A clean and refined brand upgrade for Ann Arbor Sports

The small, but mighty team at the Ann Arbor Sports Commission knew they needed to present a brand that could stand on its own and break out of their convention and visitors bureau’s branding. With a limited budget and big dreams, they brought us in. Their goals were simple — do not use any colors of U of M or Eastern Michigan, capture the energy of sport, make us  look current and relevant, express who we are so that we feel like “us,” and clarify our story so that we can tell it to the sporting events community.

In the same way the Ann Arbor Sports Commission has a small staff, we challenged our crew to deliver more with less, do better than the rest and that’s exactly what we achieved. Hard work and smart strategy win on the playing field and in business. Our approach was similar to all the branding projects we tackle, starting with stakeholder interviews and questionnaires that help us glean insights about the destination and the organization’s aspirations. From personality traits and team values to business goals, we were able to pinpoint key themes that helped us define who they are, why they’s different, how they should look and what drives the Ann Arbor Sports Commission’s team to get up and make things happen every day.

We know that our commitment to produce the best by putting in the extra effort always results in a win for us and for our clients. It may be our ridiculous obsession with selecting colors that work in print and look consistent on the screen or that we always provide more concepts than we promise. Whatever the case, it can easily be said that our ability to listen, refine, push-back sometimes and then listen and refine some more until we produce a voice with visuals that feel true to the brand.

Once we crossed the finish line with this brand execution, we had created a logo and guidelines that are clean, friendly, approachable and playful.