Background: OneStudio D+A, formerly MBA Architects and Interiors, is the Northern Nevada region’s leading architecture and interior design firm. Since the firm was established in 1983, they’ve built a reputation for creating award-winning and dynamic spaces while amassing a large portfolio of projects. The firm has designed a number of award-winning buildings and spaces locally and across the country, including the Vintner’s Inn Spa in Santa Rosa, Mesa Rim Climbing and Fitness Center in Reno, Silver Legacy Spa, and the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.
Objectives: The MBA brand had a few problems to be solved, the first being the name itself. The letters “MBA” stood for partners who hadn’t been with the firm for years, which meant the brand had lost much of its meaning and ownership. Additionally, the company’s current partners were restructuring the firm leadership and appointing three key staff members to new partnership positions. They needed a brand that wasn’t tied to any particular individuals but encompassed their unified team approach now and into the future. It was also important to create a sub-brand for their Interior Design division, Identity Design Lab, that could stand alone as well as being easily integrated into business proposals and work flow.
Secondly, the MBA brand was no longer visually representative of the quality of the firm’s product. The firm had gained a reputation for award-winning work that was imaginative, inclusive, and interesting. They truly were pushing the envelope in designing the spaces in which we work, play, and live. Compared to their work, the company’s logo felt outdated and tried to do too much without actually communicating the firm’s unique approach to design.
As part of our insightOUT™ Brand Development process, we poured over dozens of pages from notes and hours of meetings recordings to distill everything into the key insights that would form a new brand. In that process we learned a lot of things:
We distilled everything we learned from our brand discovery process and came to the conclusion that connection is the single most important aspect of the OneStudio D+A brand. It’s apparent in the team’s penchant for constant collaboration, always coming together towards a common goal. It shows in OneStudio D+A’s process of combining architecture, interiors, and other disciplines of design to achieve the best results. When OneStudio D+A asks “why?” at the start of projects, they are establishing a deeper connection to their client’s vision. And by doing that, they’re taking the first step in designing spaces that better connect with the people who will use them, which in turn creates more connected communities wherever their company goes. When the client suggested the names OneStudio D+A and Identity Design Lab it was an easy decision to march forward with them.
Solution: The name OneStudio D+A captures the idea of collaboration within the team and with their clients, consultants, contractors, and other stakeholders. It also connects back to joining together, connecting, and being connected. The word “One” also can relate to people, as in “someone”, and puts people first.
D+A (Design and Architecture) is meant to be pronounced as “D-N-A” and alludes to the identity they strive to establish behind in each of their projects. The D and A on their own are an ode to the joining together of both design and architecture towards a common goal.
To further integrate design and architecture in their offerings, OneStudio launched a dedicated interior design office called IDentity Design Lab. The second studio operates under the OneStudio D+A parent brand but allows the team to devote equal resources and provide a unified design approach for their clients. IDentity again refers back to D+A and also can be read as the “ID” (interior design) entity or group. The word “Lab” is intentional and hints that this side of the business will promote experimentation with new materials and do more of the research + development within this group.
Fundamental, bold, and forward-thinking, the logo is worthy of a category-leading creative services firm. It demands extra consideration and rewards viewers for taking a second look. The relationship between the One and ID symbols is beautiful, simple, and immediately recognizable. It doesn’t suggest a unified approach, it shouts it.
The formal, elegant, and restrained black and gray color palette lets the work they do for clients shine through instead of competing for attention. Basing these free-flowing forms off of geometric shapes suggests a deep understanding of architecture and design. This free-flowing logo has a ton of use potential when changing the orientation and creates a lot of opportunities for interesting designs in various applications.
Challenges: Designing two logos at the same time, both with interesting names, can be quite a challenge. Every change in the design process affected the other in unexpected ways. The mathematics to create the OneStudio background pattern had to be extremely precise to create a pattern that works in every direction.
Favorite details: We love how the negative spaces in the logotype connect the various pieces of the letterforms together. To us, it speaks to the brand pillars of connection and unity. Once-in-a-lifetime, the ONE logo creates a pattern that is perfectly symmetrical and it gets the little designer in us all giddy. The logo is flexible and versatile enough to be displayed either horizontally or vertically. We slightly rounded the corners on all of the letterforms to soften the edges and unify the logotypes.
Another favorite detail is the subtle architectural structures present in the logo’s letterforms. To us, they resemble modern buildings from a bird’s eye view. We love these kinds of subtle call-backs to a company’s offerings rather than obvious illustrations of services.
Design Thinking: Initially, an earlier version of the logo had been approved and prototyped. The client came back and asked for some revisions to that version of the logo that made the work much better. Instead of telling us what to do, they explained what they thought wasn’t working and we came back with a much better solution.
Visual influences: Building blocks, the work of Michael Vanderbyl, and The Holy Trinity of circle, square, and triangle.
Time constraints: This project lingered a bit waiting for legal approvals on naming and other industry certifications, totaling nine months to complete.
Specific demands: The client understood that trying to create traditional logos in the style of icons or illustrations was pedestrian, so we were able to focus on forms that expressed and celebrated the names themselves.
Of note: The design system relies on the typeface Avenir Next by Adrian Frutiger. Avenir is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1987 and released in 1988 by Linotype GmbH. The word “avenir” is French for “future”. It is also notable the ease that this system is able to occupy spaces because the pattern and logo work so well with each other.
"The response to our new name and brand has been overwhelming positive. I feel our new brand will open up new business opportunites and assure current clients that we have our eye on the future. As a result of Stan Can Design's brand development process our team has a new common confidence and sense of purpose."
Submitted by: Stan Can Design and OneStudio D+A
Contact: Stan Byers
stan@stancandesign.com
775-813-7602
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