering firm’s logo. hopefully i am just an oddball and am alone in this feeling; besides, the client loves it and that is what matters as others have said above.
definitely a huge improvement from their previous logo though.
Brian, matthew, Marnie,
Very kind of you all to say. Thanks very much.
Shaun,
It’s a subjective topic this design business. Glad you like the card.
Lauren,
You make a good point about the all-lowercase type. I also find it more approachable than those uppercase sketches. Good question about the letterhead. My image (above) only shows the top of the design, and at the bottom — in line with the logo at the top — is the following text:
Ingalls & Associates, LLP
consulting, civil & environmental engineering
Matt, Kode,
Cheers for leaving your opinions.
Fernanda,
Thanks for stopping by, and also choosing me as your assignment subject. That’s truly very flattering. If I can be of any more help, just give me a shout.
Sean,
You create some excellent logos, and your opinion is greatly appreciated.
willzager,
I chose Hoefler Text Black because the curves offer a friendly, approachable appearance, yet the heavy weight suits an engineering firm. Good luck with your own design projects.
Meraj, dp, Michelle, Mokokoma,
Thanks very much, for reading and for your comments.
Josh, Abbas,
My client wanted to use white, grey and black in their promotional design, hence the grey logo. It was supplied in grey, black, and reversed (white), and Abbas, you probably won’t believe me, but I actually don’t re-sketch for presentation purposes. :) What you don’t see above are the doodles and scribblings on random pieces of paper (although there weren’t that many on this project).
Imani,
Glad the graph paper is working for you. It’s not for everyone, and I know some designers find it restricting. For now, I’m happy with it, but my next purchase will probably be plain paper, or maybe one of those fine-sounding Helvetica moleskins that Johno’s giving away.
Armin,
Your comments aren’t mean at all. I always welcome constructive criticism, so thank you.
poohugh,
I agree how the website can be improved, and I’m curious to see how the logo is integrated.
Paul,
Interesting point about the italics. No offence, buddy, but hopefully you are just an oddball. Haha. Thanks for your honesty.
What’s the deal with option #2? Is that one of those tricks where designers purposely throw in a clunker so the client chooses the “good one”? ;)
I wonder if you would have come up with that design had you not used graph paper? It’s like how so many designs end up with drop-shadows and gradients. I doubt anyone has ever sketched a gradient on paper, but since photoshop makes it easy, they get slapped on logos all the time. Often times the media directs the outcome more than we would like.
Scathing criticism aside…I love option #1, particularly the colour. Can’t wait to see how their website turns out with the new logo.
Just wanted to throw in my two cents worth of admiration for this project. The logo is beautiful by itself but the stationary is stunning. Once again, great work.
Personally, I use plain paper to sketch out my design ideas, and I really appreciate that you show all of us the gritty details of your process. :)
For those that are questionable on the graph paper versus plain paper – I have a potential solution. I just have a PDF ‘half graph’ that I print out and put in a binder. It is 1/2 graph paper and 1/2 plain paper. That way – I get the best of both worlds!
beautiful work david. I think your logo is fresh and approachable. I also like how you managed a _serif font in this exercise. In identity work, I usually steer clear of typefaces that have artifacts leading or trailing, unless I can modify the font type to connect the letters. but your approach is not only elegant, it’s quite natural. Cheers for sharing.
I like it mucho much! This inspires me to work with better clients. How do you find the ones who don’t want their names bigger? And bolder? And in red?
JP,
Great question. I don’t advocate using graph paper, but do find that it works well for me. Then again, so does plain paper. So could no paper at all, where I use my imagination. I had a thought to create a rigid, angular design to present. Did the idea arise from using graph paper? It could well have done.
Oh, and don’t worry about ’scathing criticism’. :) Happy to have you comment.
leandra,
You’re more than welcome.
Julia,
Nice idea, splitting your paper like that. Thanks for sharing.
Rob,
Like you, more often than not, I tend to use the clean forms of sans-serif fonts, but it’s always a pleasure when a client is pleased with an alternative. I’m equally pleased, and believe the stronger of the two options was chosen.
Renata,
Thankfully, my clients find me! The past year has brought some fantastic people to my website, and it makes the process so much easier when you work with those who value ‘good’ design.
@David,
no offense taken. you’re getting more positive comments than not, so i must in fact, be an oddball :)
on a more general note regarding your logo postings, have you ever been curious to find out if there’s any bias in your readers comments in relation to the fact that they know it was you who designed the logo and that most of your commentators are loyal readers of your blog? (sorry if someone has posed this question to you before, but i did not take the time to read through all of your previous articles).
