Chronicles of Progress: pt IV, Visual exploration (Round 3)

Owner and ownership

This is the last installment.

I’ve previously shared a bit of process (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) on being a Brand Advisor to a startup, Owner.com. My initial role has been to focus on a rebrand.

I’m going to mash up a bit of the third round of work with the final deliverables — at some point we transitioned from formal presentations to tweaking the nuts and bolts over some Slack dialogue.

As far as typography, we settled on Söhne — honestly an impeccable font family. I typically search for something a little more unique or with more voice and distinction but its hard to compete against such a pillar of modernity in Söhne. (We’ll see more type specs further down in the post.)

For color: it was always going to be safe — Owner will often whitelabel their interface so that restaurant owners can customize their personal interface. In that regard we stuck with the classic International Klein Blue (IKB).

Okay, back to the point. The logo.

Here is a bit of the exploration. We left off seeking something with symmetry that also had a sense of protection and value. How could we show the value of the customer, the value of the passion, the value or small business owners? Further, how could we imbue protection without forcing a shield, or some other uninspired motif?

Below, you’ll see diamonds, sparkles, and stars. But we landed near the top right.

The final mark conveys the abstraction of protection, value, and visibility. Its an abstract O — but also something that can be so much more. It works in one color and glows in the ultramarine blue.

There is no perfect black and white. “Black” is a deep charcoal gray (#161616) and “white” is a soft, cool gray (#F2F2F2). The saturated blue (#0044FD) sits beautifully between them both.

Here is a tailored snapshot of the brand guidelines. These are incomplete and in progress as the document will continue to grow with more life and more rules.

Photography will be a huge element of the brand as restaurant owners are at the center.

The fun part now is the rollout and the work to be done in getting this brand out into the wild and back into the full brand experience.

owner.com has not yet updated (as of June 16) but its worth sharing the link for some before-and-after as this post will live to tell the tale.

Thanks

Many thanks to Adam Guild (CEO @ Owner), Dean Bloembergen (CTO @ Owner), and Levi Jones (Head of Design @ Owner).