Onyx Group: Reloaded

"a love story of rebranding proportions"

The Client

At Onyx, we help our clients tell their story through creative imaging, business strategies and solutions.  We figure, talk is cheap, there’s no better way to show our process than by rebranding ourselves.

The Challenge

We are dedicated to helping our clients navigate the ever-changing landscape of today’s marketplace.  We understand that in today’s economic climate, consumers are increasingly skeptical.  Strong graphics are an important element when branding a company, organization or individual. Creating something that’s timeless and relevant without falling into the current design fad that can quickly go out of style (though it might flirt a bit with trendy’s cousin, vanity) is a balancing act. The best way to show everyone what we are capable of is with our own brand and website.  Our challenge was to create a fresh brand and website to show everyone that we practice what we preach.

The Plan

Out with the old, in with the new. We wanted something fresh, something strong, something sexy, something that will have dinner ready and Dancing With The Stars on the DVR when you get home. Our image needed to reflect the sound and feel of how we are evolving. Although our old brand was sleek and elegant, our new look needed to be visually attractive and friendly. Along with our new brand we needed to upgrade our website. Creating one that let our work speak for itself, a website that gives back to the industry we love so much!

Creating something that's timeless and relevant without falling into the current design fad that can quickly go out of style.

Design

The colors: We really wanted the new Onyx logo and brand to stand out and say “how you doin?”. The blue dot is the perfect eye-grabbing blue (Pantone 306), and it is complimented by the charcoal gray found throughout the rest of the collateral, brand and website. We love using whitespace and keeping things minimal, so we made sure every piece of creative in color was snuggled by a liberal use of whitespace.

The images: At Onyx, we plan to leave a piece of our hearts with each project that passes through our studio. Enter the Onyx dot, the Onyx gizmo, or the thingamajig, whatever we decide to name it – it is our mark (and a bit of our soul) that we leave behind. Fun, clever, creative, loyal and a “get things done” kind of attitude; and we’re not just talking about our mascot Chloe! We wanted our clients to get to know us. Our site highlights our talented and diverse staff in an engaging way.

The typography: After various excellent typeface choices we chose one that was strong, legible and friendly. We fused a type-treatment using the Stag (bold italic) typeface by SchwartzCo Inc. And we guess the real reason is it looks aesthetically delicious by denoting a sense of movement, excitement and strength. Also, throughout our collateral and online brand, we used a typeface called Museo Sans which is pretty much the typeface we fancy due to its sexy nature and various weights. The sans-serif typeface complements our brand eloquently.

Content

Hard to find things, hidden navigation, colors that make your eyes hurt; that’s the next guys’ website. At the Onyx site we placed things where they’re easily accessible. We added photos that compliment the copy. And we included a major addition, the Onyx Blog, where each of our team members can post resources, links, how-to’s / tutorials and the like to help build a strong community. This gives our clients a chance to get to know us, and creates a welcoming, creative and problem-solving environment.

The Results

We will let you know!