Objective: To create a brand that when you cut it open, it bleeds sustainability.

To do this, our brand needed to define us and inspire us. It needed to make reference to where we had come from, and point to where we are going.  The brand needed to express our culture; which involves a lot of communication, ideas and warmth. We love to talk and we have a lot to say. We are an active company; active in our role in culture-making and being good corporate citizens.

Our mark: There are 4 main elements which tell the Alto story.

1. Our logo is growing a leaf. It represents our growing awareness and understanding about sustainable business, and expresses our desire to work increasingly in harmony with the environment. The 'eco-plus' sign playfully combines references first aid and nature, reflecting the values that contributed to Alto's success as a dynamic, responsive, intuitive and environmentally aware design company.

2. It is a plus sign – we are always asking how we can add more value. The plus sign is an interactive metaphor – which makes reference to our passion for new media forms (they use less paper!).

3. The plus sign is cradled by two supporting brackets, the brackets act as a metaphor for the encouragement we give to our clients.

4. Our bi-line: Nice. Easy.Alto
Nice to the environment. We are nice to work with. We make the process easy to understand. Our design outputs are easy to use and easy on the environment.

Website
Our website is a living manifestation of our brand; it is our face to the world. It allows us to express and describe ourselves and is a place where our company can continue to evolve our identity and grow according to our intentions to be a very good design company; good people, good clients, good intentions, good work.

Production:
Our aim was to do the most sustainable printing possible. The most sustainable printing means none at all. Whilst we went without business cards for 4 years, when we grew to our current size the need to have cards and collateral became clear.

We streamlined our printing requirements to business cards and comp slips, and a range of stickers that could be used on letterheads enable us to recycle envelopes.

We chose a printer who was prepared to innovate with us. We used vegetable inks and ensured that the machines were cleaned with non-toxic solvents. We reduced waste within the printing process by printing our comp slips on the reverse of the test prints. The paper we chose used sustainable forestry methods with a mixture of recycled pulp. The paper is very expensive, which makes our collateral feel precious. It’s a good feeling.

Lessons learned

We would like to acknowledge the challenges involved in becoming sustainable.  The reality is, true sustainability is not a reality until every part of the 'engine of civilisation' is tuned in to the same intention. The recycled paper had to be imported from overseas, and there was no information available about the glue used on our stickers. Becoming sustainable is a journey. There is no ‘ideal’ available yet; because we are still designing it.

But it's a great place to begin. Find out more about sustainability.

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