West Elk, LLC

I was excited when West Elk approached me to create a brand identity for their contracting firm. Being based out of Northern Colorado, they were very much tied to keeping a classic, outdoor-inspired theme, while keeping a minimalist style that clearly communicated their voice. I loved their company name and was immediately inspired to create their logo using a silhouette of an elk, though it was much more difficult than it sounded. Designing nearly 25 elk silhouette variations, we finally decided on one and from there I was able to run with the supporting branding assets. I had initially used a rust orange as their accent color, but they were very much set on keeping things in a grayscale because to them, contracting and construction is very much black and white, as in there is a right and wrong way to do things.

Whenever I come across a client that doesn’t really know what it is they want, I tend to steer them towards minimalism. More often than not, people who don’t have a background in design tend to want to overcomplicate their branding, which not only makes it harder for them to market themselves, but it also makes it harder for potential clients/customers to trust their professionalism. With this project, I wanted the elk silhouette to speak for itself, much like the Apple logo, Nike logo, etc., and I was super excited when they agreed to keep things simple.