The Design Brief

Customer: South Coast Squared

Type of business: Social / News platform

Existing Website?: N/A

Existing Logo?: N/A

Existing Branding?: N/A

New startup social platform SCS were looking for an identity that their audience could easily recognise as a leader in local news on lifestyle and events around the UK south coast area.

My initial thoughts for this identity were to play with geometry and illusion. I like the Escher-eque ‘view from different angles’ design to find hidden elements. However, what came across stronger to my client and the few unbiased Instagram users I asked, the logo that prevailed is this icon.

Funnily enough, I hadn’t added this final design to the original proposal as I didn’t feel it was strong enough, only for the client to come back and say, “I liked the cuboid-looking icon next to the illusion sketch. Can you explore that version further?”

As is quite easy to see, the logo is based around a cube shape. ‘Squared’ brings to mind unity, building blocks, strength, and containment. I wanted to expand this squared concept into its 3D form to create a more dynamic mark that simultaneously looks clean and contemporary.