Bringing a 108 Year-Old Agency Brand into 2023

How do we usher a 108 year-old agency into 2023? By remaining timeless and authentic while also nodding to current design aesthetics. 

For the word 'mark', we took inspiration from two classic typefaces that played critical roles throughout our history – Baskerville and Clarendon. From there, we created a completely custom word mark reflecting elements from both. The serifs on the 'd's, 'n's and 'r' are curved, the 's' has ball terminals to better match the other letterforms, and the 'a + n' is a lowercase ligature. All these customizations then allowed us to deconstruct the logo and interlock it in various formations to use as a large-scale pattern that we like to call "our logo stack". 

The acorn mark has been tied to Doe-Anderson since its founding in 1915. It's an important icon for our agency, however its relevance has shifted throughout the years. There has been a lot of weight hanging on that little seed. We wanted to emerge as a Doe-Anderson family, and to do so the acorn needed to be removed from the primary mark. We approached this decision as a way to evolve, but inversely we wanted to keep in touch with our roots, literally. The idea that tiny acorns – or small ideas – can grow into mighty oak trees, becoming entire campaigns, movements, or revolutions is a part of the story we want to continue to tell. The acorn has been given its own space to live and breathe, becoming a "stamp of approval" to support our brand tone when needed, as a heritage mark. We believe it's necessary to acknowledge where we've been, where we come from, and learn how to use it to grow.

We tackled this project from all angles: logo design, typography, color selection, web design, photography, social media, presentation templates, the list goes on. We're so excited to release this labor of love to the world. 

“It was really an honour (and also a huge undertaking) to reimagine such a long-standing and historical brand – the agency has been part of the fabric of Louisville for more than 100 years. So we were extremely thoughtful when taking stock of everything that represented Doe-Anderson visually up to 2022,” said senior art director Emi Johnson. 

“Through rounds of discussion and debate, we were able to discover ways the entire visual identity could flex through energetic elements like our new typography, colors and logo variations. We have something brand new, but still classic, that undeniably represents our history and identity but still points us to the future,” said senior art director Jake Schultz.