Redd Golf.Redd Golf.The name they'd already thrown away onceThe name they'd already thrown away once

The challengeThe challenge

Eric Redd had spent three decades building a business on relationships — PGA professional, Palm Desert, the kind of access that gets a Liberty Mutual board onto a course that does not take bookings. What he did not have was a brand that carried any of it.Eric Redd had spent three decades building a business on relationships — PGA professional, Palm Desert, the kind of access that gets a Liberty Mutual board onto a course that does not take bookings. What he did not have was a brand that carried any of it.

His clients had already worked out where the value sat. Read their testimonials and they barely mention the company: a CEO of twenty years' standing, a Ritz-Carlton director, a Dewar's vice president — every one of them naming the man rather than the business.His clients had already worked out where the value sat. Read their testimonials and they barely mention the company: a CEO of twenty years' standing, a Ritz-Carlton director, a Dewar's vice president — every one of them naming the man rather than the business.

Thirty years of trust, held in a surname, and nothing on the door doing anything with it.Thirty years of trust, held in a surname, and nothing on the door doing anything with it.

The moveThe move

The name was coming back either way. The return to Redd Golf had been decided before the work began — driven by the brand strategist who sent the client to us — so the brief was never to make that call. It was to make the decision look inevitable: to build something around the name worth inheriting.The name was coming back either way. The return to Redd Golf had been decided before the work began — driven by the brand strategist who sent the client to us — so the brief was never to make that call. It was to make the decision look inevitable: to build something around the name worth inheriting.

The mark is a monogram that does two things at once: an R, and a golfer at the top of the backswing. Read it as a letter and it signs the name. Read it as a figure and it shows the act. One shape, and no explanation required.The mark is a monogram that does two things at once: an R, and a golfer at the top of the backswing. Read it as a letter and it signs the name. Read it as a figure and it shows the act. One shape, and no explanation required.

The direction came out of a conversation about watches. Eric collects Rolex, and a man who collects watches is not buying them to know what time it is. He is buying the one object he can hand to his son. So we stopped designing a golf brand and started designing an heirloom: serif-led type, claret and oxblood rather than the literal red the name kept offering, bone and antique bronze underneath. Nothing that would date, because the brief was generations rather than seasons.The direction came out of a conversation about watches. Eric collects Rolex, and a man who collects watches is not buying them to know what time it is. He is buying the one object he can hand to his son. So we stopped designing a golf brand and started designing an heirloom: serif-led type, claret and oxblood rather than the literal red the name kept offering, bone and antique bronze underneath. Nothing that would date, because the brief was generations rather than seasons.

And the watches gave up the strategy, not just the look. If time is the thing he actually values, then time is the thing he actually sells — the hours around the golf, not the golf. The Art of Time Well Spent. He now says it in his own words on his own homepage: "Luxury isn't about having time, it's about how you spend it."And the watches gave up the strategy, not just the look. If time is the thing he actually values, then time is the thing he actually sells — the hours around the golf, not the golf. The Art of Time Well Spent. He now says it in his own words on his own homepage: "Luxury isn't about having time, it's about how you spend it."

Every decision was explained back to him before it was approved. He is a man of tradition; tradition does not respond well to being surprised.Every decision was explained back to him before it was approved. He is a man of tradition; tradition does not respond well to being surprised.

The resultThe result

The business is trading under Eric Redd's name again, in a brand built to outlast him.The business is trading under Eric Redd's name again, in a brand built to outlast him.

The strategy did not stay in a deck. The idea that came out of a conversation about a watch collection is now the first line of the website, the phrase the founder uses to describe what he sells, and the standard the rest of the business is measured against.The strategy did not stay in a deck. The idea that came out of a conversation about a watch collection is now the first line of the website, the phrase the founder uses to describe what he sells, and the standard the rest of the business is measured against.

And it came full circle in the way the best work does: Redd Golf found us through Phyllis Williams-Strawder — a certified brand strategist who teaches branding for a living, who hired us for her own identity first, and then sent us her client. The referral we are proudest of is the one from someone who could have done it herself.And it came full circle in the way the best work does: Redd Golf found us through Phyllis Williams-Strawder — a certified brand strategist who teaches branding for a living, who hired us for her own identity first, and then sent us her client. The referral we are proudest of is the one from someone who could have done it herself.

The deliverablesThe deliverables

• Logo design
• Brand development
• Creative direction
• Brand identity design
• Email signatures design