Paper Igloo

Paper Igloo is a genuinely sustainable architecture practice based in rural Scotland. Although every home they design is different, they always have one thing in common: they’re all built well, for good. Their designs make a house a home – one that’s designed for the environment, for the future, for comfort, for good, and for the client.

The practice needed a brand to reflect this, a website to reach the right audience, updated team photography to get across their personality, and internal templates to save time, energy and money.

The practice follows five key fundamentals, has a simple five step process, and strives to build every home in line with the five Passivhaus Principles. It’s a very clear approach that’s easy to follow, but that wasn’t coming across in their previous branding or comms.

A pitfall that many architecture firms fall into, Paper Igloo’s website was packed full of content in an attempt to prove their sustainability creds. While this was interesting, important information, it was dense and overly formal – making it difficult for the ideal audience to stay engaged and get the message.

While the website was bogged down with excess, the branding said very little. The logo was a literal igloo, the typeface wasn’t accessible, and the colour palette lacked the variety needed to keep important communications varied, light and fresh.

There are lots of clever design tricks that enable greenwashing – from ornate and wishy-washy language, to evocative nature photography, to earthy colour palettes.

As a genuinely sustainable architecture practice – one that designs all new builds to a Passivhaus Standard, and has even created its own set of sustainability standards – an early aim was to avoid the look and feel of firms that carry out greenwashing.

The new branding and website needed to let Paper Igloo’s methodology and work do the talking – elevating it with a visual identity and written tone that feels professional, knowledgeable and trustworthy.

It’s a common myth that genuinely sustainable architecture can’t be beautiful. That’s certainly not the case for Paper Igloo’s work.

This brand and website had to be beautiful. It had to be modern, sleek and efficient – just like the work of the practice. It also had to show that no Paper Igloo home is the same – that they’re shaped by the environment. Shaped for the future. Shaped for comfort. Shaped for good. Shaped for you.

Beyond showing variety, avoiding a greenwashing look, and ensuring everything is beautiful, Paper Igloo’s five fundamentals, five-step process, and the five Passivhaus Principles made penta the inspiration.

With five bold but simple shapes – arranged in an orderly fashion to convey clarity over whimsy – the logo represents variety in structure, rationality in form.

Founder’s Grotesk by Klim Type Foundry is the brand typeface. Much like Paper Igloo’s work, it’s modern and accessible – but built on a strong understanding of time and place. We used the monospace version for the logo so the letters and shapes align perfectly.

The previous Paper Igloo brand had a particular blue that the duo have a strong personal connection to. We wanted to keep it, but balance and complement the shade with a diverse, fresh palette. There’s now a very dark blue for legibility, and a range of five bright and light colours we call ‘pastel neon’ – colours more contemporary and vivid than you would typically expect from a sustainable architecture firm.

There’s no doubt that Paper Igloo has a wealth of depth, expertise and rationale behind their work – there’s a lot to communicate. The new website is designed to hold and showcase this information in an engaging, easy-to-follow format – using a honed and considered tone of voice, expandable information, and a clean and easy to navigate structure.

The templates and documents are now varied but consistent to help the team be more productive with their time.

Although Paper Igloo had striking professional photography of their buildings, they didn’t have any of themselves. So we also created photography guidelines and art directed a shoot to get across Mhairi and Martin’s personable, professional and easygoing nature.

Working with Mhairi and Martin has been wholly gratifying – a process filled with creativity, compassion and confidence. So much so that we nominated them for Client of the Year in the 2025 Scottish Design Awards! The brand is also up for a Scottish Design Award.

Find out more about Paper Igloo here, or get in touch with Laura to talk about your rebrand.