Designing Sustally —
Not Your Usual “Green Logo”
When the brief is “sustainability,” and the client says “but make it personal”—you know you’re in for something meaningful.
The Beginning: A Logo Without Leaves, Please
Sustally came to me as a brand deeply rooted in sustainability—but not the kind you find on stock photo sites. No cliché green leaves. No arrows forming a circle of life. Definitely no generic planet Earth hugging typography.
Instead, this was a brand with a founder who wanted their own relationship with sustainability reflected in the logo. Real values. Real care.
The challenge? How do you create something that’s as emotionally resonant as it is technically sound—especially when the word “sustainability” already comes with a thousand overused visual tropes?
Designing with (More Than Just) Green Intentions
This wasn’t just a logo job. It was about finding a symbol that the founder would see themselves in—a lighthouse in the fog of sustainability clichés.
Here’s how we navigated:
1. Lighthouse, but Make It Meaningful
After several rounds of exploration (some where we almost made friends with another leaf), we found our anchor:
🌊 The Lighthouse.
It stood for guidance, responsibility, and holding a steady light in stormy waters—just like Sustally hopes to do for businesses trying to walk the sustainability talk.
2. Triple Bottom Line = Triple Integrity
We subtly embedded the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit) into the visual structure—without needing to say it outright. The kind of design that rewards a closer look.
3. Typography That Saves Ink (Literally)
Eco-friendly design is also about function.
We used:
- A printing-friendly font to save ink on any physical branding
- A digitally optimized font to ensure legibility and sustainability in digital formats (hello, low load times)
Because if the planet could read, it would thank us.
Room for passion and sustainability.
The Logo That Feels Like a Compass
The final identity is clean, modern, and quietly confident. It looks like it belongs in both boardrooms and changemaker circles. And more importantly—the founder sees themselves in it.
🧭 A logo rooted in meaning, not trends
🔤 Fonts that walk the sustainability talk
📦 A visual identity system that can grow with the brand
A deeper understanding of how businesses rooted in passion truly grow.
A second home and family in Jaipur.
Learnings
Sometimes, making “just a logo” is actually about holding space.
To zoom in and understand what sustainability means to one person.
To listen deeply, create slowly, and iterate without ego.
Also
Saying “no” to clip-art leaves should be in the UN sustainability charter
Sustainability work needs soul AND systems
Humor is sustainable—use it responsibly :p
Thinking about working together?
- You are a passion-driven Founder
- You have generated some revenue (preferably 1 Lac)
- Preferably bootstrapped
- Want a partner who gets both the poetry and the process
