What the business does

Developing machines that re-freeze melted ice in the arctic.

Desired appraisal: Trust Worthy, Benevolent, High Tech

The company must appeal to socially interested British philanthropists, and be relatable to the Inuit populations who will be operating the machines.

Developing a name

The Inuit word for 'sea ice' is 'Siku'. The discovery of that word was a home run for the brand name. Because the founder preferred that the name implied that it was an ongoing, developing program, the full name of 'The Siku Project' was agreed upon.

As far as the Inuit were concerned, the name of the organization was highly informative and self explanatory- 'The Sea Ice Project'. The effect of melting ice on their communities was relevant and urgent, so it was immediately clear what any project relating to Siku stood for.

For British philanthropists, 'Siku' is an exotic, crisp, clean word the likes of which you'd find in a National Geographic magazine- it sounds well traveled, intelligent.

Developing a logo

The initial plan was to crowdsource the logo to students at Bangor University so they would take ownership of the brand and help appeal to alumni of Bangor. First however, I felt it important that we choose a brand color that was in harmony with our desired appraisal- this way we would at least have some control over the final outcome. Look into the psychology of colors, it's quite cool. Blue fit the desired appraisal perfectly.

The plan was to create a flyer, and the team members on location would cover the campus with them. It's uncertain how many flyers were put up, but there wasn't a single submission. The more keen marketers will notice (and hate) that the Youtube channel I'm referring to on the flyer has a different name than the brand name- sometimes you have to earn your teammates' trust before you're given agency over the brand, meaning any pre-existing assets are basically untouchable.

If you want something done right, do it yourself!

Here we have the final logo. The color scheme alone should invoke feelings of trustworthiness and benevolence, but incase that wasn't clear enough we included the one icon more symbolic of love and goodwill than any other- the heart. Including the technology theme while keeping things clean proved to be a challenge, and we passed on other designs which more more technology inclusive. Still, we were happy with the modern/minimalist igloo formed using the gestalt-esque imagery effect.

What's unique about this logo is how informative it is about the company's purpose: Compassionately helping the Inuit people by using machines to create a cycle by which cold water is drawn from the arctic depths and brought to the surface where it refreezes, thickening the ice.