The making of the Refinish Autolak logo

We start fantasizing.

A brush-hand as a gentle stroke. A rainbow trail.

Maybe combine the first two letters of the name in one? Nope, unconvincing. As for the stripes and the geometric abstraction, we’ll lay them aside for now.

We can’t seem to let go of the gentle hand idea, stroking the car again.

A can of paint, a sharp eye—it is surely interesting, but more about graffiti artists.

Getting back to the stripes. It really is a nice approach. The paint covers the car and slowly runs down.

Everything complex is made of simple and primitive things. Combining basic shapes into a symbol.

Searching further.

We get a new idea—a glare. It’s a perfect identifier of a freshly painted surface!

Developing the idea, trying to neatly embed it into the letters.

Putting the best designs together and presenting to the client.

The client unequivocally chooses the one with the glare. Finalizing the logo.

Deciding on the character of the letters.

Yep, 70s style—just what we need!

Making final adjustments. According to the brief, the logotype has to be in English, but the client asks us to add a Cyrillic version as well. No problem.

Also, per the client’s request we replace the blue with cold black: continuity and all that.

Polishing the logo a bit more—and it’s done.