Branding companies in Cape Town is always something we look forward to – a rarity in the tech field though as most of the big players here are still based in Johannesburg. Our logo design work on this rebranding project relied heavily on the underlying brand strategy, which we developed in conjunction with PayGate’s marketing team (who are responsible for company branding). This brand strategy was, in turn, informed by in depth research into both the local and global market as well as examples of global best practice. In addition, we drew on a considerable body of open-ended client interactions and interviews to paint an accurate picture of PayGate’s perceived brand attributes, strengths and weaknesses.

One resulting objective was that we incorporate the brand’s key brand balance: it had to look and feel established, but signal a commitment to remaining current at the same time – knowledgeable of and reactive to changes occurring in the rapidly evolving online payments space. The objective was to create an identity that is very compelling, but as trustworthy as possible for end users – especially larger and predominantly online businesses.

The result is timeless and solid but not staid or boring. This is a specialist market stalwart; it is a trustworthy thought leader and source of relevant opinion and knowledge to both local and global market entrants. The brand, like its various products and services, is tried and tested.

The logo speaks to simplicity, security and speed and also works well in an endorsement role (living with an extended holding device to accommodate partner and client logos and working well in monochrome and reduced-size environments). The overall form of the logo references a fresh perspective on the classic shield shape, talking to security. It could (and should) resemble a bank logo in this respect. The flat tick-mark shape is usually first to register and refers to the ease with which transactions are successfully concluded (the transaction is already complete). The 3-dimensional negative space of the forward facing chevron (arrow head) can take a while to register. Famously it took the marketing director a few months to see it. Of course, we liked that. The semantics of the brand are designed to take a little while to ‘get’ as this speaks to encryption.