Running, and Growing, a Local Brand

Leatherman Harriers Sunday Runs Aims to Attract New Runners.

Ten years ago, half a dozen trail runners got together to train for the Leatherman’s Loop, a local 10k trail race and what is arguably the largest trail race east of the Mississippi. Lee Willett, the owner of Studio 23, was one of those founding members. In those early days, runners were contacted by email and maps were hand-drawn and shown to runners the morning of. But early on, the group’s organizer was injured and Lee offered to take over to keep things moving forward.

Quickly, it became clear there was potential to grow so Lee suggested registering SundayRuns.org and got to work creating the website which has grown over time. Today, ten years later, there are 200 unique trail maps on the site, an updated calendar, weekly run updates, lists of east coast trail races and 100-mile ultras, weekly photos of the group, and useful tips and files for all levels or runners—all for free.

Recently, we updated and expanded the organization’s branding to include new initiatives including the establishment of our Rookie Runners program aimed to get new runners onto the trails. As the club evolves, we’ll be there to update the brand as necessary and keep the group, ahem, running.

 

An Official Update to a Premier Brand

Longtime client Official Sports wanted to update its signature U.S. Soccer referee uniform to a modern, clean look using premiere materials and addressing some of the limitations of their previous shirt. As a trail and ultra runner, Studio 23 owner Lee Willett had some strong ideas about what a referee would want in a performance shirt and set to work. While the company could have worked with a standard clothing designer, they understood the importance that the shirt had as a cornerstone of their brand and wanted to make sure that whatever the new design was, it would maintain a visual link to their current shirt.

The core branding element of the previous uniform was a repeating pattern of a pair of thin and thick stripes running the length of the shirt from shoulder to waist. Among other things, this meant that each component of the shirt was die-sub printed separately so that the stripes aligned but the process of imprinting altered the base material performance capabilities. Since, regardless of the design, we knew the shirt needed to perform like a champ, we looked for alternatives that would allow us to retain the stripe but limit the printing. We developed over a dozen alternative designs showing different collars, pocket openings, shirt closures, and stripe details. In the end, Official Sports and USSF decided to implement a design with a half zip front, slim spread collar, ventilated side panels with subtle chevron design, and an inset stripe detailing on front, back, and sleeves as a nod to the original shirt.

The final design is cleaner, looks more athletic, and has been well received by referees throughout the country. It retains the signature double stripe as a graphic element and thus insures continuity of the brand. But as for how it looks, you make the call. See it at OfficialSports.com

Linking Cultures Through Visual Iconography

Visual Identity for a Cultural Institution

Connecticuti Eesti Kool, the Connecticut Estonian School, a learning institution primarily devoted to passing on Estonian cultural traditions to school-aged children throughout Connecticut, wanted to build a brand that was professional but not stuffy, traditional but playful. Though the school had been founded in 1951 several years after the second world war as a place to share and promote Estonian culture among recent emigrants and their children, there had never been a formal identity developed, no previously-conceived iconography to work with.

So, our first task was to research commonalities between Estonia and Connecticut—iconography, colors, visual forms, plants, and animals. Early on, we saw that the white oak was an important icon in Estonian culture and the state tree of Connecticut and this gave us our start. We developed a number of sketches including whole trees, acorns, and leaves and, ultimately, arrived at a solution that combined a series of leaves of various sizes to represent the growth of the students in the program. Colors were chosen to mirror the Estonian flag and a shield icon was used as a way to communicate tradition and education. A number of lockups were created that could be used in horizontal formats, vertical formats, on shirts and other promotional items, and an official seal that would be reserved for ceremonial and institutional purposes only. In addition, social media badges and email graphics were rolled out for the school to use on all of its accounts and emails.

While the school is just implementing the system now, they’ve been pleased with the reaction they’ve received from their audience. We here at Studio 23 think that’s very Kool.

A Lifetime of Education

It’s no surprise that many of our clients are schools, colleges, and educational institutions. As a former director of publications and teacher at two different schools, I’ve seen first-hand the special needs that schools have and know the challenges involved.

Schools and colleges have to address the needs of very different audiences, for example. They need to appeal to 16-year-old high school students applying to colleges, to alumni that may not have stepped foot on campus in 50 years, to professionals and businesses that may hire graduates, to potential educators and staff, and to funding sources for projects, research grants, and scholarships. Then there are the internal brand conflicts that can arise between different divisions with wildly different needs—athletics, academics, financial, to name a few. How can you address the needs of these different audiences while maintaining a consistent brand? How can you speak with a consistent voice while maintaining uniqueness within subdivisions?

Too much variation from a core brand and an institution appears disconnected, losing brand identity. Too little variation compromises the messaging for target groups. An email targeting high school students should share the core DNA with a planned giving brochure for alumni, but the two have very different parameters. Promotional material for the athletics department should share the same DNA as a brochure attracting potential graduate students, but, again, the two target very different audiences.

One of the first goals in designing for education is understanding what the core brand is and what core elements form the identity with the goal of understanding how these elements can be used, manipulated, flexed, so that the resulting designs can be instantly recognizable as connected to the school, but remain fresh and appropriate for the target audience.

