Inspiratica & ATMOS Marketing formed Northern, the fastest growing full-service eCommerce agency in Canada. As lead designer at Inspiratica, Dekker’s job was to develop the name, a full brand identity and system, and website design.
Taking inspiration from “We the North” I began preliminary domain research. Both Inspiratica and ATMOS liked the Northern theme, and Northern.co was available for purchase. The new name was decided, Northern Commerce, or Northern Co. for short. I spent time researching and gathering inspiration, and presented a mood board that captured the direction and look I was thinking.
I wanted to design a professional, simple and iconic ‘N’ symbol that incorporated an element representing the North. Through exploration, I realized that a subtle approach was best. The word Northern can invoke a number of images (trees, mountains, a compass, etc.), but this overt imagery didn’t feel like the best fit for an enterprise technology company.
Taking inspiration from the compass, the N with an arrow facing upwards represents the companies direction, its growth, what it provides for its clients, and a subtle hint to it’s Canadian heritage.
