TL;DR
We performed design work for three sister companies – MTR Heating Services, MTR Pipework and MTR Property Investments – including branding, print and website design.
Project Overview
We were initially contacted to head up the branding and digital assets for MTR Heating Services, a new venture aimed at the domestic heating market. Following the success of the initial branding exercise the scope of this project quickly grew to encompass design work for the owners’ other companies sharing the MTR name.
As you may expect from entrepreneurs with several companies, priorities can shift – which is something that Ballyhoo, as a small, agile team, can easily adapt to. Following the branding exercises, we were able to reallocate budget and resources from the work discussed in our initial brief to help with the client’s current focus and produce successful outcomes.
Who are MTR?
MTR Pipework, MTR Property Investments and MTR Heating Services share the same entrepreneurial co-owners and are based in Birmingham, serving customers nationally.
MTR Pipework provides pipework solutions to customers, focusing on pipework installations in large commercial properties. They have been helping customers since 2010 holding numerous Gas Safety certifications and pride themselves on customer satisfaction.
MTR Property Investments own numerous properties – both commercial and buy-to-let – with a strong focus on providing high-quality accommodation to tenants and helping people in financial problems to get into property.
MTR Heating Services offer heating, ventilation and air conditioning installations across the country with a view to ultimately offering digital access to these services.
MTR Heating Services
The client needed a full branding exercise for their new venture MTR Heating Services. Aiming to disrupt the traditional domestic heating services market, this project required in-depth research to help position the company to make a strong entrance.
Deliverables included:
- Research
- Logo
- Brand Guidelines
- Website
- Business Cards
Branding Exercise
Our initial research into the market identified that modern, digitally-focused branding would position MTR Heating Services well within the current market, calling to mind smart homes paired with the traditional aspects of domestic heating installations.
The logo needed to be easily implemented on embroidered clothing for the team, so we took this into consideration when choosing shapes, colours and fonts.
We experimented with a mixture of elements and icons, settling on a gradient flame radiating the warmth of a heated home sitting within the heart of a modern, icon-style house. This acts as a strong, identifiable logomark representing both traditional heating and smart technology, and completes the main company logo when paired with our text.
MTR, the initials of the founding members of the client’s other companies, is naturally best suited to uppercase lettering, so we offset this with Heating Services in a friendly geometric sans serif font to maintain a sense of approachability, nested into our house icon.
Business Cards
We then created business cards for MTR Heating Services, to be used to pass to potential customers to build a loyal customer base.
We set up an account for the client with Moo Print to facilitate this round of printing and quick and easy re-prints. We settled on soft touch business cards which give a beautiful matte finish, with a raised UV gloss to highlight the logo. The resulting cards are super tactile, creating a memorable business card, and look amazing if we do say so.
Making use of Moo’s printfinity option, we created three different designs, allowing our client to pass them out and use them for marketing purposes. Each showcases the logo, with the under-side featuring business details including contact details and the official Gas Safe Register logo to affirm MTR Heating Services’ expertise.
Ballyhoo have worked with us on various little projects, including various logos and most recently our new webpage. Thanks to all at Ballyhoo, I would highly recommend them to anyone! Top Company!
Richard Dowling
MTR Pipework Services
MTR Pipework
During the timeline of this project, the client’s focus shifted from their new venture to consolidating the assets of their longest standing company, MTR Pipework. There was a need to create a digital presence which included revamping the existing logo and creating a website to demonstrate capabilities and capture leads.
Being the adaptable team that we are, we ran a report of what we’d achieved within the project budget so far for MTR Heating Services and reallocated our resources towards this new goal. With the budget available to us, we felt that a one-page website would suit the project best, allowing us to convey everything we needed to on the site with less time than usual available for design and development.
Logo & Branding
The client had a more traditional feel in mind for this logo, utilising tools of the trade which could demonstrate their strengths at a glance.
We wanted the Heating Services and Pipework brands to feel cohesive, and so decided on using the same colours and font choices across this logo and brand too, with unique elements and layouts to ensure that they still felt individual.
One-Page Web Design
The MTR Pipework website consists of just one page – a landing page with clearly defined sections and information that users need to learn about the company and make contact – including social icons, biography, contact form and customer testimonials.
One-page website design is especially suited to projects where time and budget are a factor but also have UX and SEO benefits like simplicity of use and fast loading speeds on their side.
Motion
To give the website the feeling of a larger, interactive site, we implemented a layered scrolling motion feature. As the user scrolls on desktop, rather than the site scrolling down as you’d typically see, the below information moves up into place for them to view instead. This allows users to read content easily, whilst keeping interest and attention on the site as they first interact.
Page Anchor Menu
To navigate to a section of the page, we implemented a page anchor menu – again giving the impression of a larger website but in fact taking the user to the relevant section of the page.
Contact Form
Contact form functionality gives users the opportunity to easily reach out and enquire – with different fields for users to easily fill out seamlessly. By keeping this process short and straight forward, users are more likely to fill the form out, creating leads for the business.
Testimonials
It was important to showcase MTR Pipework’s testimonials on the website, to build trust by demonstrating their expertise through positive feedback from customers. Therefore, we created a sliding carousel that features a number of reviews, along with photos to further show their craftsmanship.
- #HTML5
- #CSS3
- #WordPress
- #JavaScript
MTR Property Investments
MTR Property Investments had an existing logo which was feeling a bit dated, particularly in comparison to the new logos created for the other companies. We were tasked with creating a new logo that could easily be used across applications including email signatures, business cards and digital services.
Logo Design
MTR Property Investments takes on a simplistic approach, with line elements echoing the MTR Heating Services brand and a professional, serif font. The logo has also been kept monochromatic to give it a modern and sophisticated feel.
Although not visible in the logo itself, we also suggested a sans serif font pairing to go with the primary serif font for any future design work.
Google Workspace
As Google Partners, we’ve set up Google Workspace for all three MTR brands. Utilising Workspace for emails provides MTR with the tools to help them effectively communicate with customers in their business, as well as allowing them to collaborate together using Google’s suite of business apps and tools, including sharing documents and files.
We also assisted MTR with creating a branded email signature for their team, professionally enhancing their emails to represent and reinforce each brand.
Outcomes
While this project didn’t necessarily result in the initial deliverables in the brief, we’re delighted to have been able to demonstrate our ability as a digital agency to accommodate the changing needs of clients and their projects and create the foundation for a lasting working relationship. We’re certain that the work we’ve done here will do wonders for the success of the companies involved and we look forward to partnering on future ventures.
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