What The HEC! How We Designed a New Brand

In May 2015, a new client approached us with an ambitious project.  He had just put together a business plan to launch a new networking organization geared towards the Hospitality, Entertainment, and Cuisine industries.  All he had was the concept and the name HEC.

Our initial consultation delved into his vision for the organization, his aesthetics in terms of style and colors, and his marketing plan. From this conversation we determined that his design needs, in order of priority were: Business Logo, Business Cards, Sales Cards, Racks Cards, Forms, Website Images, Banners, and copy for all materials.
The client’s approach to building his organization was “inviting colleagues to join me for food and drink and exploring ways to foster mutual growth in our local market”.  It was simple, yet elegant and strong.  He requested that we incorporate the color orange and left the rest up to us.

The Logo & Business Card Design
The name HEC felt exciting so we added an exclamation mark to the end of HEC! When the client saw the exclamation point, he wondered about changing it to a cocktail sword. That interactive process unlocked the foundation for the logo and the rest of the branding designs.

The concept evolved into a sword with an olive at the end to create excitement in the Cuisine industry and that provided the baseline of colors:  Green and Orange. Next, we wrapped “Hospitality, Entertainment, and Cuisine” in an orange ribbon and put the word Network below it to complete the logo design.