In 2011, Arash Azarkhish hired me to develop a brand identity for his new construction project management company, A Squared Project Solutions. I'd been working as a designer and art director for fifteen years by then, but this was perhaps the first chance I'd had to develop a complete identity system for an independent client. I charged him $1,000, which felt like a lot of money at the time. I wanted to make sure he got his money's worth. I presented six logo concepts—six!—which is far more than I'd recommend today, but I was eager to demonstrate that I knew what I was doing.

I'd already been doing work for other construction project management firms, so I understood the business. Project managers are the unsung heroes of large construction projects, making things happen behind the scenes while the architects and builders get all the glory. Looking back at my early explorations, I can see that sensibility at work in the use of negative space and dimensional letterforms.

Arash had opinions, including the suggestion that we rotate the A in my preferred concept from its tilted position to an upright orientation. Whatever my reasons for tilting it in the first place, he was right. The original was too quirky for a company entrusted with multimillion-dollar construction projects. The final mark is bold and precise, and the stationery system carries an architectural, almost blueprint-like language through the typography and layout. I think it holds up remarkably well.

Over the next eight years, I designed business cards and email signatures for 15 new hires. And every couple of years, Arash would call to say he thought it was finally time to build a proper website to replace the landing page I'd created when the company launched. We'd talk about how business was going, and he'd tell me he had more work coming in than he could handle. I'd suggest that perhaps he didn't need a website after all.

We never built one. The original landing page is still there.