How is a logo made?

• Partnership
• Collaboration
• Trust
• Empathy
• Perseverance
• Skill
• Craftsmanship

A strong brand is a critical component for any business – it quickly communicates your company’s story, differentiates you from the competition, sets the standard and starting point for all communications, and provides a consistent and familiar platform for audience engagement.

Partnership and Collaboration

The growth, innovation, and brand strategists at UPLAND partnered with Q LTD to rebrand Pelton Shepherd, a third-generation family-operated business providing cold chain supply technology for food service and pharmaceuticals.

UPLAND began working with Pelton Shepherd as the company was poised to accelerate their growth and stature within the fast-growing cold chain industry. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in even more demand for refrigerants and cold chain solutions, so the timing for the new brand was especially relevant.

The Q team began with a deep dive into the research and positioning UPLAND provided. We reviewed the brand landscape, the competition, and current and historical Pelton Shepherd marketing assets. Our initial concepts explored a range of symbols and color palettes centered around hot, cold, ice, cold chain, and temperature. In addition we explored a variety of typefaces. Our hundreds of sketches were whittled down to three initial concepts.

Trust, Empathy, and Perseverance

Together with GrowthWorks and Pelton Shepherd, we worked through five significant design iterations, meeting on a regular (virtual) basis to assess the work, gather feedback, and listen carefully to what the company owners and their marketing director hoped to achieve with the new brand identity. Our team also collaborated with GrowthWorks on tagline exploration and product line naming.

Design elicits emotions and ultimately reflects the personality and spirit of a company. We wanted to balance the brand equity of their existing symbol with the need for something new and different.

Throughout the refinement stage, trust, empathy, and perseverance are critical. Everyone wants a successful solution and all team members bring their opinions and insights into the mix. Each comment is thoughtfully assessed, but a logo can’t be built by a committee.

Skill and Craftsmanship

The final symbol echoes Pelton Shepherd’s past while incorporating new imagery. The primary brand retains the red/blue color palette and square shape. Red/blue signals hot and cold and positions Pelton Shepherd as an American company. The old “droplet” icon was transformed into a thermometer that complements the tagline, “Trusted when temperature matters.” Starburst lines add energy, innovation, and urgency to the mark. The san serif typeface brings a modern look to the Pelton Shepherd name and marketing communications.

The product line logos mimic the primary brand and use complementary secondary color palettes. The repeating theme of the taglines – “TRUSTED WHEN…” – brings consistency to the brand family.

The overall brand impression is smart, active, and trusted.

See more of the work.

– Christine