I am breaking this project up into two sections: the first is focusing on the work itself, and the second is a little story of how the project came to be.

Nathan is the CEO of Progressa, a Vancouver-based company focused on personalized debt relief. He reached out to me looking for a "Canadian Owned & Operated" badge for his company to use after seeing a similar badge I had created a few years back.

With current political climate, many Canadian companies have been increasing their brand awareness of being Canadian-based to show patriotism and help customers support local businesses.

The brief was to create something simple and bold to communicate the point clearly. The badge is going to be mainly used on emails and on the website.

I created a maple leaf graphic as part of the badge design. I kept it close to the Canadian flag style to maintain the patriotic connection, but I softened it up a bit with rounded corners and and vertices. This keeps the confidence of the overall design without feeling too formal.

I also provided colour variants of the leaf as an individual elements to be used.

I picked a handful of fonts for Nathan to pick which one had the best look and feel. He ended up going with the Geist version (#2). That was secretly my favourite one so I'm glad he picked it 😁

I used Gotham Bold as the secondary text—we both agreed on that option right off the bat.

I was having fun with some different layouts for the badge design, so I offered a couple different versions in addition to the main badge. He ended up liking this version so I sent it along as well. There is something about this sort of stamp style design that is so simple and satisfying!

The way this opportunity reached me is somewhat of a comical coincidence. We've recently seen Dribbble make moves that have left designers less and less enthusiastic about the platform—their recent change to restricting the exchange of contact info between client and freelancer in a move to keep projects on the platform did not sit well with many designers, leading them to cancel their pro subscriptions and leave the platform entirely.

I mention this to add context because—I kid you not—the day after Dribbble implemented this policy, I got my very first project inquiry on the platform! I've been on Dribbble for years but didn't invest too much time on the platform. I mainly uploaded my logo design work there and called it a day.

Luckily, I was able to find the client by searching up their name and contact them via their work email so I didn't get locked into conducting the project on Dribbble.

Not only was I able to set up the project to Contra (woohoo!), I found out that I actually knew the client! Nathan used to be one of my customers when I worked at a local cafe years ago—what are the chances we would connect years later as fellow Vancouverites to make Canadian Owned & Operated badge? Small world 🌎