SuperNova International Logo and Visual Identity: Four Hearts Around a Supernova

Four hearts, one star

In 2020, the US granite memorial wholesaler SuperNova International commissioned Xinming Design directly to create a new logo and visual identity for its new brand. The logo is four hearts turning around a shared centre, forming a roughly square flower; the space between them becomes a four-pointed star, the "supernova" of the name; and each heart carries a curved cut line that echoes laser engraving and sandblasting. The four hearts stand for Dedication, Integrity, Love & Care and Craftsmanship. The brand colours are beige, dark grey and gold, and the tagline "Your Innovative Granite Supplier" was proposed by Xinming Design. The work covered the logo, core identity and applications, and the logo is still in use.

One industry, two kinds of weight

SuperNova International is a granite memorial products supplier headquartered in Mason, Michigan, with an office in Georgia. According to its website, it wholesales granite monuments and headstones, blank stock, memorial benches and cremation memorials, offers custom work such as laser etching and sandblasting, and provides marketing materials to retailers.

The industry carries two kinds of weight:

· The weight of stone: granite, cutting, precision and delivery, a hard craft;

· The weight of feeling: a monument carries remembrance and love, something deeply personal.

The usual approach picks one side: stone textures, mountains and industrial symbols for the hard side, or crosses, doves and flowers for the memorial side. The first is cold; the second has little to do with wholesale and fabrication. SuperNova needed a mark that could hold both craft and feeling, and relate to the name "supernova".

From keywords to four values

The proposal did not start with shapes. It started with a keyword map:

· Brand positioning: granite monuments, laser engraving, engraved products and sandblasting;

· Brand values: Dedicated, Creativity, Caring and Loving, Cooperation, Honesty and Integrity.

The proposal then gave four of these values a picture each, every one overlaid with a translucent heart:

· PROFESSIONAL DEDICATION: a worker cutting stone in a cloud of dust;

· INTEGRITY: stones stacked on raked sand;

· LOVE & CARE: a string of lights bent into a heart;

· CRAFTSMAN'S SPIRIT: sparks flying from a laser cutter.

Four pictures, four hearts: the logo is assembled from here.

Love + supernova + laser = SuperNova

The proposal writes the logo as an equation: Love (heart) + Supernova (four-pointed star) + Laser Technology (cut line) = Logo, and explains: "The logo is composed of four hearts, which represent Dedication, Integrity, Love & Care and Craftsmanship. The engraved lines on each heart give the logo a dynamic rhythm, and the visual representation of the logo's rotation constitutes the core part of the SuperNova. The cutting line on the logo also highlights the brand's industry attributes."

· Four hearts: the heart answers the emotion of the memorial industry; behind every memorial product is love for a person.

· One star: the star is not drawn on. As the four hearts turn around the centre, the space between them forms the four-pointed star. It can be read this way: the supernova's light is enclosed by four values together.

· One cut line: the curved cut on each heart is like a chisel stroke on stone, giving the mark its direction of rotation and showing that this company engraves and fabricates.

The construction drawing sets the mark in a 10a by 10a square, with each heart occupying one 5a by 5a quadrant, in rotational symmetry.

It puts the industry's two kinds of weight into one figure: the shape is a heart, for feeling; the line is an engraving, for craft; the centre is a star, for the name.

Putting stone inside the star

The most recognisable move in the applications comes from the four-pointed star at the centre of the logo. Enlarged on posters and leaflets, it is filled with marble and granite textures or with laser sparks.

· A star above, stone below: the name comes from the cosmos and the products from the bedrock; a star-shaped window connects the two;

· Product display without explanation: seeing stone inside the star, a customer knows at once what the company sells;

· A series: the same star with different stones and sparks becomes a poster series that can run indefinitely.

The heart is also enlarged and cropped on its own, for the backs of business cards, folders, bags and poster backgrounds, so the brand can be recognised without the full logo.

