New work: Profinity Capital Management
Profinity Capital Management is a Pittsburgh-based start-up asset management company. Profinity’s managing director, Joseph Graziano, approached me to help create the company’s visual identity.
The design brief stipulated the need for a professional, stable, trustworthy appearance. One that was “cutting-edge, but not trendy.” The design needed to be simple, and without the use of “radical colours” in order to appeal to traditional investors.
View the portfolio entry here: Profinity Capital Management.
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41 appreciated comments on “New work: Profinity Capital Management”
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I must be one of your biggest fans David, I love seeing new work of yours. Your process has helped me channel my creativity (from logo design love). I get quite excited when you put new work up.
Keep up the fantastic designs!
Really great work David.. very classy and understated. A great piece of logo design that I’m sure will stand the test of time.
Well done.
Awesome work David. Really conservative and modern.
Nice, simple and yet powerful. Love this.
That’s awesome, I really liked the whole branding exercise here! Good stuff David!
Ah, very nice: clean, crisp and an extremely satisfied client. I’ll be following your work in the future.
Well done.
Well put together, great work!
Feels modern but timeless as well….if that makes sense
I love the design, definitely hit the bill for what they asked. The photo of the arrow design in the boxes, is that a rolled up necktie??
oh, and what happened to the graph paper you normally sketched on previously?! 8)
Excellent work and a really great testimonial. Oh and I just finished your awesome book as well! Continued success to you!
This satisfies the brief perfectly, so clean and sleek, superb work sir. =]
That’s right, Chris, it’s a rolled neck tie. I’ve been using grid paper a lot, but I like to sketch on plain paper, too. It’s less restrictive in a way, but whatever’s close at hand.
Ryan, glad you made it to the end of the book. I appreciate you reading my site during these years.
Thanks very much, everyone.
Hi David, I like your work but all due respect I have some doubts about this logo. Maybe you can give me some arguments.
The mix of fonts don´t fit to me, they speak a different language. While the first one is serious and strict, the second one is more informal. The font in cursive make it even more informal and hip.
Another issue is the alignment of the second row, this asymmetrical element communicate instability, just the opposite that it supposed to be.
I think the arrow is too subtle (again an asymmetrical element) but I don´t is the best icon for financial issues anyway. Maybe with a cleaner execution it would be clearer.
Cheers!
I like it, but….
The N that is supposed to look like an arrow immediately made me think of a declining graph line. Not something you would wish to promote in the financial sector…
Very nice David. I am also interested in the alignment of the second row. Just for my own education, can you explain the thought process that lead to the choice?
Ah… I think I see it – it sets apart the PRO in Profinity.
Antoine, Randa, my client and I looked at a number of tag positions. You can see variations in this small PDF.
Antoine, to give you a little insight into my thinking, consider that the rules behind advertising for a hedge fund are strict. They can’t solicit through billboards, TV, Internet advertising, etc. Essentially, the logo is the face of the company, used on all collateral. You mentioned that all-caps PROFINITY looked serious. It made sense to add a less serious element to the type relationship, giving a more contemporary feel — a client request.
The brand name can be shown with or without the additional tag.
Randa, you’re right, the offset placement helps split the brand name (PRO, and FINITY). The name was already in place when I was brought on board, and is a merging of “profits” with “infinite.” This combination is highlighted more with the tag in its final placement.
David, asset companies can generate just as much from a downward movement as from the reverse. Although the graph you see will ultimately shift upward.
Sorry David, but from the get go I misread, constantly, it as “profanity” (maybe its the small screen). The light arrow didn’t help either.
Sorry David, but can’t say I’m liking this identity I’m afraid. In my opinion, the “cutting edge, but trendy” quote is one of those things that some clients say, but they’re not quite sure what it actually means (and the answer is nothing).
I’m very sure that this was probably watered down by the client from your better ideas. I can see in your sketch that you were looking at the Y as the focal point, which I think would have worked quite well. Incorporating a chevron into it would have been great.
I don’t think the N looks like an arrow because most arrows don’t have different angled sides, whereas the use of a chevron in the Y would have still have signalled forward-thinking, progression and everything that your N arrow tried to communicate, but in a much stronger way.
I wish I could be more positive about it. Sorry David.
“but *not* trendy” – apologies.
Hi David,
This is great, the color combination is perfect. Keep it up, excellent job.
No need to apologise Armin, Neil. All thoughts are very welcome. Good of you to visit.
I love the idea of the letter “N” to incorporate as an arrow. Having said that the arrow is not really that obvious. Not too sure of where the arrow is actually pointing… to me it should be pointing up but it could look like pointing down. Hopefully the idea of the arrow is pointing up (it’s not a good idea facing down for a financial sector i suppose, as being negative for business). Having the strapline “capital management” i am not sure if its ideal as in serif typeface, not really the cutting-edge but “old fashioned”.
