Holland Vans Logo
Holland Vans is a Flagstaff business started by two brothers, Hamilton and Harrison Holland. They transform work vans, pickup trucks, and school buses with beautiful craftsmanship into adventure vehicles that enable their customers to explore the world around them.
The brothers came to me because they needed a new logo for their growing business to add as a finishing touch to their builds and to create branded merchandise. They wanted something impactful with a nod to being based in Flagstaff.
They sent me some inspiration images and a napkin sketch of what they were thinking, we then met and discussed their needs, the goals for the logo and who their target audience was. They wanted to build on the old logo, which presented several challenges but I really wanted to give them the logo they didn't know they wanted. I developed a series of rough thumbnails with the existing logo then scheduled meeting to begin the process.
I took the time to explain to them that we would want to create their own brand and not piggyback on another's (VANS). I also pointed out some of the difficulties of that logo, it could never be used in a stacked orientation which really limited the potential of the logo.
We had a great meeting and heavily discussed the sketches, ultimately we choose to move away from the line, but keep the same font as to not lose the essence of the original logo.
Design
Individual letters and spacing were adjusted and I limited the design to 4 colors. This makes the logo more reproducible in screen printing and embroidery. The trees were a challenge, this logo is going to be used as one color cut vinyl often, cut vinyl can be very difficult to weed when it is highly detailed. Initially we tried to use Ponderosas but, it was too busy and would not be good for production. After some discussion we decided to opt for a more traditional looking pine tree. The full color version was completed first. Once that was finalized I began simplifying the design for one-color applications keeping vinyl production at the forefront of the decisions I made.
In the end we created something everyone was happy with. We moved away from the confining line and now the logo draws the viewer in with the promise of adventure, memories, and the exciting unknown.
Visit Holland Vans on Instagram @holland_vans