Beige, dark grey and gold

The brand colours are Beige (#DFD7CB), Dark Grey (#3E3A39) and Golden (#C58D55), with a gradient from light gold to deep brown. Beige can be read as the texture of stone and sand, dark grey is steady and suits business settings, and gold and its gradient correspond to the sparks and light of laser cutting. Together they are restrained and weighty: neither as loud as a consumer brand nor as cold as an industrial one, suited to an industry tied to remembrance.

The headline typeface is Objectivity Medium, geometric and legible; Chinese text uses Source Han Sans (Light, Regular, Medium, Bold). The logo has solid and gradient versions, with rules for use on beige, gold and dark grey grounds.

One line: Your Innovative Granite Supplier

Xinming Design proposed the tagline "Your Innovative Granite Supplier". In one line it says who the company is (a granite supplier) and what sets it apart (innovation). "Your" speaks directly to retail customers, in the voice of a partner rather than a manufacturer. The line runs through posters, leaflets, folders and the website.

Deliverables and extensions

Logo design

· Four-heart rotating mark and construction drawing

· SUPERNOVA INTERNATIONAL wordmark with horizontal and vertical lockup rules

· Solid and gradient versions, with rules for different grounds

Core visual identity

· Brand colours: Beige #DFD7CB, Dark Grey #3E3A39, Golden #C58D55 and a gold-brown gradient

· Typefaces: Objectivity Medium, Source Han Sans

· Supporting graphics: the heart and the four-pointed star, and how they combine with stone and spark imagery

· Brand tagline: Your Innovative Granite Supplier

Applications

· Business cards, envelopes, letterhead, folders

· Leaflets and product brochures

· Bags and polo shirts

· Posters, outdoor and subway advertising

· Website look

The stationery, brochure, bag, polo shirt, outdoor and website images on this page are application mock-ups.

Looking back six years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Find the values first, then draw. From keywords to four values to four hearts, every part of the mark has a source.

2. An industry's two kinds of weight can share one form. The heart is feeling, the cut line is craft, the star is the name; SuperNova did not have to choose between cold and soft.

3. A good supporting graphic shows the product by itself. With stone inside the star, a poster needs no caption for customers to know what the company does.

For a company that makes memorial products, the best mark is one that lets people feel love first, and then see the stone. This 2020 logo is still in use.

How to verify

· Client: SuperNova International Inc, Mason, Michigan; website www.supernovaintl.com (header logo, files named supernova-logo-golden-for-dark-use and supernova-logo-gradient-stack)

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3044.html

Further reading

· VIP GALAXY: arranging nine letters into a night sky (also commissioned directly by an overseas client, www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3041.html)

· EIC Education Identity Upgrade: writing "I & U" into an education brand (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3043.html)

· Strauss: writing a piano and the Huangpu River into a single letter S (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3039.html)

FAQ

Who designed the SuperNova International logo?

The SuperNova International logo was designed by Xinming Design, commissioned directly by the US company in 2020. It is an entirely new mark and is still in use.

What does the SuperNova logo mean?

Four hearts turn around a shared centre, standing for Dedication, Integrity, Love & Care and Craftsmanship; the space between them forms a four-pointed star, the "supernova" of the name; and a curved cut line on each heart echoes laser engraving and sandblasting.

Who wrote "Your Innovative Granite Supplier"?

Xinming Design proposed it as SuperNova International's tagline, saying in one line that the company is a granite supplier and that it stands out for innovation.

What are SuperNova's brand colours?

Beige (#DFD7CB), Dark Grey (#3E3A39) and Golden (#C58D55), with a gradient from light gold to deep brown.

Was this a rebrand?

No. SuperNova International was a new brand, and both the logo and the identity were designed from scratch.

Which companies can learn from this case?

B2B companies in stone, building materials and fabrication; industries whose products carry emotional weight and need a balance between craft and feeling; and overseas companies considering commissioning a design team in China directly.

Xinming Design is a brand systems design firm. Its work centres on systematic judgment, turning brand strategy into structures that can run and be inherited. www.xinming.sg