Aerospace start-up receives professional brand identity
a professional project for Enter Space
The challenge: Develop a unique, distinct visual identity for a new aerospace start-up that expresses both the ambition and professionalism of this group.
The solution: I developed a logo, website and other visual assets that presented a unified vision of the company’s product. These assets set a foundation for how the company could present itself professionally and included easy to use items for future use and development.
The process: Over the course of one month, I worked closely with the company Enter Space to develop their brand identity. We identified key features of their product – a modular three stage space craft that can deliver payloads to low earth orbit for research and exploration purposes, while reducing the overall launch cause through innovative horizontal take off and reusable stages – we wanted to highlight within their brand. These features included recyclability, the number three, and the shape of the flight path being annular. As the company did not have much experience in the formal practice of visual design, care was taken to involve the client at every stage to educate them as to why decisions were being made as they were, as well as how they might utilise these tools as the company continues to develop.
By the end of the project, I was able to deliver a set of assets including:
- Logo
- Branding Guidelines
- Stationary
- Website
The methodology: Employing a cyclical design process akin to the ADDIE method, I began developing this brand identity first through research. This process included building a persona of who is participating in both the aerospace sector and start up sector, and how they are already being marketed to.
After this initial research, I moved onto sketching and refining various logo concepts which focussed on a variety of base shapes, typography and Gestalt visual basics.
The selection of logos was presented to the client and their team for consideration. Based on the discussions the client and I had at this point, we finalised the logo design and brand name, as well as began our introductory version of the brand guidelines. The logo we ultimately delivered had two distinct elements – a playful, semi futuristic font in the company name, and the logo object itself – an illusion to both planetary orbit and a molecular body to demonstrate the ambitions of the company.
Once a final logo and brand book were delivered, the choices made thus far could be used to develop the other assets in this project. Because the company is so young and would be meeting potential investors and partners, the main focus of this stage of the project was to ensure that what I developed presented a united, professional vision of the brand, while also serving as a visual aid during informal presentations. For example, the module’s flight path was simplified onto the back of the business card. This same shape was repeated throughout the stationary.
The website I developed for the client was certainly the largest deliverable asset after the initial brand development. This site needed to accomplish a few goals of its own: ease of use for non-developers to utilise after handover, dynamic content that could be expressed well on many devices, and short but poignant content that could drive a larger conversation while validating the professional capabilities of the client group and their proposed product. The choices made with the design of this website were a direct reaction to these goals and the choices already established with the client in the branding guidelines.
The evaluation: Measuring how effective the visual identity I created came from two primary sources: written and verbal feedback from the client on their understanding and embrace of the brand as a whole; and the ability of the client to action the brand choices in the form of developing their own assets (the client’s pitch deck is an example of this). The client has repeatedly been able to utilise the visual identity as laid out during this design process to foster and grow what is fast becoming a promising venture into the Australian space sector.