Most logos for heating and electrical firms are designed on a screen, approved on a screen and then sent off to a signwriter as an afterthought. Then the van comes back from the wrappers and the phone number is unreadable from ten metres.
Your logo has one job: make the business recognisable and trustworthy everywhere it appears. For a trade business, that list of places is brutal. A van at speed. A polo shirt after forty washes. A quote PDF opened on a cracked phone screen. A hi-vis vest on a dark morning.
The van test
Stand across the road from your van. Can you read the trade, the name and the number in under three seconds? That is roughly the time a homeowner has when you drive past their house or park outside a neighbour's.
If the answer is no, the logo is not doing its job, no matter how nice it looks on Instagram.
What to ask for when you commission a logo
Any designer worth paying should hand over the following without being asked:
- A primary version and a simplified version for small spaces
- Dark background and light background versions
- Vector files (SVG, EPS, PDF) that scale to van size without going blurry
- A one-page guide showing minimum sizes and clear space
The long game
A proper logo system costs a few hundred euro once, then works every day for a decade. Vans get replaced, uniforms get reordered, signage goes up on new premises, and everything matches without a new design bill each time. That consistency is what makes a three-person firm look like an established company.
Put it into practice
Want this sorted for your business?
A short discovery call gets you a straight answer on where your brand or website is losing you work, and what to fix first.
Book a discovery call