Beyond by Bill & Paul’s
Branding Design
This project of establishing branding for a new store, with no existing reputation was an interesting challenge. Grace was able to demonstrate her ability to work collaboratively on a logo design, while guiding the team toward a lasting, successful solution, using her years of design expertise.
Phase 1.
An in-store designer at Bill & Paul’s Sporthaus took on the task of creating a logo and branding for its new sister-store called Beyond. This new store was meant to be a part of the growing Sporthaus Collection in Grand Rapids, but would feature more “soft-goods” apparel items rather than the sporting equipment sold at Bill & Paul’s.
Though the Bill & Paul’s team appreciated what the in-store designer produced, Grace was contracted in to refine the logo design, create cohesion with the Bill & Paul’s logo, as well as establish overall branding for the new Beyond store, to ensure the logo could be scaled appropriately for all future mediums of use.
Logos Created By Store Employees
Minimal Changes.
In order to not step on the toes of those in the Bill & Paul’s store who created the 3 logo options above, Grace made a first round of suggestions with minimal changes.
As Grace saw it, if they continued with this look, there were two primary issues that needed to be resolved:
The Gradients/Colors - Gradients can often print in unpredictable ways, and are not practical for all types of logo application. Grace simplified the mountain/river design, to utilize solid colors in the same color palette.
The Typeface - The store employees suggested typefaces in the options above lacked balance in the overall design. Grace suggested alternate options that better related to the mountain portion of the logo.
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Gradient Removal
The gradient used in the provided originals was removed, instead using four solid blues pulled from the previous gradients.
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Bold River
The river portion was altered to be more smooth and bold like the rest of the design. This portion was also made to “cut” through the mountain, utilizing negative space.
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Reverse River
The center river portion was reversed, adding emphasis to the river, while also allowing different interpretation for outdoor activities, such as camping and smoke.
Phase 2.
Phase One’s minimal changes were well received and proved that the company’s leaders were open to further changes in design. Grace was given the green light to proceed with more new ideas for variation, pushing past the look created by the store employees.
Moderate Changes.
Using the previous phase as inspiration, a bolder, primarily symmetrical triangle graphic was created. Three ideas guided the concept behind these designs.
Abstract Shape - The previously established shape of a triangle was kept because of its reference to mountains, tents in camping, or other outdoor activity items.
Negative Space - The negative space created by the lines cut through the triangles were left open to interpretation, possibly reading as trails, rivers or paths depending on your sport.
Layers - The staggered layers show depth, which could be interpreted as distance between mountains in a range, or the layers of clothing since that is what Beyond would be selling.
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Graphic retaining the original shape used in phase 1, now using more symmetry, abstract representation, and equal spacing.
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Graphic similar to that on the left but condensed horizontally and staggered to create the illusion of depth.
Phase 3.
After discussion with the store’s team, Grace was encouraged to move the design toward a green color palette, to match detailing on the new building being completed.
In this phase, Grace decided to take full creative freedom and provide some very different designs for consideration, taking the branding further away from the previous phases.
Maximum Changes.
Since no clear winner was selected from the previous phases of design options, Grace created a larger range of diversity in the designs to see if a clear winner could be chosen.
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Linear
Created with a stand-alone, logo mark in mind, this option utilizes a linear graphic representing mountain, paths, growth and descent, inspiring movement.
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Bold
Created with a stand-alone, logo mark in mind, this option uses the same linear graphic but cut into a bold circle for maximum impact.
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Minimalistic
Created with a stand-alone, logo mark in mind, this option was created to highlight the intersection of outdoor activities for customers.
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Elements from Bill & Paul's
Since this new store, Beyond, is intended to be a sister store to the already established Bill & Paul’s Sporthaus in Grand Rapids, Grace created and presented an option utilizing a similar graphic motif.
The Decision.
In the end, the management team ended up selected a design created by the architect working on the store’s build, but the design process was valuable and challenging. This project was a classic example of too many cooks in the kitchen to establish a clear direction for branding, but the Beyond team is happy with the final logo, which was always the goal!
