Logo and Branding: Voimaosakeyhtiö SF

Voimaosakeyhtiö SF is the parent company to over 69 different manufacturing businesses in Finland and majority shareholder in the power company Fennovoima which delivers energy to these through a share-holder based co-operative scheme. Helsinki based agency Werklig designed Voimaosakeyhtiö SF’s new visual identity, stationary, website and brand guidelines that merge the cool Finnish environment, energy theme and minimalist sensibilities with a simple logo-type, electric visual device and icy colour palette.

“The generalized symbol for energy is the symbol of lightning. Being an energy delivering company it was intentional to have the appearance of electricity and energy as a visible element in the identity. We set the task to have the visual symbol present without emphasizing it too strongly in the logo itself. The solution was leaving the logotype simple yet recognizable placing a supporting lightning element in the backround.”

“Apart from the logo a visual element resembling a lightning and energy stream was created. The visual feature divides the surface diagonally from lower left corner to the upper right corner. The splitter in the center is always 1/20 from the height of the surface.”

- Taken From the Werklig website

This is a great example of restraint that avoids compounding too much into the key identity by introducing electricity as a secondary and complimentary style that keeps the logo-type clean and professional. Set in what looks like a modified Titillium the logo-type has been well constructed and consistently spaced, the ‘y’ is a nice detail and has an almost jagged lightening like quality but does not appear forced or distracting. The altered tittles over the ‘i’ and ‘o’, usually rectangular, suitably represent the aspects of the human-centric co-operative and contrasts with the angular spark that neatly captures the transfer of energy between provider and distributor.

The icy green and white colour palette has a cold sharpness that works well to represent the Finnish location while expressing a clean and environmental quality. The collateral layouts are clean and straightforward allowing the reflective qualities of a metallic spot colour to reinforce the ideas of light and energy to deliver additional depth and sophistication to this minimal identity.

More identity work from Werklig:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New and Design Week, is an editor for The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact