We are not changing our offerings. We are not changing our leadership. We are changing the brand because a brand has meaning and consequences.

In our work, we are eager and optimistic. We are purpose-built to challenge biases. We want to make things better tomorrow than they are today.

A successful identity system will visualize our definition of “champion” as someone who fights or argues for a cause on behalf of someone else, while maintaining the sense of rigor previously though wrongheadedly implied by our acronym. It will carry forward the equity of ten years in business. And it will celebrate the power of design.

We’ve always known that a valuable part of our process is having every member of the project team, whether a strategist, graphic designer, or project manager, involved from start to finish. This project confirmed that many times over. Together we agreed on who we are, how we behave, what we believe, and what that might look like.

A few client projects seemed particularly relevant: 2016 Type Directors Club’s Annual and Call for Entries and a personal project for Image of the Studio, an exhibition featuring more than seventy-five graphic design firms in New York City, co-curated by the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at Cooper Union and the Athletics.

To build our visual language, we researched the world of competitive sport. We found, among other things, trophies of all shapes and sizes; bronze, silver, and gold medals; pedestals of varying heights; uniforms; flags; playing fields; jersey numbers; scorecards; and symbols of the Olympic Games. 

Laurels bear symbolic meanings of victory, academia, and service. They worked well in application sitting proudly atop stationery or on a tote bag; or doing heavy lifting on social-media platforms and in our site’s favicon. We also found them flexible enough to split apart, using the two “branches” to flank a page title or message.

And we fell in love with Pilat Compressed Bold, designed by Stéphane Elbaz, for its lack of flourish, something that can serve our needs for years to come without falling out of fashion. 

The ultimate goal was to convert the brand into clear, achievable actions that could be prioritized. A to-do list that would inform our everyday.