a visual identity case study: AMC Communication
Blog / Case Study
Brief About
Established by Linguist Entrepreneur, Amber Marcum Combaud, AMC Communication is a French to English translations company. Her work is focused on translating corporate communications and technical and official documents. Her mission is to bring her French clients’ communications in English up a notch in excellence and to facilitate business between French companies and their clients abroad.
The story
Amber was referred to me by Madalena Zampaulo whom I worked with on a variety of projects either through the American Translators Association or her podcast Smart Habits for Translators. Amber reached out saying that a logo design was “long overdue” for her business and she hoped that we could schedule a time to talk and discuss the graphic design and branding process and all it would entail. We set up a video conference for the following week and so began a wonderful business relationship.
“It took a while for me to commit seriously to work on my company branding. In part, because it was hard for me to conceive how it would be possible to achieve a visual identity that I felt representative of who I am–as an independent professional, communicating my personality is important to me–and the services I offer. I chose to work with Amanda because she came highly recommended, and I liked the clean designs I saw featured on her website.”
The Challenge
As with many service based businesses, the challenge was to create a brand identity around something that isn’t tangible, translation and language. The logo also needed to connect with Amber personally, as she is the AMC in AMC Communication. Lastly, Amber wanted her new brand design to convey professionalism, trustworthiness, and approachability.
The Creative Process
Sketches
First Concepts
Concept 1
Style: The condensed sans-serif font was used in the brand design to convey a sense of professionalism and experience. By highlighting the monogram, we emphasize that you are your business and clients will be working directly with you.
Colors: The coral color was chosen because it brings an energetic and approachable personality to balance out the rigid structure of the mark. A warm gray was chosen because it conveys professionalism and brings this modern logo more formality.
Concept 2
Style: The sans-serif font was chosen for this brand identity to convey a sense of universality and accessibility. By using primarily lowercase letters, we show a sense of approachability. The circling arrows represent the transition between languages.
Colors: This concept makes use of a warm yellow and purple. The warm yellow sets an energetic tone and the purple brings a nice contrast to the yellow and is reflective of creativity.
Concept 3
Style: The condensed sans-serif font conveys professionalism and experience. The interaction between AMC and language is shown by the incorporation of the speech bubble. The application of the speech bubble and italic slab-serif tagline brings in notes of approachability and friendliness.
Colors: Blues set a tone of trust and knowledge, by using the two tones of blue we bring dimensionality to the brand design. Gray adds another level of dimension to the logo while bringing in a hint of sophistication.
Revision Round 1
A deeper exploration of concept 1.
Revision Round 2
Color exploration of concept 3.
Revision Round 3
Yellow vs gold comparison.
THE SOLUTION: A BRAND THAT SPEAKS
The condensed sans-serif font was used in the concept to convey a sense of professionalism and experience. The design shows the interaction between AMC (which stands for Amber Marcum Combaud) and language by the incorporation of the speech bubble. While this mark is very structured, the application of the speech bubble and italic slab-serif tagline brings in notes of approachability and friendliness. The main colors in the branding, blackberry & golden yellow also affect the overall tone of the identity. The golden yellow adds vibrancy and energy to the logo. Gold also gives a sense of value and quality.
