A long-time nonprofit focusing on the heritage of a coastal New England community embarked on a project to bring the century-old organization’s public image into the 21st century. To do this, a designer was engaged to conduct a visual audit, provide recommendations, design the new identity, and execute the final application.
The existing logo/mark for the organization consisted of a traditional “Seal” type design depicting 17th century New England colonists exchanging goods for land with the local indigenous population. The logo’s image had degraded over time due to the loss of the original artwork long before. Additionally, the event depicted is historically accurate, but lacks an acknowledgment of the exploitation and subjugation of the native population by the Europeans and their ancestors.
Before and After
After exploring a number of visual directions based on the client brief, one version was selected for further development that brought the central focus of the refreshed imagery to the community’s maritime trade, which was the basis for the growth and expansion of the town. The designer executed a stylized sailing ship based on an historic reference (an 18th century sloop) that was specific to the area. The new identity direction was explored in a number of configurations, with the final version of the primary illustration accompanied by typography reiterating the town’s founding date of 1651.
The graphic silhouette of the sloop is sleek and contemporary, and was designed to be applied to a wide range of uses from digital to print. To extend the mark’s utility, the designer created a reverse image version enclosed in an ellipse (or rectangle). This configuration is useful when the application is for a busy visual environment where the positive version wouldn’t be bold enough to compete with its surroundings.
The color palette for the identity is simple, and appropriately for a maritime community, references that fact by the use of blue, but not just any blue. The particular blue chosen lies on the spectrum between green and red with the balance falling toward the latter with respect to its composition. It’s also a color that references the palettes used by Colonial Americans for decorative purposes. As an extension of the identity, the same blue is used to reinforce the organization’s branding through its use on the web and in print.
This successful rebranding of a staid, traditional logo into a contemporary symbol moves from the literal depiction of an historic event to the abstraction of a concept that embodies a much wider range of history. It does so by achieving a balance between acknowledging the past (the classic letterforms) and moving toward the future (the stylized sloop image).