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AWS SJO Continuous Improvement. This Amazon Web Services (AWS) team collects systemic issues from customers reported by associates from San José Costa Rica (SJO) and works in collaboration with different other departments to correct defects and improve current processes.
They didn’t have a way for associates and management to easily identify their communications.
Following the Amazon branding guidelines, we designed a logo that represents what they do as a team. Is a very conceptual and minimalist logo that allows them to use it on any type of application.
As a result, now they are perceived as a solid and organized team by keeping a cohesive visual identity in all their communications, which has allowed them to increase the amount and the quality of systemic issues reports. Also, thanks to how versatile the logo is, they have been able to create merch to reward collaboration.
“This logo is so much more than what we were expecting. Our need for identification as a team has been met. Also, I appreciate that he gave us more ideas on how to take advantage of this logo for different applications which have been a motivation booster for our team. We could not be more satisfied!”
Gary Lopez
AWS Team Manager
During the research, we found that most of the ideas they wanted to transmit were related to arrows, and, due to the Amazon branding guidelines, we had to avoid them. During the sketching part, we came up with a really unexpected idea: the logo is in the fishbone, which we will explain in the section “logo construction”.
We used mind maps to be able to explore all the concepts that could be related to process improvement and understand what are the ones that better express what they are all about.
During this part of the process we came up with the general concepts that are around what they do: solve problems, ideas, cycle process, improve, root causes, continue, move forward, innovate. Then we were able to narrow them into two that would be represented in the logo: solve problems and improve processes.
Putting into graphics such abstract and wide concepts like solving problems or improving processes is not an easy task. That’s why we decided to come up with different questions about these concepts that would allow me to generate ideas.
How do you solve a problem? Once you have identified the problem then you should look for the root cause, and one of the best ways to do that is by using the Ishikawa diagram or as it is also called: The Fishbone Diagram. After sketching it we found something amazing: the fishbone can form some pieces in the shape of arrows.
We started the sketching process with a solid idea in mind, so we wanted to come up with different iterations to see what the best one would be. After combining the fishbone with the arrow, we created something unique that is not a fish nor an arrow, but something completely new and original, that represented solving problems.
There was still one concept that we needed to translate into graphics: process improvement. So, how do you improve something? One of the ways is by making it bigger. That’s why we decided to increase the right side of the icon. This way we can see two stages clearly defined. One of them has been improved.
We used 4 different simple shapes that were drawn using the fishbone as a guide, and because of that, a part of the fishbone can be seen in the negative space. Finally, we decided to round the corners a little bit to give it a more friendly look and also to match it with the rounded corners of the Ember font.
During the research process, one of the ideas that we found very important is the 4 steps of what they call “the improvement wheel”:
1. Identify
2. Plan
3. Execute
4. Review
That’s why we decided to use 4 different branding-approved colors to represent each one of those steps.
