Brettro Logo

When I started Brettrospective in 2005 it was intended to be a part-time side hustle to earn a little extra money and to be able to stretch my design muscle beyond the scope of my full-time job with Uncle Sam. After a few years, a handful of clients and a very casual approach to Brettro’s visual identity, I decided it was time to get serious.

The Challenge

Early on I had chosen Ed Roman (part of House Industries’ Ed Benguiat fonts) for the Brettrospective wordmark. It just captured the whimsical-but-sophisticated aesthetic that I wanted, plus it captured the mid-century modern style to which I’ve always been drawn.

The Early Logos

Right off the bat in 2005 I created this wordmark. I loved the juxtaposition of the highly-styled serif type with the still-whimsical-but-more-serious sans-serif type. And I thought the switching of colors for the drop shadow was a particularly clever effect. What I do not understand is why I chose that extremely vibrant green color.

In late 2006 I went all-in on the gradient.

The Challenge

Once I decided to create a new, more polished logo, I knew I wanted to:

• Continue using the wordmark since there was some existing brand recognition
• Maintain and expand on the mid-century whimsy and style
• Refine and expand the already-established green color palette (emphasis on refine)

The Solution

As I set out to create a new logo and knowing I wanted to refine the logo color palette, I realized I should address my tagline at the same time.

Logos

I know I had done quite a few initial doodles of logo ideas, but unfortunately the notebook with them is long gone. (Mental note: these are things worth saving.) I did find several high-fidelity logo samples where I was initially very focused on the visual concept of subatomic particles moving around to create an object. My thinking there was that the World Wide Web was made up of a bunch of pieces (websites) that created a whole. I found the biggest challenge was sizing the particle graphic and the word mark so one did not dominate the other.

I moved on from that concept towards the idea of a compass. The most popular early web browser was Netscape Navigator. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had taken quite a bit of market share and Apple’s Safari browser was also an option. All three symbolized exploration in some way, so a compass seemed like an ideal visual symbol. Here is an early doodle.

Again, I found the balance between the symbol and the wordmark to be difficult and I really wanted the wordmark integrated into the logo’s symbol. Ultimately I created a shape I call the “Brettro Compass,” which is a stylized rectangle with a point on each side and the wordmark in the center. The moment I created it, I loved it.

Taglines

Initially Brettro was going to solely focus on web design and development. The market was exploding and that’s where my strength was. I had done graphic design and print work prior to the web, but I decided to keep my focus on the web. With that, this was my first tagline:

Creating Compelling Web Sites

By December 2005 (a whopping five months in) I had been approached to do print work and brand identity work. I had also been creating video “trailers” of vacations I’d taken with friends with photos and video taken on the trips, so I decided to market myself as more of a media design company and adopted:

Creating Compelling Web, Video, Presentation, and Print Destinations

I used that tagline until March 2007 when I adopted the Brettro Compass logo and this tagline:

Web | Identity | Print | Video

There’s no verb or catchy alliteration, but it does have its own catchy cadence when reading it or saying it. And its pointedness describes the work I do in clear terminology.

Color Palette

The initial logo color palette was black and an extremely vibrant green. Green is my favorite color, but I am more drawn to subtle green colors. I wish I had notes for why I originally chose the green I did. I would love to know my thought process. In finalizing the logo palette, I settled on two blue colors and decided to make a sage green a solid secondary color. And I retired the bright green color entirely.

Final Product

Here is the final product: the Brettro Compass logo.