Next Level Drone Cleaning — Tigo Ponce de León

the story in five chapters

Next Level cleans Belgium’s roofs and solar panels by drone. It had the business; it needed a face.

role: Founding Designer
when: Jul – Sep 2025
surfaces: WebSocialsApparel
tools: IllustratorPhotoshopGemini

Madridsummer 2025
Five questionsbefore a sketch
Nine versionsin batches
The markthree colorways
RolloutSep 2025

summer 2025

Chapter 1: Madrid

a night out, and a founder who needed a face

Summer 2025: a Foreign Language Acquisition Grant from UChicago sent me to Madrid to study Spanish. On a night out I met Sebastien, an up-and-coming entrepreneur running a Belgian drone-cleaning business. A designer looking for new clients; a founder looking for a fresh identity. The pairing was perfect, so we quickly got to work.

Street map of central Madrid, centred on the Templo de Debod

Sebastien and Johannes at night in Madrid — by the Templo de Debod

A group of friends on a Spanish summer night, Sebastien and Tigo mid-frame — a Spanish summer night

before a single sketch

Chapter 2: Five questions

his answers are the brief

Before drawing anything I interviewed Sebastien with the essential questions from Michael Johnson’s Branding: In Five and a Half Steps. Pick a question; his answer follows.

Why are we here?

“We are here to revolutionize the way we clean buildings. In Belgium, cleaning high-rises takes large teams and expensive scaffolding. Drone cleaning cuts the danger and the unnecessary cost; done well, we can disrupt the status quo.”

What do we do?

“Professional drone cleaning for roofs, facades, windows and solar panels. Aerial technology and pure osmosis water take away the need for scaffolding: four times faster, safer, and eco-friendly, across Belgium.”

What makes us different?

“Efficiency: our drones are four times faster and 20% cheaper, at €5 per m². We take away 99% of the fall risk while reaching heights without heavy machinery.”

Who are we here for?

“Homes and businesses across Belgium: homeowners, companies and facility managers who need high or hard-to-reach places cleaned.”

What do we value?

“Safety and innovation above all. Replacing dangerous scaffolding with drones protects our team and your property: sustainable, high-quality cleaning that respects the environment.”

Sebastien Bouckaert, founder

his answers, distilled into three words

technology
efficiency
dependability

which raised the question

How might one mark feel approachable and professional at once?

in batches

Chapter 3: Nine versions

symbols, characters, wordmarks, and two notes

I sent the ideas in batches, each with a story: literal symbols, then characters, then wordmarks. Naming what each batch felt like gave Sebastien the words for what he wanted, and two notes from him turned nine sketches into one mark.

v1 · a drone and a windowThe first pairing, taken literally: a drone squeegeeing a window, over a plain wordmark.

Version two: a sports-team crest of a capped drone scrubbing solar panels — **v2 · a solar-panel crest**A sports-team crest: a capped drone scrubbing solar panels, for the green and the drive.

Version three: a friendly drone character in a badge of bubbles — **v3 · a drone with a face**The drone gets a face, and a badge of bubbles to live in.

v4 · the mascotA full cartoon, brushes out, over a bold wordmark: fun, and too playful for a facility manager.

Version five: the name alone, in a refined serif — **v5 · a serif wordmark**Refined and classy: the name alone, set in a serif.

v6 · the ringed wordmarkThe same serif inside a thin ring: professional, and the warmth went missing.

Version seven: a round character drone inside a navy badge — **v7 · the first blend**The first blend: a character’s warmth inside a badge’s ring.

Version eight: a line-drawn drone in a ring of bubbles, lettered round the edge — **v8 · a line drone**The character gives way to a line-drawn drone, lettered round the ring.

v9 · the badgeMinimal and bold, the name set big across the circle: the one that shipped.

symbols
characters
wordmarks
the blend
Keep the characters’ warmth, with the wordmarks’ polish.
Same direction, but more minimal, so it scales to any size.

three colorways

Chapter 4: The mark

both worlds in one badge

Professional through restraint: a minimal line drone over the name, set bold and clean. Approachable through colour: a vibrant blue that keeps it friendly.

The minimal drone line drawing at the heart of the badge — the construction

One circle, one axis, two lines of type

The name set big and bold across the circle, and a minimal line drone over it, the whole mark standing on one circle and one axis.

Three colorways

each colour sampled from the mark itself

grey
set aside
#A0B3C6
dark blue
set aside
#1B5FB1
light blue
shipped
#0495EB

Why the ninth

it holds at the size of a browser tab

shrink both, and watch

drag the slider

Version eight, the line drone lettered round its ring — **v8 · the line drone**thin lines, lettering round the ring

v9 · the badge that shippedthe name, big and bold

Sebastien’s last note asked for a mark that works at any size: shrink both to a browser tab, and the line drone fades to a smudge while the badge is still a bold blue mark

Sep 2025

Chapter 5: Rollout

one mark, everywhere it meets a customer

The Next Level Drone Cleaning website for businesses, from its headline down through its methods, its four-step process, the quote form and the Instagram wall, to the contact band

what the mark taught me

Reflection

four numbers, and three lessons

9→1 versions of the mark before the final badge

5questions essential questions asked before a single sketch

3colorways and the light blue shipped

5surfaces carrying the brand: web, three socials, and apparel

The logo serves the story. Interviewing Sebastien first made every sketch mean something; the visuals came second.
Present in batches, with stories. Naming each direction’s character gave Sebastien the words for what he wanted.
Synthesize, don’t select. The final badge merged the playful and the professional instead of picking a side.