red arc one

Over beers—and after dinner—in 2003, we produced the “brand” for red arc one. It was reckless, it was literal. It was based on nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to the name, the idea that Helvetica was ubiqutous and modern. It was a cheap and fast exercise that two good friends could easily knock out over the weekend. And it stuck...until now. This is the new red arc one.

To be honest, that’s how lots of logos are created—most probably—but not how brands are created. It is certainly not the process we would use or recommend now. We got lucky.

This year, we were granted the rare privilege of stepping back into one of our first projects with the sum of our experience since then in place. We began in December photographing and documenting Rick Price’s work as red arc one. He’s built a practice for himself over the last 5 years through his perseverance and talent, and it is hard to tell whether it is in spite of —or because of—the identity we concocted for him.

We’re loathe to ever recommend to clients with existing brands to pitch the baby out with the bathwater: brand recognition is brand recognition, even if you don’t like the art. With red arc one we’ve kept the substance of the original logo, rejected the parts where it failed, and built a new package around his brand.

That’s the difference now. We know a brand is not a logo.

What you can count on from red arc one is contemporary architecture with modernist cues or underpinnings, yet comfort always dominates. What Rick does best is blend what he likes as an architect with what his clients want. The red arc one style is comfort. He takes architecture seriously. He takes his clients seriously. He just doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he’d never put style and statement before comfort and function. That’s his brand.

He’s warm, gregarious, outgoing, sometimes boisterous, and his work reflects this as well. This too is his brand. That makes him unique in the marketplace: a well educated and well traveled designer who is humble and willing (and able) to do a high end residence or drink the Corona’s necessary to make a bottle chandelier.

Thus: gone are the heavy handed reds, poor use of negative space, and Helvetica Thin (appropriate only for hair salons in 1986 or the Mac Book Air). In their place: Identity development that speaks to who the client is, what they promise, and how that’s different than others in the marketplace. His marketing package is heavily gridded modernism handled in playful and loose ways. A warm, masculine pewter/bronze on cream stationery. Bolder, plush, lower case Helvetica. A thickened and reduced mark, locked in now to the typography through careful application of proportioning system. One should be able to transpose the adjectives that describe our work for Rick Price with those that describe Rick’s work for his clients.

Cheers to red arc one; 5 years in the making.






Design Team Credits: Creative Direction by Jett Butler. Designers Melissa Martin, Caspar Lam and Jett Butler. Architectural Photographer, Jett Butler.