Recently, my oldest friend called me about putting together an identity design for his company. And by oldest friend, I mean longest history; I’ve known this fella since I was born, and he’s been begrudging my existence since I was carried through the door from the hospital… It’s my brother! At two years older than me (but about 12 years more mature) he’s finally found a use for his annoying little sister. I tease (kinda).

Doctor Timothy Nyberg specializes in neuro something or other and I know he does a lot of testing. How’s that for understanding my client’s needs? He recently started his own practice and needed an identity which could then be translated to business cards, letterhead and envelopes.

Here’s where we started: I typically put together four initial concepts for identity design taking one to completion.

This one I called Illustrated Manuscript Leaf Border with Paisley Accent. Before you get all judgey on me and think that it’s waaaay to girly for a male doctor, let me prove myself by saying that even though it was indeed voted down as being too feminine for his practice, Tim loved it so much that he suggested turning it into personal stationery for himself. This is a guy who loves paisley. I knew he’d dig it.

“Botanical Illustration Reversed Out” was my personal favorite. I love the bold leave graphic and the olive green color. Tim liked this one but wanted to see it with a fern leaf graphic instead, which you’ll see in the edits below.

“Leafy Frame with Acorn” consisted of a mild, neutral color palette. The soft leaf border was contrasted by the strong, crisp and clean type. The only thing I wasn’t 100% sure about was the use of the acorn because after all, an acorn is a kind of nut. I didn’t know if a psychologist would want anything “nutty” if you know what I mean…

This baby spring leaf was shown popping out of a burlap-linen textured dirt graphic. It’s a much more modern, bold and graphic interpretation.

After Tim and his staff reviewed the options, they decided that they really loved the reversed out design but wanted to see it in a more jade/forest green instead of olive and with the fern leaf interpretation. Also, (BIG also!) the name is “New Leaf Behavioral Health,” not “A New Leaf,” so that was a major edit.

Final logo here:

The three fern leaves and the forest green hit the nail on the head for Tim. We applied the new identity to business cards and envelopes, as well as digital letterheads. At this time, we’re so swamped with invitations that I’m not accepting a lot of identity design work because it can be a laborious process. If it seems like a particularly interesting job or I feel like it’s right up our ally, then I’ll go for it. This was a fun one because of the client! I love a fun project.