Shire Sand & Gravel

A local brand with horsepower.

Trades & construction

Branding

Visual identity

Graphic design

2024

What we did

From contracting to sand & gravel.

Shire is a local family business supplying aggregates and grab hire across North and North East Lincolnshire, known for fair prices and a traditional, no-nonsense service. As the business shifted its focus from general contracting to sand and gravel, its old Shire Contracting identity no longer told customers what they actually did - or did justice to the way they did it. The business needed aggregates branding that said exactly what it did.

We gave the business a fresh name in Shire Sand & Gravel and built a brand identity around it - a new emblem, wordmark, colour palette and typography, pulled together in a set of brand guidelines. From there we rolled it out across the things customers see every day, from tipper trucks and bulk bags to business cards and social media. See more of our branding for trades and construction.

Overview

Built for the yard.

The emblem is a proud shire horse - a working animal known for strength, reliability and hard graft, which says everything about a family business built on traditional service. It sits inside a bold roundel that holds its own whether it's 20 centimetres across on a bulk bag or a few pixels wide as a Facebook profile picture. Alongside it, a chunky wordmark set in Barlow and a fire brick red and selective yellow palette give Shire real presence on site and on the road.

The wordmark took a few rounds to get right. The first drafts were too tall and too tight, and letters like the R and the S lost their shape the moment they were scaled down or printed on fabric, so the final version sits wider and heavier with more room between the characters. The palette was narrowed in the same way, down to a fire brick red that holds up in sunlight and a selective yellow sharp enough to read against it. Because aggregates branding lives on lorries, bags and building sites as much as on screen, everything was designed to be read quickly and from a distance. The guidelines set out how the logo, colours and type should be used, so every new truck, bag or piece of print looks like it came from the same business.

Results

A brand that stands out on the road.

Shire now has aggregates branding that matches the quality of its service - instantly recognisable on the road, on site and online, and clear about exactly what the business does. It runs from the obvious places, like the lorry curtains and the bulk bags, down to the small ones: stickers for the yard, caps for the lads, a profile picture that still reads at thumbnail size. It feels local, honest and dependable, just like the people behind it.

If your business has outgrown its name or its look, we'd love to help. Take a look at how we approach branding and logo design, or get in touch for a chat. Running a trades business? Take a look at our branding for trades.