Contractor Logo And Branding
Custom logo design and brand identity for contractors.
CONTRACTOR LOGO DESIGN
Creating a solid representation of your brand
VISUAL BRAND IDENTITY FOR CONTRACTORS
Establishing a brand is essential for any contractor positioning themselves in the marketplace.
Your brand and logo say a lot about who you are as a contractor.
The right combination of fonts, colors, and imagery creates a strong visual identity that is memorable and instills trust.
Branding is more than just a logo or a website, it encompasses the essence of your contracting business.
Your logo is often the first impression people have of your company. People you want to connect with are going to make judgments about the quality of you as a contractor based solely on your logo. Does your current logo accurately represent the quality of your organization and brand? Are you making the best possible first impression?
VISUAL IDENTITY FOR CONTRACTORS
The main components of visual identity are logo, color, typography, and images.
Logo
A logo is what identifies your brand using a particular mark, type design, or both. The most effective logos tend to be fairly simple—something viewers will recognize and remember.
Every element of your logo contributes to your brand identity, including your font choice, colors, and other imagery. Change even one of these elements, and it can have a big impact on the way your brand is perceived.
Color
Color helps define your brand in a very powerful way. Not only does it make a strong impression on the viewer, but it also creates a sense of unity when used across multiple projects or platforms.
Most brands derive their main colors directly from the company logo. Additional colors can help you expand the main palette and further define your brand's personality and style.
Typography
Text is one of the simpler aspects of visual identity, but it can be surprisingly expressive. All it takes is a different font, and you can subtly (or not so subtly) change the entire feel of your brand.
Most brands choose two to three fonts—often inspired by the logo—for basic, everyday use. Creative fonts should also be chosen with care and should be a reflection of your unique visual identity.
Images
Images are a huge part of building a unique identity. Every photo, graphic, icon, and button is a chance to showcase your brand and shape the way it's perceived.
In professional settings, images are usually created specifically for the brand; for instance, pictures in a catalog or graphics in an app.
Types Of Contractor Logos
The styles of most logos can be broken down into five distinct categories:
emblems / combination marks / brand marks / letter marks / wordmarks
CHOOSING A LOGO STYLE FOR YOUR CONTRACTING BUSINESS
Although most logos are a combination of imagery, graphics, and typography, it’s worth noting that every style impacts your brand in its own unique way.
Since your logo is often the first thing a new customer will see, you need to make sure that you get it right.
The styles of most logos can be broken down into five distinct categories: emblems, combination marks, brand marks, letter marks, and wordmarks.
The Wordmark Logo
A wordmark, or “logotype”, is one of the simplest ways to begin creating a logo for your contracting business. It involves using your company name in a specific type of text.
The best way to make the most out of your wordmark is with a custom font that can work as part of your brand recognition strategy. Famous examples include Disney, Coca-Cola, Facebook, and Google.
A wordmark can be a great choice for a new contracting business because it helps to spread your name throughout your market. It also conveys a sense of stability and confidence. However, a long name may be difficult for your audience to remember.
The Lettermark Logo
Similar to a wordmark, the letter mark, or “monogram logo”, is another text-based solution for creating a contractor logo, based on the initials of the company, rather than the full name.
IMDb stands for Internet Movie Database. Some other famous examples include CNN, IGN, HBO, and even NASA.
A letter mark logo is often the ideal choice for companies who have names too long to remember or pronounce easily.
It can also be ideal for big companies who have grown out of the need to use their entire name.
The Brandmark Logo
Known to some as a “pictorial” logo, the brandmark doesn’t contain any text at all.
Instead, it’s all about creating a brand logo with an image, symbol, or icon that represents the fundamental nature of the brand.
Consider the Apple silhouette, for example, the Twitter bird, the Nike Swoosh, or the Houzz logo above.
A brandmark is great for building relationships with an audience because the brain is more responsive to pictures than written text.
However, the value of a brandmark relies on your audience’s ability to perceive what the picture means. The last thing you want to do is confuse people. Our motto here is: when you confuse, you lose.
The Combinationmark Logo
As its name might suggest, a combination mark uses a collection of symbols and wordmarks.
For instance, famous examples include Microsoft, Doritos, Xbox, Adidas, McDonald’s, or Salesforce logo above.
Known to some as “iconic” logotypes, these visual elements focus on creating a brand logo that combines creativity with clarity.
Because you get a brand name, and an image, you can establish an emotional connection with your audience, while improving awareness and recognition at the same time.
Plus, the complexity of these logos makes them far easier to trademark.
The Emblem
Finally, similarly to a combination mark, an emblem involves both symbols and text, but in these cases, the text is located within the symbol.
For instance, famous examples include Ford, Starbucks, UPS, NFL, and featured above is WordPress.
An emblem is a less flexible solution to creating a brand logo than a combination mark because the elements are harder to separate.
However, they can offer an air of authority and history to a modern-day brand.
5 FACTORS
To Consider When Creating A Contractor Logo
Branding Your Contracting Business
Three Core Phases of Branding
Brand Strategy
The blueprint for how you want the world to see your contracting business.