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Again great work David, I really love your creative process and it is getting harder to find brand artists with such a perfect sense of execution, typography wise. As I mention in one of my comment recently though, I would be curious to see what you could come up with if you would develop a stronger story line behind your work, and here is what I mean:
Personally, I am a strong advocate of the communication school. Therefore, I see a logo as part of an identity work that must effectively translate the company’s values and field of expertise as it is often the starting point of the client’s creative campaign. It’s effectiveness for me, relies the synergy of 4 undividable elements; Signature, Icon/Avatar, Sub liner and Tagline.
I am (when relevant) a true lover of the use of Icons or Avatars as it means to give the audience an extra clue of what the company does and what it stands for. I found out, if figurative enough, that the Icon/Avatar enhances greatly the memorability of the logo. For instance, let’s take BP that all the sudden wanted to win over environmentally aware consumers and started to invest in renewable energy. To show the company’s commitment to the environment and solar power, they decide to green their brand image (which is a great idea). They had a gross budget of $200 millions to spend so they went to Ogilvy & Mather, and the creative team developed some kind of organic shape that clearly represent the company’s new purpose and activities… Same with Apple, even if officially, the avatar was suppose to be a tribute to Isaac Newton, it is more than anything the representation of the forbidden knowledge from Adam and Eve Story (even if Mr. Jobs argues that the bite in the apple was an accident… Let’s not forget that he was selling the Apple 1 $666). That’s a cool storyline right there that greatly improves the logo’s quality to be worth of remembering.
My purpose here isn’t to give some logo 101 course since you are truly on top of your art, but simply to share with you my thoughts and how interesting it would be, considering your talent, to see you coming up with the next “most recognizable” logo.
Cheers!
Another good question, Paul (I get a lot of them from my readers).
I reckon I’d be naive to think there wasn’t some form of bias in the comments. On the flip-side, with the number of visitors who stop by, I get my fair share of nasty remarks that I edit or delete (they’re sometimes simply personal attacks, but I think it’s ‘part-and-parcel’ of the business).
I make a point of asking for constructive criticism, however, and here’s an appropriate post you may not have seen: Do not seek praise. Seek criticism.
The comments are one thing I never fully understood when I started using a blog as the basis of my portfolio. They’re both absolutely amazing, yet sometimes ugly.
David,
Excellent comment, and I didn’t consider it some kind of 101, not for a second. Off-topic, I posted my last comment before realising you left your own, and even though you subscribed to receive follow-ups, the notification was bounced back to me (this has actually been happening for a while with your messages, and I keep meaning to say).
Back on-topic, I often think about how I position myself, and how I can attract those projects with a broader scope. I’d love to work more on high-profile identity systems, but I do very much enjoy partnering with my current client base.
A little off topic, re: the comment about visitor’s bias
As I trawl my way around the design blog community I notice a trend backscratching and link sharing, articles praising other articles and blog etc. it’s not particularly something I agree with, it almost becomes very predictable.
Back on topic:
I wish i’d have kept the early development sketches for some of the projects i’ve worked on in the past. I’m sure they would make for hilarious viewing. I makes me chuckle when I think of some of the, let’s say, stranger, more abstract angles i’ve attempted to take.
Another option for the blank vs. grid paper debate is to have a piece of grid paper BEHIND a piece of blank paper. That way, you can still make out the grid pattern to help when needed, but it’s less prominent and much more subtle making it less likely to be limiting (subconsciously) in the design process.
Hi Abbas,
Here’s a blog post from Andy Beard you may find interesting: 32 forms of linking payola. It’s from 2007, but you may have seen it before?
JMV,
Nice tactic RE: graph paper.
Like the font choice, it is approachable and refreshing as suggested, but there’s something troubling me about the first shorter “l” it looks to me like its leaning towards the “a” too much as it moves upwards and doesn’t match the angle of the “a” ’s upright.
Probably just me though as no one else has mentioned it! Overall good work.
Nice concept and logo. I do some similar stuff on my website if you want to check it out.
But great article, keep it up.
I think you’re improving as a logo designer, David. Compared to some of your very first logos posted on this blog, to the more recent few, there’s definitely a difference. Don’t get me wrong your older logo projects weren’t terrible, but they lacked the sophistication and uniqueness that the most recent ones have.
Keep up the great work!
