Kind of Cool
Strategy, Brand Voice,
Visual Identity
Special thanks to Rachel Kettler,
for design support
Meet Kind of Cool, the new cowgirl in town. Founder Chelsea Trout came to us with a fresh vision for what it means to be a marketing strategist. She refused to be tied down to a specific medium, adoring and valuing both digital and print work. Kind of Cool uses Chelsea's network of high caliber collaborators, which she harnesses into agile teams, that can take any entrepreneur, any business, from prototype to full-scale launch.
We hopped in as eager collaborators in building her own brand identity, one that aligned herself closer with the creative studios she partnered with and farther from the stuffy marketing agencies of the past. Chelsea is a sharp-shooter, with great taste, which allowed us to give her an extremely playful and expressive brand with a deep vault of elements.
The Kind of Cool brand has a fully stocked arsenal of assets including 5 logos. Reflecting Chelsea's multi-disciplinary practice and ability to adapt to her client's needs, we created a system that gave her variety and excitement.
The Kind of Cool brand has a fully stocked arsenal of assets including 5 logos. Reflecting Chelsea's multi-disciplinary practice and ability to adapt to her client's needs, we created a system that gave her variety and excitement.
The Wild West of Marketing
Even in our initial conversations, Chelsea expressed her affinity for the Southwest, desert scenes. We drew heavily on that inspiration, and it influenced our narrative, type, color and icon choices. We also gave Chelsea the addition of some groovy patterns and additional assets to really take the brand from being just another colorful brand, to something well, kind of cool.
Iconography
Heavily stroked illustrations give the KOC brand a fun cast of characters. They seem to live somewhere between a cowboy ranch in Wyoming and the Arizona deserts.
Expressions
In addition to the set of five logos, we also created four accompanying brand expressions. These are taglines and logo alternatives that add to the overall feeling of the brand.
Type
The challenge with this was to pick typography that felt fun and in-line with the wild brand world we had built, yet still captured her professionalism and expertise. By using type that was legible, but had character, we solved our problem.
Before Chelsea rode off into the sunset, we gave her one last, but important deliverable, her own print-ready brand guidelines. Although building a digitally-native brand, Chelsea has a deep love of print and all things tactile, so it just made sense.
Before Chelsea rode off into the sunset, we gave her one last, but important deliverable, her own print-ready brand guidelines. Although building a digitally-native brand, Chelsea has a deep love of print and all things tactile, so it just made sense.
