Archive

Government 2.0 Taskforce logo

I recently entered a logo design competition for the Government 2.0 Taskforce and they picked the entry you see above.

The Taskforce is made up of policy and technical experts and entrepreneurs. Its aims are to promote openness, transparency and innovation in government to make public sector information more widely available, and to encourage online engagement to draw information, knowledge, perspectives, resources and even - where possible - the active collaboration of anyone wishing to contribute to public life.

That’s a pretty big brief for a Taskforce, and it formed the brief for the actual logo. I entered two versions, including the one above in two variations. The idea behind the circles is about conversations and interactions popping up around the country, with the ‘water pools’ evoking ‘ripple effect’, harmonising with each other and rippling through each other.  The colours imply variety, optimism and vitality.

The Workforce Guardian identity

The Workforce Guardian logo features a double-shield design in blue-and-green freshness with a contemporary approachable typeface.

Workforce Guardian is an online application to help businesses hire, manage and exit employees. It’s geared towards small businesses who usually don’t have the time or the legal expertise to confidently produce legally bullet-proof employment contracts and to deal with many HR-related issues that larger companies with an HR department can deal with.

The design of this logo involved distilling a brand exploration exercise with the key business stakeholders and a marketing consultant into a pure statement of Workforce Guardian’s brand: employment relations expertise when you need it. Since the Workforce Guardian product is an online application, it was tempting to follow the path of many Web 2.0-ish design trends, but the company character and its target audiences were very different from, say, YouTube and Facebook.

The double-shield represents Workforce Guardian working with their customers, protecting the rights of both employer and employee. The green colour moves the tone away from being too conservative and - with employment relations legislation being a hot topic in the news at the time - too political.