Collaborative Branding 04 - Sans Serif experimentation

Two of Vignelli's given fonts are sans fonts are Helvetica and Futura, this post will show the experimentation I did for both. 

 Helvetica

Left are the iterations of the re-branding I did varying weights, tracking distance, obliques and cases of Helvetica. With the sans serif typeface I thought to try and put the 'First' beneath 'Heat' to see the end effect. Also, the contrast between bold and light character styles works better in sans serif as it displays a more uniform contrast.

Futura

Right are the iterations I experimented with Futura. What worked well in my opinion were the block capitals. They created an impact full presence that may or may not be suitable to Help-Link's company image. Since they have quite an active relationship with the consumer, a more 'approachable' or 'friendlier' font should be used. Basically, to use lowercase rather than all block capitals.

The idea to experiment with just the outline of one half of 'HeatFirst' came after reading this article http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/julia-tunica-magazine. 

The outlined type as seen above contrasted well with the roman font. I found that it subtly drew my attention towards the center of the page. So when applied towards my own iterations I felt that it worked really well and was becoming a contender for the final logo design. Part of it was because we saw the company wanting to emphasise being first in their practices and values. By having just the outline against the bold words it would let customers know that they're the 'first' to attend to your issues and hopefully the first you would call. However one issue we thought that needed to be included was the link between the two. Due to the nature of Help-Link's job, installing central heating and the interaction with their consumers go hand in hand. The black and white contrasts fail to represent that. 

To try and unify the two words together I added colour to the brand name. Unfortunately the desired effect didn't come through. The black and white iteration worked well because it resembled the clean and minimal modernist aesthetic and had a greater effect in contrast. However adding colour did work on the previous experimentation's of Helvetica and Futura. Blue was already part of the original logo, it represents gas and the decision to make it lighter symbolises the friendly and open nature of the company.  

Here is a mock up I did of one of the colour iterations super imposed onto Help-Link's website. Due to Helvetica's higher x-height, the re-branded logo looks more noticeable along with its contrasting hues of blue.