Design Portfolio

M&R Products

Story: In 2004, M&R Products was in a transition phase from a family-owned enterprise to one owned by a management group. The new CEO had been looking at opportunities to reinvigorate the company and the existing brand had been identified as a weakness. I was tasked with developing a logo that maintained some consistency with the old brand while making it more fresh and competitive in a crowded motorsports safety market.

Challenge: M&R Products had more than 25 years of relationships with customers across the country. Change, especially in safety products, can be jarring to people searching for stability and consistency. Many companies in this space had never changed their branding for fear of losing or alientating customers. For these resons, and anxiety surrounding a new ownership group, there was an inherent risk in making a transition from the old, dated logo.

Goal: To create a brand that reinforced innovative thinking (the company was in the process of launching several game-changing products at the time) while maintaining the current customer base in multiple markets.

Solution: This logo was one of the most difficult projects on which I've worked to date. I spent considerable time researching the market and looking at branding in the motorsports industry, which varied significantly across the markets in which M&R competed.

The first round of logos (pictured left), were rejected, though elements of the different designs resonated with the ownership group. There was an insistence on maintaining the blue color that was the prominent feature of the previous logo, as well as the ampersand. The designs that featured the stylistic font (Rage Italic) were deemed a bit to edgy for their customer base.

The final logo featured Serpentine, a font that is widely used in the motorsports industry, with a forward italic to indicate motion. The ampersand is included in the design, which helps the M&R flow as one mark. Finally, the addition of the checkers indicates a winning tradition, but as a graphical element, does not overpower the rest of the design.