Brand Strategy is a critical and foundational piece for building a successful brand. It’s one of the areas that most businesses overlook because they jump right into marketing.
Brand Identity
The way that you convey your brand's visuals, messaging, and experience.
Your brand identity should be applied across all channels consistently to become recognizable. This includes your logo, colors and fonts, website design, content, advertising, print or packaging, and more.
Brand Marketing
The way that contractors highlight and bring awareness to products or services by connecting values and voice to the right audience through strategic communication.
Choosing the right brand marketing strategy is essential for a successful contractor.
Contractor Brand Identity
When you begin the branding process, what you’re attempting to create is an identity.
What is Brand Identity for Contractors?
This is the way you want the world to see your contracting business. It encompasses all the concepts from logos to branding.
A brand identity is the result of a consistent branding strategy.
It includes all the touchpoints your contracting business uses to express your core values and overall image.
Brand identities encompass a variety of items that all serve a unique purpose to become memorable and highlight what your stand for.
Your brand identity is what sets you apart from the endless sea of competitors and shows your customers who you are and what they can expect from working with you.
If you want your brand to be perceived in a positive light, it’s crucial that you nail your brand identity and create designs that accurately portrays who your contracting business is to employees, partners, and clients.
Your Logo
The most outward visual representation of your brand identity
Non-visual
Radio ads, podcasts, and any other audio communications
Marketing Materials
Visual materials on your website, advertisements, brochures, and flyers
Signage
Interior and exterior signage for your contracting business
Business Materials
Invoices, documents, presentations, business cards, and more
Messaging
Communication with your audience, either directly or indirectly
Packaging
Packaging design and material need to fit your brand image
Vehicle Wraps
Boost brand awareness by turn your work truck into a rolling billboard
5 KEY ELEMENTS
To Branding Your Contracting Business
What is Branding for Contractors?
As a contractor, you should not put all the weight of your brand on your logo.
Your brand is the complete story of what you want to communicate about your business, and the perception that you leave in the hearts and minds of your audience.
That’s why before you even think about creatives, logos, or marketing – you must have clarity on what your brand truly includes.
Brand Identity
Your brand identity is the representation of your brand, it could be a visual representation like a name or a logo.
Brand Positioning
Your contractor marketing strategy is the key to your brand positioning, it is the place you occupy in the minds of clients and how you differ from the competition.
Brand Communication
Your brand should express the core values and benefits of you working with your company. This needs to be done regularly through your marketing initiatives.
Brand Perception
Your brand needs to occupy the minds of your local market. Brand perception can be properly managed with your website, publications, interviews, articles, etc.
Brand Promise
Your brand value gets stronger in the mind of your clients when you deliver on your promise. What can you guarantee can you make to show you are the best?
BUILD YOUR BRAND
Make it easy for clients to choose you.
Logo Design & Brand Identity
In an oversaturated market, clients can be overwhelmed with options.
What drives success and differentiates one contractor from another is branding.
A well-designed brand creates an experience, cultivates community, and amplifies client demand.
Our Brand Design Services Include:
- Brand Development
- Visual Communication
- Logo Design
- Digital Collateral Design
- Print Collateral Design
Logo Design
This includes any identifiable company logos; your primary logo, any secondary logos, custom marks and/or brand icons.
Brand Identity
This includes custom color palettes, typography styling, font pairings and hierarchy, color usage guidelines, and any other details that define the tone and mood of your brand.
ILLUSTRATIVE DEVICES
This can be custom brand patterns or textures, custom illustrations, or additional brand imagery such as stock photography consulting/curation or custom brand photography consulting to aid in brand recognition.
PRINT MARKETING ASSETS
Any items to assist in your brand’s marketing through the use of printed items; business cards, brand stationery, packaging, signage, or physical products.
DIGITAL MARKETING ASSETS
Any items to assist in your brand’s marketing via digital platforms such as social media, online directories, email marketing, and other online advertising; social media graphics, social media templates, profile and cover photos, email marketing templates, and beyond.
BRAND STYLE GUIDE
This includes any identifiable company logos; your primary logo, any secondary logos, custom marks and/or brand icons.
Our Contractor Logo Design & Brand Development Process
No proprietary nonsense, false promises, or lies.
Honest, ethical work, done right.
Our Process is why it works.
What can you expect from the Digital Tradesman logo design and branding process?
A few elements that come to mind are research, strategy, and trust.
Your goals and objectives come first.
Your project is unique from every other project and requires a trusting relationship, thoughtful approach, and unique strategy.
Our contractor branding packages are designed to provide you with the perfect foundation to meet your immediate design needs while providing you with the right tools and resources to support your brand as your contracting business continues to grow.
All brand design projects take between 4 – 6 weeks to complete (completely dependent upon client response time and project scope.)
Digital Tradesman Logo & Branding Process
- Logo Discovery & Research
- Creative Logo Design & Brand Development
- Reviewing, Revising, & Finalizing Your Logo
- Architecture & Guidelines
- Brand Launch & Implementation
Logo Discovery & Research
During the contractor logo research and discovery process, our top priority is learning everything about your company.
