UX DESIGNER AND STRATEGIST
DESIGNING A TECH COMPANY'S LOGO
Cedrus Digital's rebranded logo wasn't unique enough, and didn't reflect the company's ethos or originality. I set out to represent the company as multifaceted, unique, capable, and trustworthy.
DURATION
1 month
MY ROLES
Graphic Designer, Branding Advocate
OPPORTUNITY
My company's logo had served them well for 7 years, but they wanted to rebrand. An external company designed a new logo. At an internal soft-reveal, our software engineers and security team were quick to point out its close resemblance to other recognizable brands, our sales team disliked the "stock market crash" quality of the downstroke of the R, and our design team disliked the overly sci-fi font and nondescript logo. I set out to make a more distinct logo and font that better embodied the company's values, capabilities, and uniqueness.
Our old logo:
Proposed new logo:
RESEARCH AND REQUIREMENTS
The company wanted a logo that was simple, aggressive, modern, and showed that the company had expertise beyond cloud technology. I thought the logo should be recognizable, unique, trustworthy, and engaging. I was drawn to the imagery inspired by the company's name, Cedrus, after the cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani). I drew heavy inspiration from trees, networks, clouds, and circuits.
LOGO ITERATION
I sketched and brainstormed my preliminary ideas, and reviewed them with the design team, sales team, and engineers. Most comments centered around recognizability, readability, and scalability to smaller sizes. For example, the initial cloud-tree design, composed of 8 smaller clouds, would lose some fidelity when shrunk considerably, so I created a tree with 4 cloud shapes instead. These iterations led to reviews with the CEO, which provided further insight and modifications.
FONT CREATION
After an extensive search for a font everyone could love, I came up empty-handed. I took inspiration from a previous project's much-admired font, and I created a new, custom font to harmonize with this older design.
I named this font Cedar Needle, in honor of the evergreen needles of the tree, and in reference to the font's sharpness.
OUTCOMES
My logos didn't make the final cut, but Cedrus did choose to use the Cedar Needle font for their logo and marketing. I have since also used this font on promotional materials for our sales team and as a title logo for a homegrown app I designed with our Cloud Native team.
