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.