Your Dsposal Branding + isometric illustration

Existing client Dsposal, had noticed their commercial site for the waste management sector was receiving a lot of domestic traffic. Consequently, they decided to set-up a separate non-profit social enterprise information site for domestic users. They were seeking a local graphic design agency in Manchester to develop their branding, so contacted Superfried.

For the new brand, it was essential to avoid confusion with the existing identity. It would need to immediately convey what the service is and who it is for. To achieve this would require quite a direct strategy and approach.

The most literal symbol for domestic life is a house and for waste, the classic bin icon – now common place on every digital screen. Whilst researching both, it became apparent that the latter could potentially resemble the entrance to a home. Further investigation and development led to a strong, logical and descriptive solution. For brand consistency the typography was to follow on from their existing brand, Dsposal.

With the brand identity design established, it was time to address the illustration work. Since the artwork would be a key component of the branding, it felt logical to hold fire on the palette research to ensure there would be no colour constraints during the development of the illustration.

For reference I reviewed the elaborate illustration we had previously created for their main brand. It would be a lot of work, but to maintain consistency I could not resist developing another miniature world. Like before, an Escher inspired, isometric, optical illusion based direction was adopted. Once again extreme detail was applied – the closer you delve into the world, the more the story is revealed.

Once complete, it was now far easier to establish a suitable palette that would work with the brand led illustration. To maintain an element across the brands, and a connection to the environment it was logical to retain the green. Adjacent, citrus tones led to the use of the vibrant yellow. Lastly there was the tricky secondary brand colour. It was here that the use of opposite colours directed us towards the strong and underrated option of purple.