We love working with strong creative female entrepreneurs, so when Deborah Smithton came to us looking to build an iconic brand for her architecture firm we couldn’t wait to dive in.

We started with brand research, learning more about Deborah, her design credentials, and her previous work – which included the world-renowned Hotel Del, a National Historic Landmark in Coronado. We also discovered Deborah’s love for modern clean lines and construction cranes and wanted to see if we could incorporate this special detail into the branding design.

A moodboard with iconic brand inspiration, clean lines, and deep shades of charcoal and green led the way as we worked on designing a logo and a brand mark that could be used with the primary logo or stand strong on its own.

To make a statement we used extra bold type for the business name, then brought in personality and balance with a bright pop of orange and thin lines found in the rest of the branding. We found a clever way to nod to the construction cranes, in the two T’s. And designed a unique brandmark that features several building blocks as well as the letter S for Smithton.

We then shifted our focus to building out a user-friendly website, and have had the pleasure to continue working with Deborah on business proposal templates, other marketing design and consulting.