Kelby is an accountancy identity with the bottom line built into the name. The tail of the y in Kelby sweeps down and runs out along the underside of the word as a double rule, the two lines an accountant draws under the final total of a set of accounts to say this is the figure that counts.
The double rule
Accountancy logos tend to fall into a few shapes: initials in a box, a rising bar chart, a tick, or a column of coins. They signal finance in general, which is exactly the problem; a local firm's mark ends up looking like a bank's or an app's. Kelby needed something that belongs to accounts themselves.
The double underline under a total is that something. It is a convention as old as handwritten ledgers and it is still printed under the final figure on balance sheets and profit and loss statements today. Anyone who has read their own accounts has seen it, even if they have never thought about it. Letting the y's tail become that rule means the name ends exactly where a set of accounts ends: on the figure you need to know.
Routes we explored
We worked through eighteen ideas on concept sheets and nineteen drawn directions, and three reached the shortlist. The one we built is the y whose tail runs into the double rule under the name: one move, and it is instant for anyone who has read a balance sheet.
The second route gave the e an equals sign for a crossbar, so the name contained a sum. It was neat, but an equals sign is two short strokes inside a small letter, and at the size of a letterhead or a profile picture it vanished into an ordinary e. The third route stacked ledger bars into a K, which made a strong, simple icon. The trouble was that it looked like every other finance mark built from bars, and it could have belonged to a bank, a software company or a fund. The double rule won because it is specific to accountancy and it runs the full width of the name, so it holds at every size.
A heavy, friendly serif
Kelby is set in Fraunces Black, a soft, heavy serif with rounded terminals. Serifs read as established and careful, which an accountant should be, and the softness keeps it from feeling like a law firm's letterhead. The y was redrawn so its tail curves down and out into the first rule, with the second rule running beneath it in brass. ACCOUNTANTS sits under the rules in Instrument Sans SemiBold, in spaced capitals. The y with its two rules is the icon, used for the favicon, the corner of a post and the back of a card.
Ledger green and brass
Ledger Green is the deep green of a bound account book and a banker's desk lamp. It carries the identity on cards, envelopes and posts, and it looks settled without looking like money. Brass is the second rule and nothing else, a warm metallic note like the corners of an old ledger. On green, brass lifts to a lighter tone so the second line keeps its contrast. The logo is never shown in white alone where the brass rule would vanish, so the bottom line is always two lines.
Workwear
Accountants rarely wear printed tees, but firms do use them for staff days, charity events and the stand at a local business fair. The green tee carries the reversed lockup across the chest in white with the brass rule, and the same artwork embroiders onto a polo or a fleece.
A card laid out like a ledger
The front of the card is green with the reversed lockup and nothing else. The back is a small ledger on a cream ground: the name at the top, the four services as ruled lines in a column, and then the total line, where the figure is the phone number, with a brass double rule drawn beneath it. The card ends the way the logo does and the way a set of accounts does.
Letters that end on the total
The letterhead is laid out for the letter that goes out with a client's year-end accounts. The logo sits at the top left with the number opposite, and a brass double rule runs across the foot of the page above the firm's name, so every letter finishes on a bottom line. The DL envelope is green with the reversed lockup and the same double rule along its lower edge.
Posts that are useful
An accountant's feed works best when it saves people a search. One post sets the line Know your bottom line in Fraunces on green, above a brass double rule. One lists the Self Assessment dates as a small ledger: the tax year ending on 5 April, the paper return on 31 October and the online return and payment on 31 January. One lays a green panel with the y icon over an office photograph. Each post closes on the double rule or the icon.
Questions about this project
Why a double underline?
It is the mark printed under the final total on a set of accounts, the figure that matters. Building it into the y means the name ends on the bottom line, which is what clients come to an accountant to understand.
Why a heavy serif for an accountant?
A serif reads as established and careful, and a heavy weight keeps the name legible on a letterhead, a sign or a phone screen. Fraunces has softer, rounded details, so it feels approachable rather than stiff.
Why is the second rule brass?
Two rules in the same colour can merge into one thick line at small sizes. A brass second rule keeps both lines visible, and it gives the green identity one warm note that is used nowhere else.
Logo, colours, typography and guidelines, with business cards to match from £59, so every piece looks like the same business.
