Tercom Logo

This identity project started in April and it was really hard to get feedback from the client. I started it from Canada and had two people between my work and the final client, in Brazil. I don't need to say it took much longer than we all expected and the result isn't exactly what I imagined.

So, here's a small note: "Even if it seems too hard to get in touch with your client, don't ever accept to work through somebody else. It is just not worthy. And you might end up with this feeling that you never knew what the client really wanted in the first place".

I decided to show my process anyways, as I put a lot of thought into it...

It all started with a new ethanol storage companyin Brazil. Its initial name was "NIKON terminais". The challenge was to associate the name (which already exists for eletronic equipments) to a brazilian brand and to ethanol.



The first thing I did was a research on the process of getting ethanol from the sugar cane, and then I tried to find out what was the USP of this company. After two weeks, we all decided to give emphasis to the idea of the company being well located (near to highway, near to São Paulo) and being ecological (as it is a fuel from sugar cane).

For that, we tried out some different typefaces and played with them for a while, trying to come up with a friendly logo.

When I was almost convinced by the second one, which shows the highway and the ethanol storage compartment, I got new directions...



The company decided to change their name to "TERCOM terminais". I got upset, tried new drafts, but I hated them.



It didnt need Brazilian colours anymore, and they told me it would be better if its symbol was apart from the name of the company.

As usual, I did some more research looking for a new inspiration for the ethanol symbol. I decided to go for something more modern for the logo, such as its formula...



But I decided to keep the colours eco-friendly, as in this picture below...



Finally, when I offered my new suggestions for the client, I was almost sure they would pick the one with the circles, which makes more sense to me (as they represent a formula composition and the ethanol recipients are rounded).




I was even imagining a nice and clean website, where each circle would represent an area of the company...



...but I didn't even have the chance to talk to the client. After two months I found out they liked the squared ones and were copying and pasting the draft version everywhere. Created stamps, letterheads, envelopes...

But then, they requested me to create a high-resolution logo with a typeface that had a bold look, heavy, as they felt it would would say something like "well-established in the market". It was hard to make it match with such a delicate image. But, I couldn't argue either...

They liked and asked for business cards. And so I did. About ten of them. Here's my favorite...



To my surprise, after a month with no answer, they not only didnt use my cards, but had someone to do another one, based on mine. They also stamped my logo everywhere, in different colours from the ones I suggested, and with the text attached to it.





After all, although I feel sad as I know it could be so much better, I thought it could be an example of what lack of communication can do to our work as designers. After a 4-month-process, here is the result...And I have to agree with the VFS slogan: "Results matter". Unfortunately.