Dude I really like your designs and followups. you seem very dedicated to what you do and have a neat sense for corporate and industrial lines.
thanks.
.M.
As always David , Brilliant work ..
I was wondering how much time did this project took from start to finish ?
Just fantastic.
Another great logo David, although for the first 3 seconds of viewing it, I didn’t think it was that good. However, after reading the article, and learning that Ingalls & Associates were an engineering firm, I saw how well the logo actually worked.
I love the fact that with only text alone, you have captured in a glance what the company is all about―with the L’s.
Additionally, I’ve been a fan of Hoefler Text since 2001, when my tutor introduced it to me at Coventry University.
I’m liking the very simple stationary, too. I take it you just used one spot colour for the print. What card was used for the business card may I ask?
Simply best logo, I liked first option most. It’s elegant, neat and simple. It really inspires me but I feel that second option is slightly hard to read, that is letter “n” and “a” is looking similar. One more thing I feel that its angles are giving it a hard and techno feel.
By the way very good job David. Great work!
Gareth, Mark,
Thanks for the comments. Gareth, there is a slight difference in the verticals, you’re right, though I believe the balance is still there when all characters are viewed as a whole.
PG,
That’s great you’re seeing an improvement over time. I think I’m getting better too. It’s a long road to travel, but I reckon the signs are positive. I hope your own designs are coming along well too.
Ehab,
From start to finish, the project took approximately six weeks.
Andrew,
That’s right, the stationery can be printed using just one spot colour. The images above are mock-ups, but I was asked for a card stock recommendation, and I suggested using Plike — same substrate used for my own card.
Narendra, Marijan, Mick,
Cheers guys.
from what I know, a logo can be impersonated by : a symbol or a simple word with a different perspective to it (correct me if I’m wrong), but the thing that buggs me is, why and when would someone be better represented , when he has a symbol or a text (and to keep in mind in the same time that a logo brings in front the ideals of the brand)?
At first I look at the chosen design and think how easy it is and “I could do that!” (and I’m not a designer), but then when I think about it I see how the simplicity is in the design and arriving at the simplicity is the talent that you have. Wonderful, I really like it.
I’m impressed. I’ve come across your blog time to time for months now (usually stumbling, a habit I just can’t break :). I love the simplicity of this design. I think a lot of logo work is overthought but if you look at all the top brands logos, a great majority have this simple style you’ve created here as well. Two thumbs up.
Anders
Serj,
You ask a good question (when to use a symbol). It’s one the client needs an input in, for only they know where the design will be used, and for what purpose.
Ian, Anders,
Thanks very much, guys.
Lovely work, I love the grey shade in particular, the simplicity of the stationery, and the rationale behind the design is great.
I’m such a fan of grey actually.
What a wonderful testimonial as well eh :)
Amanda
Thanks very much, Amanda, and yes, the testimonial was certainly kind. Comments like that always round off a project nicely.
Hi,
I like the logo, very beautiful and simple, and also the fact that you are willing to put yourself out there and have your work critiqued by others. What I find interesting, just from a personal view, is how great the first logo option is compared with the second, which looks awful and almost like it was done by someone else. Most of your work is quite elegant, isn’t it? Like this website, for example. Were you really giving them two choices – or just making the first choice look all the better by presenting it alongside the second?
Yours in friendship,
Melina
Hi Melina,
Thanks for leaving your thoughts. My reasoning behind both logos in conjunction was to offer very differing outcomes. It’s no surprise that I favour the chosen design, and I expressed this to my client, but choice is a good thing, and if the two options were very similar, there’d really be less of a decision. I hope that helps explain a little.
Hy David,
I am impressed of the interesting greytone from the business cards. Is it white color printed on grey paper or is it grey color printed on white? what color is this?
greetings from germany,
Andreas
Hi Andreas,
It’s grey on white, and I’m glad you like the tones used. All the best.
that’s insane how many notes you take.
I take that many notes as well, but not by hand :)
Some I make myself but most of of them the client fills in for me when they respond to my ‘design brief questions’.
Then when I’m designing I copy and paste them onto my art board and they sit next to me when I’m designing (because I do my drafts and ideas in vector not paper) to refer to.
I highlight in bold/colour the most important bits for me to bear in mind about the design brief, and they act as a constant reminder of focus for the design whilst I’m at ideas stage.
I think that lots of notes and info about the client and the design brief are very important for the design process.
Hi Amanda,
I also highlight important words from time to time. Nice practice you’ve got there.