• US$1500

• 987 designs

• 296 designers

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Logo Design Brief

Avaxia Biologics is seeking a brand refresh.

What Avaxia does: (avaxiabiologics.com)
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Avaxia is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is a leader in the growing field of gut-targeted therapeutics — orally administered, minimally absorbed drugs that are designed to act locally in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract including the mouth, throat, and intestines. Avaxia’s proprietary oral antibody platform makes direct delivery of antibodies to the GI tract possible by overcoming some of the traditional limitations of antibody therapeutics.

Avaxia’s lead clinical candidate, AVX-470, is an oral anti-TNF antibody for inflammatory bowel disease. This transformative product offers potentially improved safety and efficacy over existing anti-TNF therapies by focusing immune suppression only where needed in the diseased gut.

Avaxia is developing gut-targeted therapeutics to address many other serious diseases such as type 2 diabetes, celiac disease, GI acute radiation syndrome, and oral mucositis.

Target Market(s)

Scientific Community

Industry/Entity Type

Biotechnology

Logo Text

Avaxia Biologics (alternate versions can be presented without the 'biologics' for comparison)

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Logo styles of interest

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Look and feel

Each slider illustrates characteristics of the customer's brand and the style your logo design should communicate.

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Requirements

Must have

• QUESTIONS to AVAXIA:
  
  1. Are there any existing brand elements or guidelines that should be maintained in the new logo and look-and-feel? For example, is there an existing color palette that we should stick to? Or any previous elements that may have created any brand recognition we should consider?
  
  ANSWER:
  None. Aside from the company name, we are starting over from a logo/brand perspective.
  
  There was some initial consideration to keeping the antibody (from the current logo) integrated in some way, but that could become an unnecessary constraint moving forward. Same for their current focus on gut-targeted therapies – not the most forward-thinking idea to tie the logo into a specific technology element (an antibody, a gut, or a small-molecule).
  
  Instead the focus should be to position them strongly as a drug discovery and development company. To really define their space, and make Avaxia the first company to come to mind.
  
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  2. What are the three core concepts and/or values your brand should communicate in the form of keywords, attributes, and/or descriptive phrases? What should the logo / website / materials immediately communicate to someone upon seeing them for the first time? It might be something conceptual, like “connectivity”, “innovation”, or “motion and speed”; or it might be something more literal, like “Rx knowledge and experience”, “scientific thought leader” or “technologically advanced”.
  
  ANSWER from AVAXIA:
  
  Avaxia’s core values are below. These are the emotional concepts they’d like reflected in their new logo – something solid and dependable.
  
  • Innovation – looking at things differently to find great new ideas in places previously thought exhausted
  
  • Integrity – They pride themselves on their honesty and transparency
  
  • Patient Care & Human Benefit – Their technology enhances people’s lives and health.
  
  3. Look and Feel Sliders (IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT SLIDER VALUES)
  Four members of the Avaxia senior management team offered the following numerical responses to this basic “concept ranking” exercise.
  
  Also note the standard deviation of their answers – these numbers show where they were in near / total agreement, and also where there were differing interpretations. So the lower numbers are concepts to embrace, and the higher numbers would be the best places for exploration.
  
  Image of results can be found here: http://screencast.com/t/77NYx8xFLm
  
  NOTE: the values are in addition to the ones required by designcrowd.com
  
  We do not want a complicated logo. The correct approach to create something simple, elegant, and memorable.
  
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  3. Where does the name of the company come from, and how does it relate to the overall corporate strategy?
  
  ANSWER:
  Vacca is Latin for cow, which is the source of Avaxia’s antibodies. The antibodies are produced in the cow and purified from milk. We do not want to incorporate any cow-related imagery into the logo
  
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  4. Are there existing photos or artwork that will be maintained in your brand language moving forward? If so, what are they?
  
  ANSWER:
  None. New artwork and imagery will be established down the road to flesh-out the new visual language (of which this new logo is the first step).
  
  

Nice to have

• QUESTION TO AVAXIA:
  Are there any specific logos (industry-related or not) that you either like or feel are particularly successful? What are they and what do you like about them?
  
  ANSWER:
  There wasn’t a huge consensus here, but the question did uncover an important element – they do not want a complicated logo. The correct approach to create something simple, elegant, and memorable.
  
  And for examples of the simple-yet-memorable logo approach, think Apple, 3M, and McDonalds. So keep things simple and clean – even to the extent that we should avoid color gradients unless there’s a really profound reason. Solid, clean shapes is the way to go here.
  
  The only industry-related logo that was discussed was ArQule (www.arqule.com) – and that was primarily in regard to a logo that strikes a nice balance between name and artwork (and is also clean and simple).
  

Should not have

• QUESTIONS TO AVAXIA:
  1. Are there any requests or requirements regarding the color palette? Any colors we should avoid using for whatever reason (the CEO hates green, there are too many blue websites, etc.)? Or is this a blank slate?
  
  ANSWER:
  So as not to allow color to distract unnecessarily, the first round of logo designs should be in black and white / grayscale only. This will allow the focus to stay entirely on the structure and message of the logo to start.
  
  All designers should also submit their proposed thoughts for an accompanying color palette(s) and corresponding versions to illustrate how they envision the color presentation of their logo. Feel free to include a couple palette options/presentations but the primary focus to start will be the black-and-white / grayscale version.
  
  Some additional guidelines for the accompanying color palettes:
  
  • No pink - they currently use this color and want to get away from it
  
  • Avoid blue as the primary color in the brand palette, though it can be used as a secondary/supporting color. Blue is also a consideration due to their competition (see item #10 below) – several are heavily blue, and we want to be sure Avaxia has its own unique space.
  
  • Along those lines, we also want to avoid a blue / green “nature / recycle / renewal” palette for this brand as well (see ViThera below)...which is nice, but not the feel they’re going for.
  
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  2. Is there a preference for a text-only logo treatment vs. a logo that also incorporates new unique artwork? Or would you like us to explore both approaches?
  
  ANSWER:
  They would like to explore both logo approaches: 1) A text-only interpretation of the company name, and 2) A logo with custom messaging-related artwork incorporated.
  
  One additional and important note: They’re looking for more than just modifying/stylizing one letter in the company name. The “A” or the “X” for example. Primarily because that approach is fairly meaningless – it just looking cool for the sake of looking cool and doesn’t carry any brand meaning. Don’t use that approach as a crutch.
  
  

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