The making of the Septaria logo

We need a logo that would look good among logos of banks, investment funds and other financial organizations, which would be minimalist, long lasting and solid. The brief also mentions it has to reference Switzerland and security papers.

Trying simple paper shapes. A Swiss flag, a direction arrow.

Artistic director: Maybe Number 2. Stacks of paper as skyscrapers.

Art director: You can develop the one with the cross and show it to the client. But why isn’t it red? The rest are too complex.

Paper sheets with folded corners are now red. Also a new variant is added, a battery-flag since it’s an investment fund. Or, if you rotate it, a flask, also a Swiss symbol.

Art director: The shadows in the cross are dirty and noisy. The battery can be a secondary option, though it would look better vertically. The letters do not match the style. We are talking about modern finances here, and this typeface is old school.

The crosses are given to letter and shadow experts.

Discussing the battery with the artistic director.

Artistic director: If we slightly shift the details in the horizontal version, it can also look like an S.

Designer: I’ve skewed one leg in first two variants and simply shifted the parts in the third.

Designer: And these with only an inside skew.

Artistic director: Nope, it doesn’t really work like this.

Designer: And some more. The bottom ones now look like sails.

Designer: More yet. Money and papers.

Artistic director: 3 and 5.

So, the battery dies, but instead we have two new ideas: 1. A sail flag. It’s like the Scarlet Sails for entrepreneurs. A fresh wind of business and money. You are desperately looking for investments, and there it is, Septaria on the horizon.

2. S-flag-label-paper. As a label it can be used on various corporate identity elements and advertising handouts. Any object created with the participation of the fund can be marked by the label. It can also be used as a bookmark, a marker, etc.

Showing what we have to the client. Starting to make the final drawing of the chosen variant.

Suddenly we discover a very similar logo in a New Zealand TV show.

Trying other designs following the same concept.

But they just don’t work. Starting over.

Looking further.

The art director suggests another variant.

Choosing the most promising ones.

The client instantly approves the new logo.

Starting to work on the details.

Bringing the proportions of the logo closer to those of the Swiss flag.

Adding US to the name.

Trying the new logo on the media.

We need three versions: “Septaria” for use in Europe, “Septaria US” for the United States and “Септария” for Russia.

Working on the Cyrillic logo.

Doesn’t quite match the English names. Trying to make characters more coherent.

Nope. Deciding to use only one feature, a drop-like serif of the С.

Typesetting the brand book.