When the Smiths came to us looking to freshen up their brand, we were delighted to have the chance to work on such an interesting concept. The Smiths could almost be described as a sort of high functioning version of a Wes Anderson family. Their passionate adherence to a life of adventure, growing together, and helping other families find their own paths, is truly inspiring. We wanted their new logo & branding to reflect their energetic and enterprising attitude.
Knowing who you are.
One of the most vital assets for any brand is knowing who they are. Not just the obvious things either. The best way to really establish brand identity is to dig deep, the colors, fonts, logo are just the tip of the iceberg. It was refreshing to work with Family Brand as that is what they themselves are dedicated to - going deeper and really carving out a considered ethos.
Their old logo was a waving flag; we decided to keep that concept but give it a more unique and modern twist. We looked at a lot of mid century US National Park branding and typography as the Smith Family really embodied this adventurous and nature loving aesthetic. The final result was a flag, an F, and even an abstract mountain-scape if turned on its side. One that wouldn't look out of place on a merit badge, a map, a workbook, or a website.
Mix & match typography for flexible applications: from social to web to print
We combined Title XL (a big bold typeface scrawled out by hand) with Beattingville (a neater cursive style one) for Family Brand to use as headline and sub-headline fonts. We opted for Montserrat as their go-to Sans Serif as it is extremely versatile with a full package of weights and styles. Montserrat is a pleasing, well balanced, geometric font that has a little of that Mid Century feel but is also extremely legible even at small sizes, something that is essential when choosing for web/social applications.
We also designed a course book for their Level Up Program in print & web formats. It was a nice opportunity to expand on the brand aesthetic we had created thus far - adding in line illustrations and geometric dividing shapes.
