Harrier Partners: new corporate finance logo and web design

As somebody who grew up with an accountant for a father, I’ve always been taught the value of money and the reassuring precision of sums that add up. You know where you stand, for good or ill. This exactitude has an echo in the satisfaction of geometry and symmetry. Not every piece of brand design we work on has to follow rules or be symmetrical – life would be rather dreary if so. However, when working on a corporate finance logo and web design brief, there’s an argument for finding a rather specific balance. It’s a perspective that has been realised for business consultants Harrier Partners and the branding work we’ve just completed for them.

A beautiful logo within an invisible grid

The Harrier Partners logo could be described as a bird within a cage – of sorts anyway. The thinking behind it was to devise a symbol that captured the essence of a bird of prey but drawn within a crisp geometric grid. Early versions of the design had been very precise, but the logo felt complete when a sharp beak was added towards the end of our process. In that sense, I’m reminded a little of the US Postal Service branding. The design is taken beyond mere bird to something more powerful.

In fact pitching this design was a bit of a risk for us. We had worked up a few ideas but this stood out as being the best way forward so clearly that I took the unusual approach of pitching a single idea with a set of different typefaces and colours. It’s not the usual way forward but also I always feel that our clients come to us for an opinion and sometimes it’s worth saying ‘we think this is the answer’.

Now the bird is set free – I’m really interested to see where the brand goes next.

Bird on a web

Back in December, we swiftly created a single page online for the company. We used to think of these as ‘holding pages’ but I’ve gone off that idea. These days I think they need to be as considered as a full site. After all, they often sit online for months. So we avoid the idea of a ‘coming soon’ message and simply focus on a simple layout and primary information such as the mission of the business and contact information.

In the first couple of months of this year we gradually moved towards a full website for Harrier Partners. Inspired by the grid that lies at the heart of the brand design, we started working on geometric, concentric soft shapes. They rather remind me of the lines I created by a gyroscope as a child and create a background structure for the pages. Our patterns combine with a set of monochrome landscapes. Our client was keen that the harrier be a presence on the site so we worked up the idea of these mood-led highland images which contrast with the dark red tone the brand has as its signature.

It’s a great example of a website saying plenty about they way they work but not a great deal about the specifics of their consultancy work which is inevitably confidential. Many of our financial services clients rely on this balance of strong visual with more generalised copy content. In fact that’s something of a hallmark of corporate finance logo and web design briefs in general. However it certainly gives an impression of the type of people behind the company and should they wish, more information can be included in the future.

One deeply satisfying branding job

Rupert, our client at Harrier Partners, has enthusiastically embraced the design process. In particular he liked the idea of the design being somewhat different from the concept he imagined at the outset. It’s my feeling that the end result is bold, stylish and something his clients will remember. The strong use of colour, our conceptual geometric harrier bird and the elegant development touches really hold together. Within our portfolio this is not only a fine example of a successful corporate finance logo and web design logo project – but of any business wanting to making an impact.

I’d be interested to hear what other clients, old and new, within the financial services industry think of this piece of work. It’s striking and very much emblematic of our approach to business design overall. With a combination of bold client and strong concept, the project has been hugely successful and a blueprint for similar collaborations within the industry.

Our approach to corporate finance logo and web design

Our work for Harrier Partners is just one example of our work within corporate finance logo and web design. If you are launching a new fund or have a well-established company that needs ‘fresh eyes’ on their branding, we’d welcome a meeting to discuss a collaboration. Please drop me a line direct or call on 020 7351 4083.

Read more about this project

Visit the Harrier Partners website

More about our work creating branding and web design for financial services businesses