Home services, construction and real estate logo design

Techcelerant designed logos for five businesses that work on homes and property: Robertson Plumbing Services, West Austin Handyman, Care Your Lawn Landscape, Emily Carter Real Estate and alecost., a construction and corporate brand. Each needed a mark that reads clearly on a truck door, a yard sign, a work shirt or an office wall, and that tells homeowners what the company does before they call.

The client

Most of these clients win work locally. A homeowner sees a van in the neighbor's driveway, a sign on a lawn or a listing online, and decides whether to call. Trust carries a lot of weight in that decision, because the person is letting a stranger into their home or handing over their biggest purchase.

Robertson Plumbing Services handles residential plumbing. West Austin Handyman takes on repairs and small home projects in Austin, Texas. Care Your Lawn Landscape mows and maintains yards. Emily Carter Real Estate helps people buy and sell homes. alecost. works in construction and needed a corporate identity that looks at home on a building.

The problem

Trade logos often look interchangeable. A wrench, a house outline and a blue font could belong to almost any contractor. That makes it hard for a homeowner to remember who did good work last time.

These logos also have rough lives. They get vinyl-cut onto vans, printed on plastic yard signs, stitched onto caps and shrunk into the corner of a Google Business Profile. Thin lines, small text and long gradients break down in those uses. We needed shapes that stay legible when they are dirty, small or seen from a moving car.

What we built

• Robertson Plumbing Services: a heavy RPS monogram in navy, with the P drawn as a light blue faucet dripping a single drop of water. ROBERTSON sits below in wide navy capitals, and PLUMBING SERVICES runs between two light blue rules.
• West Austin Handyman: a round badge in black and gold. Crossed hammers sit over a gold house and skyline, framed by a ring that reads PREMIUM WORKMANSHIP. The business name wraps the outer ring in bold black capitals.
• Care Your Lawn Landscape: an illustrated black and orange push mower in front of an orange setting sun, inside an inverted triangle. CARE YOUR LAWN is set in a slab serif, with YOUR picked out in orange, and a small star sits at the point of the triangle.
• Emily Carter Real Estate: the first name in a dark, flowing script, crossed by a green roofline with a chimney and a four-pane window. The script's last stroke ends in a small heart-shaped key. CARTER and REAL ESTATE are set in spaced capitals below.
• alecost.: a faceted geometric mark made of interlocking lines, paired with a heavy rounded lowercase wordmark ending in a period. We showed it as raised metallic lettering on a blue wall panel to test how it works as building signage.

Design decisions

Each mark uses one object a homeowner connects with the trade: a faucet, hammers, a mower, a roof and key. We built those objects into the type where we could. The faucet inside the RPS monogram means the logo still says plumbing when it is reduced to three letters on a hat.

Color follows the trade. Navy and light blue suggest clean water for the plumber. Black and gold give the handyman's badge a sturdy, workshop feel. Orange and black on the lawn logo stand out on a trailer and match the colors of outdoor equipment. Real estate is a softer sale, so Emily Carter Real Estate uses a green gradient and script for a personal, welcoming tone.

alecost. needed to look established on a building facade. The geometric mark suggests a structure seen from above, and the lowercase wordmark with its period gives a short name some weight. Rendering it as dimensional signage let the client see the mark at scale before ordering signs.

The result

All five businesses now have logos they can put on vehicles, signs, uniforms, estimates and websites. The trade businesses have marks that work in one color for vinyl and embroidery. The real estate brand has a logo that suits listing signs and social posts. alecost. has a corporate identity ready for its office and job sites.

If you run a trade or contracting business, our guide to website design for contractors covers the next step after a logo. To start your own, see our branding service or talk to us.