During the first COVID lockdown I was approached by Allen Graham, the former Chief Executive of Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottingham. He asked me to create a logo and brand design and a new website for his new consultancy firm, Circling Squares Ltd.

Logo and Brand Design

We kicked off the process with a Zoom meeting (no face-to-face meetings were allowed at the time) and I asked Allen to complete my logo design questionnaire.

From there we were able to agree on a brief, which was to present a modern, professional look that positions Circling Squares as a leader in the sphere of change management and leadership consultancy.

By the end of April 2020, I presented three different options as a first draft. These were accompanied by competitor brand research, positioning statement proposals and, for each design, branded visuals including stationery, a website home page design, a document folder and a promotional banner.

Logo Development

The proposals were favourably received, and we decided to merge elements from two of the logo options to create a third – taking the typestyle, colours and positioning statement from one design and the icon from the other. Further refinements were made and an expanded colour palette was proposed. This was all presented as a second proof with revised brand visuals.

This version was given the green light, and I made a final round of amendments to create horizontal and vertical lock-ups of the design in colour, single-colour and white. Finally, I designed a branded Powerpoint background, a layout for an invoice template and an email signature.

Website Design

In January 2021 we began work on the website. As is often the case, the tricky part was getting the words right. Allen is well used to writing reports and management documents but we needed a slightly less formal style for the website. So I arranged another Zoom call where we discussed his way of working, the different services he offered and the target audiences for each. I then went away and drafted the website copy for his approval.

Once approved, work began on designing the site. We’d already agreed on a homepage layout as part of the logo design process. My original thought had been to create his site in a single-page style, but after our meeting, I decided the site would need to be more expansive.

As a brand new business with no visual assets (ie photography, illustrations etc), I proposed we use high-quality royalty-free stock photography which I would colourise using our orange and grey colour palette. We had intended to commission a photographer to create some boardroom portraits of Allen, but COVID restrictions put that idea on the back burner – we may revisit that later.

Allen was keen to include a blog on his site, as he has a long track record of writing articles for the business community. I made sure the blog part of his site was simple to use and created him a how-to video that walked through the process of adding articles to the site via the WordPress dashboard.

The Circling Squares site went live in June 2021.

If you would like a logo design and website for your new venture, get in touch below, or call on 01530 588110.