We immerse ourselves in your business and gather insights from all the perspectives that interact with your brand.
Our team is committed to uncovering perceptions and insights so we can create a logo and brand that not only looks amazing but resonates with your audience: employees, clients, or other contractors.
We’ll dive into everything from company history, competition, target audiences, and focus on what makes you unique and differentiates you from your competition.
All of this information will be used so we can deliver a logo design and create your brand.
Creative Logo Design & Brand Development
After assessing all of the information captured during the logo discovery and research process, we start on the logo design and development process.
The logo design process begins with sketching, brainstorming, and of course, many many logo iterations.
We develop logo concepts and start narrowing in on what designs accurately capture your brand.
We then select initial logo concepts and dive into font treatments, colors, and brand architecture to see how your logo will look across your organization.
This is where things start to come to life.
Reviewing, Revising, & Finalizing Your Logo
We present final logo design concepts to you, along with logo variations, font treatments, and color palette options, and explorations.
To put things into context, we dive into what your logo will look like in real life.
These might include mockups for t-shirts, vehicles, print ads, yard signs, or other instances where you'd like to see your new logo.
We present all of these options and ideas for your consideration along with the rationale of reason.
It’s a very collaborative approach where we discuss thoughts, reactions, and feedback so we can adjust the logo options to meet your needs.
Brand Architecture & Guidelines
Brand architecture, or the way multiple brands align within your organization, should be considered as you think about your brand image, marketing efforts, and the overall general impression of your organization.
Digital Tradesman will help you determine the best brand architecture and alignment strategy for your organization.
We learn in great detail about each brand, including strengths and weaknesses, competition, current market position, as well as short-term and long-term objectives.
Brand Launch & Implementation
During this phase, we finalize any aspects of the logo based on any feedback gathered during the presentation.
We will finalize the logo concepts, develop a style guide that lists everything you need to know about your brand, and prep final logo files.
Once the style guide is complete, it’s time to start implementing your new logo.
We create a custom identity kit that includes business cards, envelopes, letterheads, and everything you need to start promoting your new brand.
We work with you to prioritize what items are updated or developed first and continue implementing your new logo and brand identity.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About Contractor Websites
A custom brand style guide complete with all brand standards (typography, color codes, usage guidelines and styling notes) to help keep your brand usage consistent and on-brand.
Every project is unique, so we always like to schedule an introduction call to meet and discuss in detail your unique design needs, business goals, and see if we are the right team for you. Then we’ll create a custom project proposal and quote unique to you and your project. However, most of our brand projects fall within the $3-6k range.
Do you offer any a la carte design services?
Not at this time. We only offer full rebrands, complete site builds, or redesigns. However, we do offer separate, stand-alone projects to existing clients that have previously completed a brand and/or website with us.
How many other clients do we work with at a time?
In order to provide the level of quality and dedication that we believe our clients deserve, we only work with a handful of clients every month on their branding. This allows us to work much more intimately with our clients and move much faster as our response time is sooner and our ability yo implement changes or edits is almost immediate
Do you offer payment plans?
Yes. Working with a professional designer can be a significant investment, so we work to make payments as simple as possible for our clients. Most brand projects are paid in two installments, while website projects or combo brand and website projects can be broken down into 3, 4, or 6 payments. All payments are due before the completion of your project.
How long does each package take?
Every Brand Design project takes approximately 3 – 4 weeks to complete; completely dependent upon client response time and project scope.
What is included in each package?
All of our brand packages include a set number of logo designs, collateral items, and design revisions. You can expand upon our starting package in order to create the perfect brand package for your business.
How do we communicate through the design process?
We will have two initial design meetings before we begin any design work, followed by unlimited email, phone, and video call support during the duration of your design project’s timeline.
How will I receive each design phase?
You will receive logos and mockups in a number of different formats. We will meet so you can comment on each phase. Our goal is to provide complete clarity and transparency as we move through the design process.
What files are included in each brand package?
All final logo designs come in all popular file formats, including JPG, PDF, PNG, AI, EPS, and SVG files. Depending on your specific package additional files may be included for your brand collateral items.
Are the files editable?
Logo designs, business cards, social media graphics and all brand collateral will include editable files.
Who orders my business cards?
You are responsible for ordering any printing of your brand collateral items including business cards, stationery, stickers, etc… but we are happy to assist you in placing these orders at the end of your project if you would like our assistance.
How will I receive my final files?
You will receive your digital design files and images in all popular file formats in a shared Google drive folder for easy download. For all US-based clients, you’ll also receive a hard copy of your design files via a personal USB drive mailed to you by Digital Tradesman at the completion of your project.
How much work do I have to do upfront before my project?
Every branding package requires you to fill out our Brand Questionnaire and to add images to our shared Google drive folder. This must be completed by you before your project start date.
What do I need to have ready by my project start date?
Be sure to have your professional email address, professional phone number (if relevant) and any other contact information or marketing media such as brand photography or headshots prepared before our design start date.