New Work: Sean Orford Corporate ID

When Sean approached Dupe to create an identity for his psychotherapy/counselling business, we knew something different was required.

Sean has been working in both traditional and complementary healthcare for many years right across the UK. Currently based in North West England he supplies staff support services to local authorities, private companies and the NHS. On top of this, he is researching and developing training courses in an innovative approach to psychotherapy. Everybody got that?



The 'logo' is more of a symbol. After initial sketches and research into areas as diverse as Chinese Philosophy, the Eye of Providence and Pax Cultura we found ourselves rather stuck. The question of how to represent history, mysticism, growth, balance, love AND Sean seemed unanswerable.



Rather than focus too much, we switched our focus to selecting an appropriate typeface. Archer proved to be just the trick. Friendly, forthright, elegant and beautifully legible it cried out to be used.

From this momentous decision came the symbol itself. Formed from two reflected and intertwined 'S's it jumped off the screen. Thank you, Hoefler & Frere-Jones. (update: Jonathan Hoefler himself emailed me saying how much he liked the logo - how cool is that?).



After slight alterations the final logo was approved in its above form. The intertwined version is designed for large scale printing, whilst the simplified version is intended for website avatars, icons and for small print.

The symbol means many things. Its tree shaped body symbolises growth, the intertwining unity, its heart-shaped upper portion = love, whilst the capital S, of course, stands for Sean. Its simplicity should provide the right balance for Sean - a balance between his commercial and spiritual interests. It is a symbol intended to stand the test of time.

Letterheads (printed on the finest possible paper courtesy of Tapleys, Bebington) and envelopes will be followed by business cards and a complete website, also to be designed by Dupe Creative. Watch this space for updates.