We had the dubious privilege of working with the team at Flea Marketing before re-branding them. So, we had a solidified sense of what they would respond to visually. The Brooklyn based company makes it impossible for indie retail to not pay attention to new releases. Their clients include legendary labels such as Dangerbird, Barsuk, Warner Bros. + Vapor. Two of Alphabet Arm’s intern army (Matt Kaiser + Laurie Mildenhall) expertly crafted the new logo and business cards. The new branding features some severely compromised typography, a (bit-too-life-like) flea and some custom illustration tying the system together.

Check Flea Marketing out on the Facebooks and follow their Tweetifications.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt contacted Alphabet Arm to design a simple, yet flexible logo to be consistently used for their series of books, Good Sports (not to be confused with Good Sport).

Prolific sports writer Glent Stout’s new series for middle-grade readers focuses on the careers of trailblazing ballplayers, professional athletes who serve in the military, and female sport pioneers.

Special props to the talented Laurie Mildenhall for shooting these for us.

Here is a first look at a branding project we are currently finishing up. “Know the Signs, Know Sepsis” is a campaign for the Boston Medical Center to increase awareness of the life threatening condition of severe sepsis. As a studio, we embrace the opportunity to take on different types of design work and show our range — and who knows, we might even learn something in the process. In addition to the logo design, we also named this campaign. We’ll post a more comprehensive look at the project once all of the posters, pens, pocket cards, notepads and buttons are back from production. Now go eat your veggies.

Nathan Fried-Lipski is a professional photographer here in Boston. Nate’s portfolio includes news, events, corporate and even wedding photography. That’s why we wouldn’t pigeon hole him as just a “wedding photographer” — rather a photographer who happens to shoot weddings. And if that wasn’t creative enough, on his down time he builds hand crafted birdhouses made of recycled antique wood and found objects.

We thought that using iconic birds in Nate’s logo was a perfect fit. The birds both metaphorically represent his wedding audience and literally portray his passion for wildlife photography and handmade birdhouses. We also made use of the birds to create a pull away icon that Nate can use as a watermark.

Alphabet Arm recently collaborated with our good friends at Brandon Bird Design to design the branding elements for the latest TEDx Cambridge event: Thrive. The one-day event went over fantastically and we are proud to have been a part of this gathering of regional intellectuals and innovators. The talks, demonstrations and performances focused on an exploration of our brains and bodies, questioned the relationship between nature and nurture, and examined the different understandings of the good life — in essence, how do we thrive?

Brandon Bird Design, a multi-disciplinary design firm specializing in exhibit design, approached Alphabet Arm to contribute by designing the Thrive logo, printed collateral and consult on the signage and multimedia displays. Together, we created a logo that would literally represent the idea of a thriving organism. A logo that could show growth, progress, and vigorously flourish. The final logo solution was a mark that had several stages of growth and expansion that would reveal itself over the event.

Special thanks to Justin Ide for the stellar photography : http://www.justinide.com/

After designing the identity system for the surf-inspired apparel company, Invisible Sun, Alphabet Arm was hired to develop a number of merchandise designs for the company’s launch. The entire studio team jumped into the deep end to generate a cross section of styles, phrases and illustrations. Big props to Silvi Naci + Matt Kaiser for their great work. Surf around and let us know if you like what you sea.

*Completely wacked out surfer who never touches the water.

We worked closely with recent intern, Matt Kaiser, to develop the new logo for Amalgamated Balladry, an independent, musician-owned record label. The founder of the label, Richard Shindell, asked us to draw our inspiration from the iconography of Industry. We particularly liked the idea of contrasting the imagery associated with WPA posters of the 1930′s with an overt musical reference. Hence, the our friendly factory worker with a guitar — his tool of choice — slung over his shoulder.

We can’t think of a project much more awesome than branding a new go kart track for the summer. The Salisbury Speedway is soon to be opening in (you guessed it) Salisbury, Massachusetts in the very near future. You could say we are super excited to be in the driver’s seat for this type of project. Both the design team here at Alphabet Arm and the owners of the track agreed we would draw on old filling stations of the 1950′s as inspiration for the new logo and branding. For this particular project, we want to hand-draw a classic looking script to contrast the blocky “speedway” typeface. We’ve dabbled in creating custom scripts in the past, but this was a chance to really immerse ourselves in the tedious process of drawing the thick and thin strokes, as well as the hours of pulling points and finessing the bezier curves. Here are some process images.

Initially, we were very pleased with how the the “Si” ligature worked out. But, unfortunately we had to lose it and the swoopy “y” which just didn’t fit into this particular lock-up. We added some speed lines onto the “S” and “l’s” in order to give the type an extra bit of flare. Here is a larger image of the final script:

We’re currently working on a signage system, stickers, t-shirts and a custom paint job for the ticket booth and shop on site. We’ll post more images once it all comes together. Buckle up!

Ecologically responsible gardening and landscaping is the focus of our new client, Mow Rake Sow. The company’s mission includes using all electric equipment for landscape services — something we can certainly support. The aim of designing a new logo was to emphasize the eco-friendly aspect of the business as well as create a unique aesthetic which would set them apart from other landscapers. We found the company name, Mow Rake Sow, particularly inspiring. Our approach was to design a logo that literally illustrated each of the three services in the name. We agreed the mark should have a clean, modern look while avoiding the visual clichés that seem to grow like weeds in this industry.

*The headline is a reference to an amazing song by The Jam. If you don’t know it, you should.

Singer-songwriter, Ollie Childs, asked us to design a new logo for his fourthcoming album (coming soon) and other related materials. We opted to create a original type treatment crafted from the ground up. The mark itself draws influence from the pop sensibilities inherent in the music as well as Ollie’s British background — both of which comes through in this “Mod” inspired logo. Our goal was to create a treatment that was unique and memorable enough to be used on it’s own, but subtle enough it could take a back seat when used with photography. We also designed a new logo for Ollie’s independent record label. Non-Drip Gloss Records is a reference to Ollie’s blue collar roots.