Design is a Melody, The Brand is the Symphony

An analogy to this approach can be found is music. Listen to the score of a symphony or even a movie soundtrack. Within this, you’ll often hear a core melody which changes, becomes clearer, more obscured, which is passed between instruments, changed again, returning to its original form over and over. This playfulness is key to keeping the listener entertained and engaged. Periodically, the composer will introduce unexpected elements, quiet passages, loud crashes, syncopated rhythms, minor keys, while keeping within an overall melodic structure. In the end, the work tells a story, completes a picture. In much the same way, designing for an educational institution is like writing that symphony. Individual elements are created that address specific communication needs within an overall structure that is the brand.

Knowing how flexible or how inflexible to be is our expertise. The look and language of a Shapchat filter that targets high school students is different than a dinner invitation that targets your board of trustees. But whether that’s a 1080-by-1920 pixel .PNG file uploaded to a remote server or a 130# uncoated vellum, ivory white, 100% cotton sheet that’s been letterpressed using soy inks, we’ve done it all. We look forward to working with our education clients in the future. As they grow, so will we.

What’s in a Name?

The Wikipedia entry says it right there: John Jay High School is a public high school located in Cross River, New York. It is the only high school in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District. The school, which opened in 1956, is named after John Jay, a Founding father of the United States, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who lived nearby. Over the years, the school has been heavily criticized for its mascot, the Indians.

At several times over the past 30 years, the question has been raised whether the school should change its mascot yet, although a 1989 vote by student congress revealed it should, nothing has changed. A recent poll of students revealed a majority of students voting were reluctant to abandon the Indian although there was considerable discussion at the school about the issue. As members of the community, we at Studio 23 had some thoughts.

At the time of the school’s founding, there was much less cultural sensitivity. The “Indian” was chosen, no doubt, as a symbol because it was white affluent society’s interpretation of a kind of fierceness. But recently, the student congress reached out to a native American cultural organization which pointed out that the term “indian” is a racial construct, and is offensive to many in their culture. Clearly, the mascot needs to go.

John Jay Indian Logos
Current John Jay High School iconography.

There are many reasons people are uncomfortable with change, particularly for symbols which hold special meaning to them. Tribal loyalties are questioned, emotions get stirred. But sometimes the issue can be as simple as not being able to see the possibilities beyond what they currently have. To that end, Studio 23 created a series of alternate identities as talking points, not as finished designs. For inspiration we looked at meaningful fauna that were native to the area in the time of John Jay—ravens, wolves, wildcats, hawks—as well as more intangible concepts such as patriot, pioneer, and American.

Below is a result of one of those explorations—the John Jay Revolution, inspired by the fact that John Jay was a prominent figure during the American revolution. The concept uses a tattered “revolutionary flag” as a core part of the identity. The new name implies rebellion and uprising but also implies a sense of speed and motion. The primary typeface used is Franklin Gothic (which would have made Ben Franklin proud) and the color is retained from the existing identity. The modular identity, shown in various possible configurations, includes the name, flag, stylized “JJ”, and is flexible enough to accommodate not only sports teams but clubs and organizations affiliated with the school.

While this is only a concept intended to spark a discussion, we urge the folks at John Jay to move the project forward and hope that our efforts can help in some small way to make that happen. We’d love to come to a game and see the crowd proudly waving their flags. That would be, ahem, revolutionary.

John Jay Indian Alternatives

Studio 23 Launches Disfluency.com

Disfluency Web Magazine Design by Lee Willett / Studio 23
DisfluencyToday, Studio 23 launched a new site called Disfluency.com which contains bits and pieces of design postings from around the web loosely tied together on the theme of disfluency—the art of making things difficult. Disfluency is a break or interruption in a visual flow of elements. It implies a disjointed nature of elements which can lead to effective or disastrous communications as a result. On the one hand, creating messages that challenge the reader can make those messages more effective and memorable. However, too little structure leads to chaos and anarchy. The right balance is the goal of any good designer. Stay tuned.

A New Mark for Lewisboro Library

Lewisboro Library Identity

LewisboroLibraryThe Lewisboro Library is perceived as a local resource by the community it serves. The Library, in fact, is a vibrant hub of activity offering programs, internet connection, books, videos and music from any of the libraries in the Westchester Library System. In addition, the Library was embarking on a new fundraising campaign and wanted a fresh identity to communicate a sense of tradition and a preparedness for the future.

Studio 23 created a logo that combines traditional and electronic elements to convey both a sense of past and future.

Signs of the Times

The Morris Group identity

morrislargeNew real estate company The Morris Group needed an identity to differentiate themselves from the crowded Connecticut/New York real estate market. They contacted Studio23 to develop a comprehensive identity including positioning statement, tagline, logo, sell-sheets and signs. The M-house became a cornerstone of the program as was the tagline, “New York Negotiations. Connecticut Charm.”

How was the final identity received? Well, if you’re in the neighborhood, you can see for yourself. The signs are popping up all over.

Ruby Sue’s New Bag

Ruby Sue Boutique Identity
Ruby Sue Boutique IdentityRuby Sue Boutique, a small clothier, looked to Studio 23 to develop a sophisticated identity that would differentiate it from other stores and could be used on bags, tags advertising and signs. Studio 23 used a butterfly and frilly forms to create a look that was playful, friendly, open and inviting. Word on the street is — Ruby Sue never looked so good.