The Hothouse Group, a UK Start-up Learning & Development Co is looking for a logo and an identity
a logo project by zoew

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT US:

THIS PROJECT BRIEF HAS BEEN UPDATED. PLEASE REFER TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR UPDATES.

The Hothouse Group is a fresh start-up learning & development company based in London, UK. We do for people what a hothouse does for plants: metaphorically we make sure people, in the organizations we work with, have the light, heat, nutrients, environment & support they need to develop & grow, in a way that works for them. We’re passionate about people being happier and more fulfilled at work.

We’ve been working in this field for quite a while and the three of us want to build a company that can make a bigger difference and have a bigger impact on people’s lives. We want more people to be happier at work! We think that’s a good thing to be doing with our time. We hope you think so too!

In terms of what we offer our clients, we do one thing simply & expertly: we deliver bite-size face to face group coaching programmes that transform the way people think & behave forever in just 6 sessions, so that they get better results and are more fulfilled at work. That means the organization as a whole gets better results.

What is Coaching?
Coaching is a relationship between a coach and an individual, focused on enhancing the individual’s strengths & working with their areas of difficulty to increase effectiveness & performance at work. The coach's job is to listen, ask questions, empower, encourage, offer insights & suggestions. Research shows coaching leads to higher performing, more effective workers.

In Group coaching, the group dynamic creates more powerful individual change. Group synergy is used to support the individual, who learns & is motivated through experiential group exercises & by sharing thoughts & experiences.


HERE IS WHAT WE NEED:

We’re looking for a company logo & “phase 1” website to begin with. We are posting the logo first and then will be posting the website next. Ideally we would like the same people to do both projects.

We’ve looked extensively at Crowdspring and see that there are some very talented designers who also seem to understand the European market and the type of design we require. We want to find a company we can partner with and come to for other projects as our company grows. We are paying the most that we can at the moment and we want to pay more for great work in the future as the business grows.

This is what we need to begin with:
Logo inc. colour palette
We are looking for a thought-provoking logo.

The logo must have our full name on – The Hothouse Group – and a graphic. Images that have come to mind (not particular original admittedly!) are black crayon drawing of a hothouse with green shoots emerging and Green shoots coming out of cartoon heads. We are very open to ideas and want creative input. We are looking for something that shows clearly that we are a very different proposition to your run of the mill learning and development companies.

Because we will be working with people at their organisations or off-site the logo will be our identifier. It will be what brings us all together. The logo will be on signage, website, clothing, stationary, business cards, printed brochures, cards, postcards, workbooks, books, newsletters,Electronic docs (typically MS Office) and in print.

Key Colours: green & black. White background.

Key concepts:
Growth, Fresh, Clean, Credible, Edgy, Thought-provoking, Warm, Connecting, Smart, Results, Real, Nurturing, Committed, Collaborative, Fun, Transparent.

For the final product, we'll need:
-color logo
-black and white version
The logo should look great small and big.


OUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS:

• Corporate & voluntary sectors
• 250+ employees
• Front-line teams e.g. sales, fundraising, customer services, marketing
• Decision-Makers: Senior/mid-level managers who lead organisations, departments or teams
• Typical job titles: Director (or Head / Principal / Vice-Principal) of Sales / Customer Service / Client Services / Marketing / Business Development, also HR/Learning & Development.

We want to come across as an established company with a big presence who are different. However, we don't want a soul-less corporate identity. We want a soul-ful one! We don't want to come across as 'business as usual'.We already have our own individual businesses and are doing fairly well, so we’re not starting from scratch even though this is a new venture. We want to give a great impression, so we can engage properly with medium to large national and multi-national organisations who are looking for something different.

Some companies we have done work either off our own back or as an associate for another company include Sony, Centrica, Visa, Baxter, Bupa Dentists in London, Ceroc UK, Hope Worldwide, London Voluntary Services Council, Bluefin TV, Victim Support, The Police, Asthma UK, Barclays Wealth, BNP Paribas, Cantor Fitzgerald, Deloitte, EMAP, IBM, MSN, Prudential, PWC, QinetiQ, Social Enterprise London, Tescos and The London Rebuilding Society.

We are very clear that we are looking to work with organisations that we can partner with, genuinely and that it is a great relationship for both parties.

We want them to think this when they look at the logo:
Growth, Fresh, Clean, Credible, Edgy, Thought-provoking, Warm, Connecting, Smart, Results, Real, Nurturing, Committed, Collaborative, Fun, Transparent.

WE LIKE THESE DESIGNS:

1. www.themindgym.com (key competition for us, our website content will be similar but we need to be different enough not to be directly compared)
2. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/prices/
3. http://www.thecoaches.com/
4. http://www.linneygroup.com/
5. www.leonrestaurants.co.uk


WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE (or we don't want to see) THIS IN OUR DESIGN:

We must be able to drop the logo into documents & design templates that we create ourselves.