Petra Capital brand & website design

Petra Capital June 2008

Petra Capital is an Australian stockbroking firm that provides specialised services to companies in the mining and industrial sector. I helped them create a new brand and website.

web design
logo sketch
logo lightlogo dark

Creating the brand

The word “petra” means “rock” in Greek, and since the company operates mainly in the mining sector, I wanted to incorporate mining into the logo design. Line charts are used in stockbroking for analysis, so I thought it would be interesting to combine the two. I experimented with quite a few ideas during my logo design process, until finally I came up with one that I thought worked. I used simple triangular shapes to combine the silhouette of a mountain with a line chart.

mood board
business card

Designing the visuals

I put together a simple but classic business card design (above right) which was printed on thick white matte stock to give it a quality look and feel. We wanted to convey a strong, corporate company profile with a focus on mining and industry. Some examples of appropriate imagery can be seen in the mood board (above left).

With the branding figured out, it was time to start working on the website. The aim here was to design a clean and simple brochure website with an industrial feel to it. We decided that only a small sitemap was necessary as the website would be pretty light on content.

I sketched out a few quick concepts for the homepage and then got straight into Photoshop. We decided to centre the homepage on an image collage that slowly fades from one image to the next. Sharp corners and strong flat colours are used throughout to be consistent with the logo design.

homepage design

Long-term gains

I was greatly appreciative of the opportunity to work with my client to help build them a solid brand and web presence. We enjoyed working together during the creative process and we’re all very happy with the result. I hope their investment brings them long-term gains in the years to come.