I like the design. “Cutting edge” and “stable” are difficult to tie together, and I think you pulled it off quite well. Judging from the client’s comments, you answered the brief and solved their problem remarkably well.
The hardest part of any project is getting inside the client’s head and learning and discerning what they are trying to communicate. For me, one of the greatest compliments I can get from a client is for them to say, “you understand us!” Well done, David!
David,
I really like the way you present this. I think the testimonial is a nice touch. Simple and professional but not boring. I’d be happy if I was the client. It’s not easy to design for more conservative and corporate firms.
it took me a while to understand that “n” as an arrow. but I really like final result, really professional and clean.
nicely done david! i particularly like the application on products such as the tie, can be incorporated as staff uniform. the concept of the arrow pointing up is simple yet effective. thanks for sharing!
David:
Well done. I’m not partial to the italicized tag in this case, but that’s just my preference. You did a great job on the identity package as a whole and the client seems quite pleased. More importantly, I believe it will work well for them in their field. Thanks for sharing your work and thought process.
Does the blue reverse of the letterhead have the “arrow pattern”? I cant tell; is it just blue instead?
Professional logo David, as always.
Thanks for the continued chat.
Andrew, no, the reverse is a flat blue. A subtle repeat watermark could be nice, though.
@David, Oh I see. Was just curious…
Very informative design process. However I don’t think the italics on the second row goes well with the Profinity logotype. I don’t see how the N represents an arrow. The whole identity logo does not make sense to me.
I am an admirer of your work but I really don’t understand how the client is happy with this. No offence.
Clean and simple as ever David, nicely weighted and adaptable. Though I’m not sure the pattern (as seen on the tie) works as the shape seems to have changed to allow a repeating pattern.
Overall great work as ever!
Nice and clean, not overcomplicated, I like it.
Very good management of color, line.
Wow, it’s my first visit to your website and I’m amazed by the close to perfect quality that your work represents. It’s a great inspiration to study hard as a design student.
The restraint of this brand identity system is refreshing.
I like the masculine colour palette and “creative legs” you’ve offered the client with the various brand application possibilities of the “N”. As the brand becomes better known this iconography will be useful.
Reading the brand owner’s comments it’s clear that you channeled his vision well.
Congrats.
Hey David, hope you had a great Christmas
Great solution champ! Looks like you had a great forward thinking client to work with, really like the juxtaposition of the fonts and layout.
Christmas here was good, thanks, Fabian. 11 of us around a table for a great dinner. I hope you had a good one, too.
Nice work. I would love to be able to see a larger image of the stationary you did David.
The overall look and feel is, pleasing and acceptable. Can definitely see where you were heading on this… However when looking at the whole it is important not to overlook the details…and in this case, sadly there appear to be quite a few:
Fonts – definitely not trendy but also not exactly ‘cutting edge’ either. The choice of and combination of fonts and italicized serif tagline – a little too 1980s…
The emphasis on the “N” when the word split is PROfits and inFINITY seems hard to justify… Good for a visual ‘device’ but it doesn’t ‘connect’ in the same way that it might if the “N” was the connector between the two parts….
Hardly convincing when referring to the ‘arrow’ – I get it – eventually, but it is so subtle – not to mention out of balance between the horizontal and the vertical proportions that it is all too easy to miss…so much so that it doesn’t quite ‘read’. At smaller sizes it disappears completely and therefore becomes invisible.
While money may be made in downturns – the earlier comment about it being not very positive is bang on – for a financial /capital management company – where superstitions (amongst investors at least) are rife…not a totally positive logo. A bit too much post-rationalization on your part perhaps???
The repeat pattern..the device you worked so hard on – is sadly lost. Again, I can see where you were going but it loses any connection to the identity and the client… just a too-clever pattern really.
The stationery looks quite plain… not to mention the missing tag on the reverse and the larger logo size – and no apparent tint on the ‘N/ Arrow’… why not range right the logo and text on the comp’ slip as you have the letterhead…being on the left it leaves a lot of dead space due to the indent effect.
The B/W treatment is not really right. You shouldn’t need the gray as any b/w treatment should require full contrast otherwise it will just seem smudged at worst or an optical effect at best – plus it is in reverse so it loses its strength or point as a tint.
I can understand why the client liked it – as the overall ‘effect’ of it is pleasing, so much so that it just manages to cover over the issues that really need attention or a more fussy client would have picked up on.
Well done all the same! You seem to be a very talented designer and a gentleman too – which is so important and goes so much further these days.
Thanks for your take, Keith. Although I’ve visited China, I didn’t get to see Hong Kong. I’d like to one day. All the best with your own projects.