Digital / 11
Branding for construction businesses
A brand for a contractor is not a mood board. It is a mark that survives being cut into vinyl on a truck door. It is a colour a signwriter can match without calling you, and a proposal template your office can fill in without a designer.
Built for the surfaces a contractor uses
A contractor's brand lives on trucks, signs, hard hats, hi-vis vests, proposals and site boards. Some of those surfaces are read from across a road, others from across a desk. Other people produce those surfaces: a signwriter, a printer, an embroiderer, a web developer.
So the work is finished when every one of those surfaces has an artwork file, a specified colour and a written rule. Each of those people should then be able to produce the same result from the same documents, without a conversation.
What you receive
Everything is delivered as files and written values, not as a presentation. The list is fixed, and each item is named so you can check it off at handover.
- The name, written one way
- How the business name is written on every surface. With or without the legal suffix, with or without the trade descriptor, and how it is shortened when a panel is small. One written form, agreed at the start, so the truck and the proposal say the same thing.
- The mark and its system
- A primary mark, a stacked and a horizontal version, a single colour version and a reversed version for dark grounds. Each carries a clear space rule and a minimum size. Each is tested at the sizes it will really appear: a truck door, a hard hat sticker, a site board, an email signature and a browser tab.
- A palette in exact values
- Hex for screen, CMYK for print, and a named match for cut vinyl and for paint. Written on one page, so a signwriter and a printer produce the same colour without asking you which blue.
- A type system, locked
- Named typefaces with weights, sizes and spacing for headings, body, labels and figures. The licence position for each face is written down: desktop, web, and whether the file may be sent to a print shop.
- The proposal and capability deck template
- A cover, an about page, a capability list by trade, a project page layout, a people page and a closing page. Safety, bonding and references each get a slot for the information you hold. Built in the document and presentation applications your office already runs, with styles set so a new page matches the old ones.
- Vehicle and signage artwork files
- Print ready and cut ready artwork for each vehicle panel, the site board, the yard sign and the office sign. Each is laid out to the dimensions you supply, with text converted to outlines and colours called out on the file.
- Workwear artwork
- The mark set up for embroidery and for heat transfer on hard hats, vests, shirts and jackets. Where stitching would fill in fine detail, the simplified version is specified instead.
- The brand rules document
- A short document somebody will read: the name rule, the mark, the colours, the type, the templates, and the specific things nobody should do. Written for the person ordering a sign, not for a designer.
Colour and type decisions, and how they are taken
The choices are made against the surfaces, not against a mood board.
- Colour is chosen against vinyl and paint first
- The main colour is picked from the cut vinyl and sign paint ranges a signwriter can supply, then matched back to screen and print. The screen value follows the vinyl, not the other way round.
- Contrast is checked at distance and on a screen
- The palette is checked for a truck door read from across a road and for a website read at arm's length. It carries a combination that works for each, and both are written into the rules.
- One typeface family where possible
- We keep to one family where we can, so there are fewer licences to record, fewer files to send to a printer and fewer ways for a new document to drift. Weights do the work that a second face would otherwise do.
- Figures are set to line up
- Proposals and schedules of values carry columns of figures. The type system specifies tabular figures, so columns align in a bid document without manual spacing.
What is included, and what is not
Stated here rather than discovered at handover.
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| The name rule, the mark set, the palette and the type system, as files and written values | Trademark searches, registration, or legal advice on the name |
| The proposal and capability deck template, set up for your office to edit | Writing the proposal content itself, unless you also engage bid and proposal support |
| Vehicle, signage and workwear artwork, laid out to the dimensions you supply | Printing, vinyl cutting, embroidery or installation, and any site visit to measure |
| The brand rules document, with the things nobody should do listed | Ongoing design work after handover, unless agreed as a separate scope |
| Profile images and headers for the platforms you use | Running the accounts, which is the social media service |
| A written fee and scope before any design starts, in United States dollars | Stock construction photography presented as your work |
From first call to live
The sequence is fixed. Each step ends with something you can see, and nothing moves on until you have agreed the last one.
- 01
Brief and inventory
A call about who you sell to, what you bid, and where the brand appears. You send the name as you want it written, any existing files, photographs of the trucks, signs and workwear, and your last proposal.
- 02
Fee and scope in writing
The surfaces to be covered, the files to be delivered and the fee, stated in United States dollars, before any design starts. You approve it, then work begins.
- 03
Name rule, mark and colour
The written form of the name is agreed first. Then the mark is developed and shown at truck door, hard hat and browser tab size, in the candidate colours, so the decision is taken on real surfaces.
- 04
Type, templates and artwork
The type system is locked and the licence position recorded. The proposal template, the vehicle and signage artwork and the workwear files are then built from the agreed mark and colours.
- 05
Rules document and proof
The brand rules document is written. Before handover, a proof of each artwork file is checked at its real size, with colours called out, and the template is opened on your own machines.
- 06
Handover and first orders
You receive the files in the formats a signwriter, a printer, an embroiderer and a web developer ask for. If you want, the first sign or vehicle order is checked against the rules before it goes to production.
Why this sits next to an estimating business
Estimating and web design sit in the same firm, so the proposal template is built around the scope and the fee. The capability list is organised by trade and by CSI division, in the language of the bid documents rather than in marketing categories.
It also connects to bid and proposal support. A lump sum proposal or a schedule of values prepared there drops into the template without reformatting. The bid, the proposal and the submittal cover then carry the same mark, the same colours and the same type.
Where the brand goes next
The brand is the input to the other digital lines, not a separate project from them.
- Website
- The palette, the type and the mark become the design values of the site, so a page and a proposal look like the same business. Where web design and development follows, the site is built from those values, so the brand is not revised to fit it.
- Social media
- Profile images, headers and a post template that use the locked colours and type. The profile images, headers and post template carry the same colours and type as the vehicle artwork.
- SEO and Google Ads
- The name rule fixes how the business is written in listings, directories and ad copy, so the same written form appears in each of them and in the ads.
Working with the mark you already have
If you have a mark that people recognise, the better option is often to keep it. It is redrawn as clean vector, tested at the real sizes, given colour values and a set of rules, and otherwise left alone.
The name rule, the templates and the artwork files are then built around it. The existing shape is kept rather than replaced.
Questions clients ask
Do we own the logo?
Yes, outright, including the vector originals and the artwork files. There is no arrangement where the files stay with us.
What do you need from us to start?
The name exactly as you want it written, and any files you hold for the current mark. Photographs of the trucks, signs and workwear. The dimensions of the vehicle panels, and the last proposal you sent to a client.
Can you work with the mark we already have?
Often the better option. The mark is redrawn as clean vector, given colour values and a set of rules, and otherwise left alone. The process above is the same from the colour step on.
Who measures the trucks and the signs?
You, or your signwriter. We make no site visits, so artwork is laid out to the panel dimensions you supply and proofed at that size before it goes to production.
Does this have to come with a website?
No. It can be done on its own. Where a website follows, it is built from the same values, so the brand is not revised to fit it.
Which typefaces do you use?
The ones that work on the surfaces and carry a licence for every use you have. The licence position for each face is written into the rules.
Can our office edit the proposal template?
Yes. It is built in the applications your office already runs, with styles set so a new page matches the old ones. The rules document says which parts should be left alone.
Do you print or install anything?
No. We deliver artwork files and rules. Printing, vinyl cutting, embroidery and installation are done by the suppliers you choose, and we can check their proofs against the rules.
Send the set. Get a fee back.
A written fee and a delivery date come back before anything is measured.