My dad and his business partner Michael Murphy recently started their own company, Nelson Murphy Insurance & Investments. They needed a brand identity.
I have always looked up to my Dad (and my mom, too). Here’s an old post from 2008 about a talk he did on business and life. It was cool to make the connection of the points he talked about and seeing how my parents lived all of them in their own lives.
My dad serves on SecretPenguin’s board of advisors, and has always been very supportive.
To say I was nervous about doing work for him is an understatement. Not to mention, this all happened quickly and we needed to fit the job into an already busy schedule. But no way was I going to turn my own father down.
So, we started the branding process (with the help of Michael Murphy’s wife Stacy Ashley who is a talented marketing director at RehabVisions).
MOODBOARD
We met and created a moodboard for visual direction, and found visuals should lean towards:
• a touch of class
• earthy
• preppy (but not too collegiate feeling)
BRAND ATTRIBUTES
Brand attributes (the appearance you want the general public to have of your company) would be:
• Ethical & Trusted (association by: reputation, quality design that gives a sense of trustworthiness)
• Professional (association by: reputation, quality design and well crafted copy on brand materials that will come across as knowledgable)
• Approachable (association by: reputation, professional but casual photos on brand materials, overall style will be along the lines of Eddie Bauer and J. Crew)
LOGO
We then developed a logo based on the story of their brand:
• Nelson is the base that started the business.
• The addition of Murphy furthers it’s reach and completes it.
• The two together create something new and unique.
LETTERHEAD & BUSINESS CARDS
We were finicky about the paper choice to make sure everything appeared high-end, but still approachable.
I believe we had hit the mark, and I received an email from my dad that confirmed it:
“The look of all three, the envelope, letterhead and cards do a great job in furthering our brand. It is very cool and I am proud of each piece. I now see how branding works better if you pay attention to detail. Thanks again, I am proud of you. Love, Dad”