Blist Changes Their Identity to Socrata
By Michael Church | November 20th, 2009
The owner of Socrata is a repeat client of mine and when it came time for his company Blist to shift it’s business model, it was time for me to create a new brand identity. This project is a very good example of my process in creating a brand identity.
Discovery
As with all creative projects there is a Discovery phase. This is where I sit down (or get on the phone) with the client and discuss goals and objectives. When I create a brand/logo, I like to know what the company does and who they do it for. I like to know key words, messages and buzz phrases. I take all this information and begin the task of creating a logo that is both representative of the company and communicates a strong brand message.
Round One
With Socrata, and all clients, I begin the process of exploring different fonts, font treatments and marks. I typically develop 3-6 logos based on the Discovery conversation. One of the key messages with Socrata was “Making Data Social”. I took that message and tried to play off the concept of data and social icons. I also played with taking a standard font and customizing it.
Round Two
After presenting the initial 6 comps, we decided that an all lower-case font would not be appropriate for their demographic. We focused this next round on a serif font and played of the waves of a logo in the first round. We wanted to see what the logo would look like using the concept of the standard RSS icon.
Round Three
After presenting these concepts it helped Socrata circle back to the sans-serif font. We felt that it would speak to a more professional audience. We also decided that the RSS concept was the wrong path. We wanted focus more on the data aspect of the company. So, I developed some more marks that represented social media and a play off of bar and pie charts.
Final Logo
This last round resulted in Socrata zeroing in on one logo. It clicked.
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