Rookies Sports Bar & Grill
Brand identity and collateral refresh for a local sports bar and restaurant embracing the idea that sports have brought people and families together for generations.
CLIENT BACKGROUND
Rookies is a mom-and-pop sports bar in Schenectady, NY, embracing the idea that sports have brought people and families together for generations. The bar has deep roots in the local community, offering a place to watch a game with friends and family while grabbing a few drinks and enjoying great food. Because the bar has been around for 10+ years with its existing identity, it didn’t require an entire rebrand, but what it did have was very limiting. Rookies needed a more consistent and versatile visual identity to promote events and advertise the business better.
PROJECT GOALS
Refresh the logo and create a logo system to make the identity more versatile for smaller applications.
Build out a color and typographic system that can be used for future marketing materials and collateral.
Provide a consistent visual voice across all customer touchpoints.
SERVICES PROVIDED
Brand Consultation
Identity Design
Print Design
Brand Guidelines
Ongoing Support
DELIVERABLES
Logo System
Brand Usage Guidelines
Business Cards
Variety of Menus
Iconography
Logo System
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Rookie’s original logo had a few challenges. The distressed look made the wordmark difficult to read, and the repetitive nature of the texture made it appear unnatural. The baseball used as the dot of the eye made it impossible to make a white version of the logo — limiting its use to only grayscale. The original tagline used a free font with only one weight, so finding a typeface that worked well with the wordmark and offered more flexibility with styling to be used on various collateral was necessary.
THE NEW WORDMARK
We re-created the logo from scratch, re-drawing and adjusting letters to give "Rookies" more strength and consistency while still leaving a vintage-inspired look. Instead of using an image of a baseball as a dot for the eye, we created a vector that balanced better with the word and allowed the mark to be reproduced without any issues. The original tagline used a free font with only one weight. To build out the brand we selected a typeface that was still rounded, friendly, and professional but had more versatility. Gotham Rounded did just that and was incorporated into other collateral. For the primary logo, we also removed the distressing. This allows them to use their full logo more often without risking readability. We created a distressed version as an alternative option for them to use.
Supporting Assets
Rookie’s original color palette was minimal – only using red and black. To give the brand more versatility, we expanded its palette to include cream, navy blue, and grey and divided them into primary and secondary brand colors.
Because the wordmark was redrawn, some supporting assets were taken right from the logo. The baseball and the R from the wordmark were reproduced in multiple brand colors and used across collateral on things such as menus and business cards. A higher-quality grunge texture was also selected and incorporated into some branded elements.
Rookies embraces the idea that sports have been bringing people and families together for generations. We incorporated that through the use of open-source vintage sports photography. The business cards each had a different image on the back, and there is a Rookies logo pattern over the photos as a spot varnish.
"Cinder listened to my concerns and gave the Rookies brand a big upgrade. The issues I ran into with the original logo are no longer a problem! Promoting events is much easier now, and I take pride in how everything looks from the menus to the business cards."
– Susan Rivette, Owner | Rookies Sports Bar & Grill