Sibley Peteet Design
Giving credence to the expression “the cobbler’s children
have no shoes,” the first official Sibley Peteet
Design identity wasn’t introduced until September
1982, five months after Don Sibley and Rex Peteet
forged a partnership and the company opened its
doors.
Taking advantage of the fact that the words
Sibley,
Peteet, and
Design each contain six letters,
the initial logo was composed of three stacked, horizontal,
pastel-colored bars with reversed type. The
firm demonstrated its creativity with a novel idea for
the time: The backs of the letterhead and business
cards were printed with a pattern of diagonal lines
in the colors of the logo on the front side. When the
firm moved to a new location in 1989, the principals
opted to retain the logo, but refreshed its look with
an updated color palette.
Although the stacked bar logo served the group
well for two decades, it had its limitations, including
restrictions on how small the mark could be used due
to readability issues. By 2002, the Sibley Peteet team
had begun to incorporate a graphic element into the
firm’s promotional materials—a simple rectangle with
rounded corners and the letters
S and
P reversed out.
The
S is a serif font, while the
P is sans serif—a nod
to the different personalities of the two partners.
Feeling that the SP monogram mark was more
contemporary—and liking the casual feeling it elicited—
the firm began to use the rectangle more and
more, and in a variety of color palettes, in its selfpromotion
efforts.
Finally, in 2003 the decision was
made to officially switch to the monogram mark.
The color of the official identity is bright red, chosen
because it is attention-getting, but still classic.
SJI Associates
When Suzy Jurist began SJI Associates in 1991, she
couldn’t have predicted that in the next 15 years she
would have a staff of 25 and a client list that reads
like a Who’s Who of Fortune 500 companies.
SJI’s first logo predated the firm’s use of desktop
computers for design. The hand-lettered, angular
type treatment reflected the style of the time, and
when printed, the two-color logo appeared in black
and one of five different fluorescent colors—a different
color for each component of the stationery
system—on bright white stock. After five years, the
fluorescent ink was replaced by a metallic color system
printed on cream-colored paper.
As the company’s services expanded to include
web design and Flash animation, the logo was again
changed by removing the dots on either side, adding
perspective, and softening the foreground.
With a client base that had expanded to include
larger companies and an increased focus on corporate
communications, the next identity system was more
on the serious side—the softened foreground was
eliminated to make the logo appear more enduring.
After a decade of existence, the decision was
made to completely overhaul SJI’s visual system to
be reflective of the level of work it was executing for
corporate clients. The process was begun by SJI staff
performing creative exercises such as poring through
design annuals to identify design treatments that
had become clichés through overuse. Other exercises
included designing the SJI logo as if it were a technology
firm or an entertainment company.
The end result is not merely a logo or wordmark;
it’s a full-fledged identity that is flexible and
complete. The SJI team engineered a “super brand”
that includes a signature typeface, patterns, and
graphic elements that comprise a full corporate identity
system.
