Suburban Paint Company is a locally owned retail outlet selling house paint and supplies, as well as art supplies. They have been in business since 1960. Their current signage harkens back to their early days in look. To update the look of the signage, the goal was to give a nod to lineage but reflect a forward thinking and modern approach to their clients and the products they sell.
The solution was to use a typeface that was not only modern looking in appearance, but also also was reminiscent of a hand lettered painted sign. The main typeface with that sans serif, but also had modulation in the stroke width was the best solution to achieve these goals. The secondary typeface makes use of a slab serif, that is similar in appearance to many of the fonts used on “wet paint” signs.
The only decoration seen are the two tear drop shapes on each side of the secondary text. These shapes can be seen as stylized paint brushes. Using an actual paint brush in the graphic elements seemed too cliche.
To soften the harshness of the typefaces used, the background element of the sign was chosen to resemble strokes of a paint brush. This element is organic and unstructured in nature. This lets customers know that they will not be dealing with a rigid business style found at many of the big box and chain paint supply stores.
Lastly, the color choice reflects their dedication to the community. The red, white, and blue color pallet is familiar and comfortable to their client base. At the same time, hues of these colors were chosen so they look vintage to help reflect their staying power and longevity.
