The logo as a system
The Zaga logo is a system made of two formats, applied according to context:
- Wordmark: the word “zaga” as the primary expression of the brand. The default in any application with comfortable horizontal space.
- Reduced formats: the z letter mark and the app icon, for contexts where the full mark does not fit.
The wordmark comes in four color treatments — orange, white on orange, white on black, and monochrome black — to guarantee contrast and legibility on any surface. The reduced formats operate in a single canonical form: orange letter mark and app icon on an orange block.
Wordmark
The wordmark is the primary expression of the brand. It is the default in headers, digital communications, signatures and any editorial application with comfortable horizontal space.
The monochrome black treatment is a functional fallback, not an aesthetic alternative to the primary. It exists for the contexts where orange cannot travel: single-ink printing, engraving and embossing, faxable or legal documents, black-and-white press, and co-branding sheets where a partner’s layout admits one neutral mark only.
Reach for it when the medium forbids color, never when the piece merely feels like it would look sharper in black. Orange is the signature; every time black replaces it by preference rather than by constraint, the signature gets weaker.
Reduced formats
When space does not allow the full mark, the brand contracts into two reduced formats with distinct roles.
The letter mark is the letter z with its distinctive tail, working as a complete mark on its own. It is reserved for short signatures, watermarks and textual contexts where the full wordmark would be excessive.
The app icon encloses the z in an orange block with rounded corners. It is the canonical format for application icons, avatars and favicons: any square context where the mark works as a standalone piece.
Construction and rationale
The Zaga logo is a wordmark drawn from scratch. It is not a commercial typeface with adjustments; it is a custom letterform, built on a geometric grid with uniform stroke weight and rounded terminals.
Drawing it bespoke follows from the brand’s personality. Zaga positions itself as a nearshore ally that combines technical competence and human warmth — the Hero balanced by the Caregiver — and that tension had to be legible in the letterforms themselves. A commercial typeface would have fallen short: either too corporate (cold, promising an authority we don’t want to perform) or too playful (informal, promising closeness without capability).
Geometry
Every letter is built with the same stroke weight and consistent radii. That uniformity conveys order and dependability: the brand that simply works, without needing to announce it.
The use of lowercase is intentional. An all-caps mark would have shouted authority; Zaga prefers the voice of one senior colleague to another. Rounded lowercase reads warmer, more approachable, more human. It puts itself in service, not above.
How the name is written
In running text the brand is written Zaga: initial capital, lowercase after, like any proper noun. It is not set in small caps or all caps.
The lowercase of the wordmark is a graphic decision, not an orthographic one. The logo is an image; the name inside a sentence is a word, and as a word it follows the rules of the language. Writing ZAGA in the middle of a paragraph introduces a shout that contradicts the brand’s tone.
The z with character
The wordmark’s personality lives in a single gesture: the terminal of the z. The bottom stroke drops and curves into a loop that breaks the rigid geometry of the rest of the letter.
That loop is where the warmer side of the temperament comes in: smart without being a know-it-all, close without losing rigor. Without that detail the wordmark would be merely competent — correct and cold. With it, the brand smiles without losing rigor.
It is also the gesture that lets the letter mark — the z alone — work as a complete mark in its own right. The tail turns a consonant into a recognizable symbol.
Clear space
Every version of the logo respects a minimum clear space that prevents visual contamination from other graphic elements. No text, image or graphic element enters that perimeter.
The unit of measurement is 1x = the height of the z symbol (the letter z without its descender, equivalent to the cap height of the wordmark). Minimum clearance is 1x on all four sides.
Minimum sizes
The wordmark has a minimum application size per medium. On screen, 24 pixels tall. In print, 8 millimeters tall. Below those thresholds the mark loses legibility and its recognition value is compromised.
The reduced formats tolerate lower thresholds by design: the letter mark works down to 16 px tall on screen, and the app icon applies from 16 × 16 px (standard favicon). Never use the full wordmark below 24 px; contract to the letter mark when space does not allow it.
Misuse
The logo is not stretched, not compressed, not recolored outside the official system, not combined with effects — shadows, bevels, unauthorized gradients — and not rotated. It is a fixed element of the visual system.