Summary
Content-focused dog training business, Gray House, sets out to match their amazing client results with their visual identity.
Objective
Gray House is a dog training businesses started by sole proprietor Virginia Houser. She came to us as a new business owner with only a few clients looking to design a memorable brand identity that would set the stage for a content-heavy online presence, and a booming client business.From the beginning, we decided the brand should represent the calm, at-home feeling every dog owner wants their dog to embody. This general demeanor is a big part of Gray House's training and it was important to incorporate that into the brand's overall aesthetic. We also felt it necessary to evoke a sense of grounded playfulness that ensures the brand appears comfortable, not cold.
Execution
Beginning with the logo, we uncovered a way to represent both the word "house" from the name and a dog in the same icon. We had explored many options for this type of solution, and ultimately chose the most simple, memorable design.
The Gray House wordmark was drawn as a hand-lettered element of the logo to make it more distinctive, and Sinkin Sans was used as a complementary typeface for the byline.
Next, we had to breathe some more life into the visual language we were developing for the brand. We experimented with two tools for this—natural gradients and soft, rounded shapes. In the end, a primary gradient reminiscent of a sunset was used, along with some secondary gradients to give any composition a more dynamic treatment. We also developed four primary shapes to be used as holding elements and background elements, as pictured here in the Gray House stationery and social media post templates.
With the hope of producing more video content in the future, Virginia requested that we develop an animated version of the logo to use as a video opener. This is something we've been doing more often lately and we love how it adds some visual interest to the logo in a video setting.
Conclusion
Gray House's client base and brand awareness have grown immensely since the completion of the brand identity. Virginia expects the brand to become more and more well-known in the area as people are exposed to the content she is producing, and visual vocabulary we've set up will be a great foundation for that growth.