Logo Design: Wheels of Success

I recently received an email from Chris Fraver, a graphic design student at Bowling Green State University. In his Corporate Identity class he's been given the task of redesigning a transportation logo. He came across Wheels of Success and wrote to us inquiring about the concept and ideas behind South Island Design's take on the logo.

It's first necessary to understand what Wheels of Success does and how it operates. This non-profit organization serves the Tampa Bay area by helping people who are in danger of losing their job due to poor transportation. Wheels of Success repairs vehicles and matches them to qualified applicants. In return, the recipients make payments and help repair other vehicles for future applicants.

That idea of an infinite loop of recipients helping recipients lead to the current design of the logo. The tire and the road together create the symbol for infinity. And taken literally, it's also basically what Wheels of Success does, "Getting people back on the road."

The primary colors were specified by Wheels of Success for high contrast. They're also intended to reflect the high visibility colors of traffic signs.

Wheels of Success also uses a racing theme throughout much of their work. Their copy is sprinkled with headlines like "Start your engines" and "Pit Crew Services". And each year at their awards banquet they give awards for "Rookie of the Year", "Driver of the Year", etc. In fact South Island Design was the "#1 Fan" for 2007.

We kept the racing theme in mind while designing the logo. All of the elements are pretty tight and the letters are outlined so that it could also be used as a racing patch or appear similar to one when it's used on hats and t-shirts.

We hope Chris will share his redesigned logo with us and wish him the best of luck on the project.

09/05/08