Secret Study

Secret Study is the alter ego of Boompa Records founder Robert Calder. Specializing in arts & event management, song sourcing, publishing and talent buying.

www.secretstudy.ca

secret study connects business with creators.

Typographically, Secret Study uses Century Gothic, which is a favourite of mine, so I knew I had some excellent type options to work with. The primary brand element is an opening door, which is a perfect visual metaphor for what Secret Study does. I was very excited to work on a new site because they had some really strong brand elements already in place.

The original illustration of the opening door was nicely proportioned, and a strong visual element, but overall it was a little clunky, and didn't fully represent the bright light shining behind the open door. Rob gave me the all clear to take some time and re-illustrate the door.

making some really small changes has made a big difference.

Primarily, I dropped the weight of the white strokes around the door and wall, as well as added some subtle shading to both to make them feel a touch more realistic, and less like vector illustration.

I also began working with really deep, rich textures for a background and I finally settled for a wonderful letter-pressy texture.

Colour wise I kept the design monochromatic as I didn't want to overpower the type and other visual elements. I did however opt to give the background a rich shade of deep blue / green and use a really vibrant teal for an accent colour to give headings, titles and links a bit of pop.

Typographically I also made some subtle changes to the Secret Study wordmark, improving some minor spacing issues and also fully connecting a few of the letterforms, to really emphasize connections between certain letters.

Overall I feel that some subtle changes to these brand elements have left secret study with a great, artsy, yet professional identity.