Crafting a Trustworthy Brand for Water Safety
Design Agency Work
Overview :
At the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis, I work on various design projects that are client-based. I provide digital services for startups and non-profits such as branding, UX and UI design, web development, and consultations.
One of my most significant assignments was creating a brand identity for TrustedTap, a WashU engineering project focused on water quality assurance and filtration systems for rural areas. I created designs through Adobe Illustrator and used quantitative feedback to determine the most impactful iteration. The final design was accepted and will be used for all digital platforms. TrustedTap used these designs for an NSF grant competition and received a $1.5 million increase in grant funding.
My Roles
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Graphic Designer
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User Researcher
Methods and Skills​​
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Adobe Illustrator
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Quantitative Feedback
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User Feedback
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A/B Testing
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​Client Relations
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Brand Establishment
Timeline
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3 Weeks
Client Briefing
Clients Want a Logo That is Trustworthy and Appeals to Rural Communities.
I began this project by meeting with the Trusted Tap team, which included two WashU scientists and a project manager. We discussed their vision for the brand, which was targeting rural areas of America to ensure clean tap water. During the meeting, I aimed to understand not only their technical needs but also the emotional tone they wanted to convey through the designs. They emphasized the importance of creating a trustworthy and homely feel that would resonate with these rural communities.
Inspiration
Homey and Trustworthy.
Based on the initial briefing I received, I started thinking of symbols that aligned with their project's mission. Their project seeks to search for water contaminants and quality, which lead me to think about magnifying glasses. Along with this, the filtration system is meant to ensure their water is safe and trustworthy, which gave me the idea of a simple check mark. For typography, I started looking into companies like Lowes and Home Depot for inspiration, but I thought their fonts were a little too harsh and bold. My search led me to find some insights from rural brands that specialized in plumbing or other household services.
Logo Ideation
Three Ideas Emerge: Scientific, Outdoorsy, and Simplistic.
With a clear understanding of the project’s goals, I began working in Illustrator, making various magnifying glasses and water drops. I also searched through font families on Adobe Fonts to find typography that matched the fonts I had found during my inspiration gathering. While making my sketches, I thought that blue and teal are both colors that have strong associations with trust, purity, and water itself. From this, I came up with three distinct logo variations:
Scientific Theme: While creating this variation, the science of the project was the leading factor driving the iteration. I wanted typography that was more academic and gained some influence from Brita. Using the blue and magnifying glass, I wanted the logo to seem clean and almost technical.
Outdoorsy and Vibrant: With this design, I wanted people to feel a sense of freshness through the use of teal. This color, along with thick typography, could give the logo an outdoorsy vibe.
Simple and Trustworthy: I honed in on the rural guidelines for my final iteration. I picked a font that is more aligned with rural home maintenance services and made the logo more simple to make it more trustworthy and appealing for rural users.
Leveraging User Feedback
User Feedback Is a Must, Even With a Time Crunch.
To ensure the designs resonated with the intended audience, I conducted a feedback session with 75 students from a class taught by my mentor at the Skandalaris Center. Each student ranked the three logo options using a voting system on Post-it notes, allowing me to gather quantitative data on the most appealing design.
Before looking at the data, I was almost positive that the A design would win the vote due to its symmetry and scientific feel. As you can see, the C design is one by a large margin and was believed to be more trustworthy. Despite initially thinking the scientific design would be favored, this exercise highlighted the importance of validating design choices through user feedback.
Finalizing the Logo
The Clients Sided With the Simple and Trustworthy.
I shared the three designs with the clients and the data we collected. They gave me feedback within a few days and shared their fondness for design C. They thought it was more water-like and appealed to the rural audience. The clients wanted me to simplify the design and remove the magnifying glass. Based on their feedback, I reiterated the logo by removing the magnifying glass and focusing on a straightforward checkmark and flowing water imagery.
Throughout the design phase, I maintained open communication with the client via Teams and emails, ensuring their inputs were incorporated promptly. This iterative approach allowed us to refine the design quickly and efficiently, meeting the project's deadlines ahead of schedule. Over email, the team told me they wanted to shift the font to be more fluid and water-like. For the final designs, I adjusted the typeface to be more liquid and rounded, aligning with the theme of water’s natural flow and enhancing the overall legibility.
Final Deliverables
A Trustworthy, Simple, and Clean Final Logo.
After the client’s team picked a final logo iteration that aligned with their project goals, I moved on to the final deliverables. I produced multiple versions of the final logo to ensure it could be used across various mediums, including digital and print. This involved creating white, blue, and black versions to accommodate different backgrounds and applications.The final deliverables included high-resolution files suitable for everything from online use to physical items like hats and brochures. This comprehensive approach ensured that Trust Tap had a consistent brand identity across all platforms.
Project Update
Trusted Tap is Getting Even More Money.
The final logo and branding for Trusted Tap received strong positive feedback from the client and their NSF advisors. The design successfully conveyed the desired attributes of trust and reliability, crucial for a product focused on water safety.
The robust and appealing brand identity could help Trusedt Tap secure additional funding. The clear, trustworthy, and user-friendly design elements reassured potential investors and partners of the startup's credibility and commitment to its mission. The project is discussing a massive increase in grant funding, allotting up to $2 million.
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Below is a rough draft of Trusted Tap's new video. My designs are shown throughout the video and are used for their name descriptions. Please don't share this video as it's a working prototype.
Takeaways
Designing For Real World Problems is Impactful.
This project was a significant step in my design career, as it taught me to blend creative processes with data-driven decision-making. I used the design process to structure the project, giving me a focused, creative approach to creating their logo. The project reinforced the importance of grounding design choices in user feedback and research, particularly for projects with substantial impact and funding. This experience also highlighted the value of clear communication and iterative design in meeting client expectations and delivering successful products. This has been my favorite project through the design agency by far.