"A big brand bear hug"

I can distinctly remember our first trip taking the train over to MoMA Queens and experiencing the jumbled white markings on rooftop equipment turn into a very clear M o M A and then just as quickly return to jumble.

While we were designing the new headquarters for Lojistic, they were simultaneously going through a re-branding effort and the CEO wanted to figure out how to celebrate the new company name and visual branding identity they were developing. To add to the equation, their new office space was in a mid-rise building with a sawtooth curtain wall edge that overlooks the well known Noguchi Garden in Costa Mesa, CA. We didn’t want to just put up a big logo wall and call it day, so we tested out some ideas that were inspired by the building’s sawtooth exterior.

The logo: It was new and we wanted to give it a special moment.

And then I remembered our train ride over to the temporary MoMA Queens.

We didn’t even have a proper sketch to show Luke when we presented the idea. Unfazed by our ‘on the spot’ sketches of the idea, he commented… “It’s like a big brand bear hug.”

And it is, but you’d almost miss it.

The next question was, “How are you going to do it?” I just responded truthfully, “I don’t know, but I know we can do it.”

What transpired over the next couple of months were digital models, sketches, fabricator mock-ups and more digital models.

Design considerations that went into the solution:

Recycled barn wood - introducing tried and true, irregular and natural material to a pallet of the concrete and glass curtain wall provided for a great juxtaposition. And the material hints at Luke’s Pacific Northwest outdoor adventurous upbringing.

The open office was just a little too open and we needed some screens to help subtly subdivide the area without blocking all the exceptional views.

We had to stretch the logo graphic since none of the fins would be perpendicular to the viewer. But how much?

Thank you Luke for continuing to believe in us!