Ardent Logo and Brand

Naming Project

The project’s first phase was to develop a new name for the company. Once the name was decided, the logo and visual brand identity would follow.

In creating a list of new company names, Insomniac Studios considered literal definitions as well as emotional associations or connotations. Insomniac Studios recognizes the subjective nature and bias of this interpretation, but also recognizes its value for establishing a connection with current and prospective customers.

Some companies employ the use of superlative or luxury words in their names. These words are chosen to elevate the company’s product or service to an upper-class status. In most cases, however, they fail to do so. True luxury does not have to be labeled as such. Insomniac Studios eschewed using the word ‘luxury’ or synonyms like ‘elite’ and ‘premier.’ A company cannot be a luxury company by calling itself ‘luxury’ no more than a person can be taller by calling themselves tall. A company must live up to its customers’ expectations in the luxury market or be relegated to a lesser-value market.

From the eight new names presented, the team selected Ardent Studios, which was later changed to Ardent Metalworks. The word ‘ardent’ means to be enthusiastic, passionate or intensely devoted. These terms are excellent descriptions of the attitude and conviction owner Mike Wood brings to his work. During the project’s discovery, Wood stressed several times the lengths he and his team go to get projects done and done right for his clients. From matching paint colors by eye until they are an exact match to scrutinizing the merit of each weld, the team is unsurpassed in its devotion to quality.

However, ‘ardent’ has an older meaning. First appearing in 14th century Latin and later Old French, ‘ardent,’ in various archaic spellings, means “to burn, emit light or flame, be fiercely hot, shining.”

With the addition of the older meaning, the team’s commitment and work ethic fuses with the white-hot electrical arc of welding. The present and past meanings of the word ‘ardent’ describe two aspects of the same business.

The first two letters in ‘ardent’ are Ar, the periodic symbol for argon. This is the team’s preferred inert shielding gas for welding. This third aspect adds a technical welding detail to the company’s new name.

Logo Design Brief

Insomniac Studios and the Ardent Metalworks leadership team developed a set of five tenants that would guide the logo design process. The tenants are as follows:

1. The logo should be simple and elegant. It should be able to stand alongside other luxury brand logos.

2. The logo mark, or symbol, should be unique and offer meaning relevant to Ardent Metalworks.

3. The logo should have no, or as few as possible, enclosures for easy CNC machine reproduction.

4. No imagery or design elements related to the welding, fabrication, automotive or racing industries.

5. No skulls or crossbones.

Each tenant provided a unique challenge to the logo design process, with the exception of number five. That proved easy. During the project’s discovery phase, the client made it known that images of skulls and crossbones were often part of metalworking company logos. Working to establish the company in the custom luxury metalwork market, Mike and Christina knew a skull was not the way to present the brand.

Logo Design Process

The first part of the logo design process was a deep dive into the world of luxury brands. Insomniac Studios collected logos from luxury brands to establish a logo design baseline. The team reviewed logos from venerable luxury brands like Cartier, Gucci, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and more.

During the past ten to fifteen years, luxury brands underwent a transformation. Many opted for the clarity of simple and modern typefaces over classic serif or script typefaces. Several luxury brands dropped their logomark, leaving only the wordmark. Most notable in this category was Louis Vuitton, which made headlines when it dropped the famous LV logo from its website’s header, defaulting to an all-capital letter wordmark comprising the typeface Futura. The company still uses the iconic two-letter monogram, but not as part of its primary logo.

A few luxury brands, like Coach, Hermes, Rolex and Dior, kept the classic serif typeface. As Ardent Metalworks did not have the history or pedigree to shed the serif and don a sans serif typeface, the decision was made to lean into the classical lettering of the serif typeface Utopia Standard.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the project came from tenant number three, which was a requirement that the logo be able to be cut from steel using a CNC (computer numerical control) machine. This meant enclosed shapes, like a circle, square or triangle, needed a cut in the shape so the CNC machine could cut the shape in one pass. This posed two challenges to the logo design process: 1., a break in any enclosed shape needed to be included into the design or the logo had to be a solid shape with no hollow voids inside the logomark, and 2. find a way to keep the logo’s lettering from looking like a military stencil—a task made more difficult by the decision to proceed with a serif typeface.

To solve this, the logo needed to be designed in a manner that facilitated CNC reproduction. The typeface, however, was another issue. Since the new company name, Ardent Metalworks, included the enclosed letters A, R, D and O, a solution was needed. Rather than create one logo with stencil-like letters for the CNC machine, two versions were developed. The first was used for screen and print applications. It featured the letters as they typically appear, with an enclosed A, R, D and O. A second version was created with cuts in the letters to allow the CNC machine to pass through and cut out the inside of the enclosed letters. This version is seen below with the cuts in the letter shapes circled in blue.

Logo Design Meaning

The final Ardent Metalworks logo design focuses on the word “ardent,” which means to burn. The logo design features an eight-pointed star, which represents the heat and sparks produced during the welding process.

The logo design includes small vents where the top, left, right and bottom star points meet the bounding square. This means the star shape is not fully enclosed and can be easily reproduced on a CNC machine.

The spark star also resembles a cut diamond--a longstanding symbol of luxury, beauty and perfection. This logo design features an understated steely blue-grey color.

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