Intermark Steel is a steel fabrication company that specializes in creating quality stairs and railings. When I was approached about creating a new website for them, new branding was a must. While their current logo was good, and fit the company well, it looked outdated, and wasn’t very web-friendly. I first set out to update the logo with 3 main goals in mind:

It must be visually iconic, and incorporate a distinct product element (stairs, rails, misc. metals etc.) in the typography.

It must be simple, something that can be easily printed, sewn, or laser cut.

It must be versatile, something that can be put on any background, or has different appearances that allow it to do so.

With these goals in mind, I began my process of researching, ideation, refinement, expansion, and implementation.

After doing some basic research on the company and the industry, I began exploring some basic logo concepts. Since the company specializes in stairs, I wanted to find a way to incorporate a stair visual into the typography. I also experimented with making the whole logo look like a steel beam, rather than just the “I”. By the end of my exploration, I was satisfied, but not quite settled. I was missing something…

After reviewing the initial concepts with Matt Blaser, President and CEO, I learned the significance of the original logo, and why it hadn’t been changed. Matt created the old logo in Blue Beam CAD software, and it turns out the original “I” is the exact proportions of an I beam in real life! I realized that I needed to keep that beam in my concept moving forward.

With the importance of the I-beam in mind, I set out to develop a more iconic look. I began by digitizing the original beam, and trying to give it a more defined color scheme. No matter what I did with it, it didn’t look enough like an “I” (at least with the typeface I was using) so I took some creative license, and made the flanges quite a bit thicker. That did the trick, but the stairs still looked wrong.

I kept exploring different ways of implementing a stair design, including what I thought was an clever use of the “K”. However, I ultimately ended up right where I started with the “E”. I ended up going through many variations of the “E”, but they all looked wrong. Eventually, it hit me that the gaps could act as negative space, so it looked like stairs being viewed from an angle (as opposed to a side view). I finally had my design!

While the gray color palette fits the “metal” theme, it doesn’t work well for standing out or calling attention. But how to add a splash of color without losing the strong, durable aesthetic I had developed? I puzzled over this question for a while, when it struck me that the aesthetics need to be based on the shop, not the steel itself. Hence, the blue welding colors entered the picture.

The vehicle wraps utilize elements from stairs and railing, while maintaining visual hierarchy. They feature the grayscale color palette, in order to maintain a solid, “steely” aesthetic. Additionally, the design is versatile, and can easily be transposed on a darker truck (or van or any number of vehicles) with only a few minor changes.

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