With steel corrosion costing companies $276 billion a year (according to a current U.S. study), you’d think more businesses would have knowledge of the American Galvanizers Association (AGA). “The AGA is a nonprofit trade association dedicated to serving the needs of fabricators, architects, specifi ers, and engineers, providing technical support on today’s innovative applications and state-of-the-art technological developments in hot-dip galvanizing for corrosion control,” its website explains.

But marketing coordinator Jed Rosenberg says that the AGA is one of those associations that no one really knows exists. Its goal then is to educate businesses that provide galvanization products and services, along with those that galvanize their steel or use galvanized steel for building purposes.

AGA’s current logo represents zinc, which is used as a protective layer on steel to prevent rusting. “The current logo is boring and bland,” says Rosenberg. “The AGA is very limited in resources. We have a young design staff and have no budget for a professional redesign.”

Unfamiliar at first with the galvanization process, designer Ronda Ramsey explored a more patriotic turn and a popular high-gloss look. Once she had a better understanding of the hot-dip galvanized steel industry, the designer arrived at a drop and swoosh motif more representative of the galvanization process. She kept the grayscale of the original logo, using the black to suggest the strength of steel and gray to signify galvanization. Her font choices reflect steel with crisp, clean corners and rigid edges.

Like the protective before-and-after nature of galvanizing steel, this logo redesign will help guard the AGA, keeping it easily recognizable and delivering its message as “the industry leader for technical information on hot-dip galvanized steel.”

1. Original Jed Rosenberg, marketing coordinator for AGA, says the current logo “mimics the zinc molecule, but people never understand or can tell at a glance what it is.”
2. Redesign Galvanizing steel is the process of dipping it into zinc to provide the steel with a protective coating. Designer Ronda Ramsey sought to convey this process in her redesign.
3. Early options Initial directions focused on the American in AGA’s name and a highgloss, metallic finish.
4. Fonts Both fonts (MetaPlus Black and Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk) have crisp, clean corners and hard, rigid edges to signify the stability of steel. Color Ramsey chose black to denote the strength of steel, and gray to suggest the galvanization process.