Viga is a steel fabricator in Tartu that makes beams, stairs and frames for builders across Estonia. Most of its work is won on paper, in tenders and quotes, so that is where the identity had to work hardest.

A mark you could cut from plate

The mark is the profile of an I-beam, the shape the workshop cuts more than any other. It’s drawn so it could be laser cut from steel plate without loose pieces falling out, and printed small without the thin centre closing up.

The colour is red oxide, the primer every beam leaves the workshop in. It was the one colour Viga already owned. The old logo, a clip-art crane in three colours, had come with the company years ago; nobody in the workshop had chosen it, and nobody has missed it.

One page per quote

Quotes used to go out as six pages of spreadsheet. Now every quote is a single page with the drawing, the weight of steel, the price and the date the steel arrives on site. Bigger tenders go in a folder, with that page on top and the method statement and certificates behind it.

The drawing takes the top half of the page, because builders read a drawing faster than a paragraph. The price appears once, at the bottom, in the largest type on the sheet.

The workshop’s estimator noticed the change on the phone:

Builders used to call to ask what the quote meant. Now they call to ask about delivery.

Paper that survives a site

Viga’s paperwork ends up in vans, site cabins and on top of the steel itself, so each piece was made for that:

• Cards on heavy board that doesn’t bend in a back pocket.

• Tender folders with a pocket for drawings and a reinforced spine.

• Project reports bound to stand upright on a shelf.

• Packing tape printed with the mark, for bundles of bolts and small parts.

• A white box for the scale models that go with the largest tenders.

None of it is precious. A folder that comes back from a site with a boot print on it has done its job.