About the Brand
All African Export & Consulting Services (AAECS or All African for short) is a brand in the Cargo Import and Export business. They deal in goods export & consultation, vehicle export, and waste & renewable energy consulting. Their goal is to be the biggest shipping hub & the most effective consulting firm for the African Business.
Project Overview
I was approached by the client to create a brand identity that represents the brand's core values, creating a brand that is "accountable" and "reliable".
With a methodological approach to research and design - from background research to one-on-one design-client discovery discuss, to mind-mapping, to basic pencil sketches to evaluation of results and further careful refinement - I was able to understand my client's vision for the brand, together with the reviews from a few of my client's existing customers to create an identity that is symbolic of the brand's values and distinguishes the brand from the existing competition in the market.
Concluding the project, I was able to deliver the brand's logo with a detailed identity system and a few branded stationery items, setting up the brand for launch.
Logo Rationale
Trust and reliability forms the core philosophy of the brand - AAECS. With this in mind, I explored an abstract representation of a man-in-suit which is common with a business professional, trusted corporate personnel and sometimes a waiter or a valet.
This depicts service, trust, reliability and competence.
Brand Wordmark
The full brand name seemed too long to fit into a precise, responsive, scalable, adaptive and memorable identity, to solve that, separated the root word (All African) from the descriptor (Export & Consulting Services) and created a custom wordmark based on the root word All African".
I further created a responsive lockup of the initials "AA" together with the yellow dot in between.
The rationale behind this logo is presented just below this section.
All African is
Her voice (messaging) is
Effective branding is more than the looks, it is what the user feels when they experience the brand.
Identity System
The typography, color palette and brand pattern where inspired by brand values and were selected to maintain a consistent brand image.
An Alternative Concept
For this option, I drew inspiration from the brand’s tagline
- delivering quality across oceans. My goal here was to create symbolic elements from the idea to form a balanced logomark for AAECS.
- delivering quality across oceans. My goal here was to create symbolic elements from the idea to form a balanced logomark for AAECS.
The logo elements include; A partially completed hexagon to
symbolize trust and security. A wavy curve to depict the ocean and intercontinental service. A star, depicting excellence and quality.
symbolize trust and security. A wavy curve to depict the ocean and intercontinental service. A star, depicting excellence and quality.
The star hovers over the waves depicting delivery of
quality across continents.
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