So Asgood & Better has been cruising along for nearly two years now, providing marketing work that’s as good – and better – than larger-scale agencies without the hefty price tag. This was always our goal, but the friendly, professional brand identity we developed for ourselves and the bright orange ampersand “stamp” of a logo didn’t come about overnight. The process took awhile, and we thought it would be fun to look back at (and share with you) a small slice of it here.

We love the name of our business, and many others have told us they do too. It was intended to be a cheeky antidote to agencies whose name is simply a mashup of their partners’ names. At the beginning, we took that concept quite literally, creating characters called “Asgood” and “Better.” This seemed to call for a “retro” logo style, so that’s where we began.

That led to a “geekier” brand identity (and a redesign of the logo using glasses as the central element), which then gave way to the more toned-down, professional look that you see today. We scrapped the cheeky, “fictional character” approach, and chose a more subtle, friendly one. The logo we created was akin to what you’d see at a high-powered agency, but we used a bright orange color palate and a few twists on the letters to suggest our underlying playfulness.

Below is an initial creative exercise we wrote back then. We hope it amuses you – and please remember this: nothing worth doing comes about quickly or easily. If you need a strong brand identity developed for your organization, we hope you’ll give us a ring, and allow us to help create  an identity you love as much as we love ours.

Enjoy!

In 1967, Clarence Asgood and his partner Roy Better started a marketing operation in the back room of a little print shop in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before long, the business was known its excellent work for such clients as Gee Whiz Reusable Gumballs, Justin Case Insurance Co., and the Ford Edsel.

Asgood was satisfied, but Better was already thinking outside the box – literally.

“Clarence,” he said, “we need fewer walls around here.”

And with that, the story goes, he brought in his own personal pick-axe and began demolishing partitions between employees’ desks, bringing down office walls, and opening things up a bit.

“Not good enough,” he mused. “We’re still trapped in here. We need to be free.”

To Asgood’s surprise, Roy Better demolished the outer walls of the building and exclaimed, “Go! Create in the real world!” as employees of A&B gathered their belongings and scattered into the parking lot.

These days, A&B prides itself on offering the services of an experienced marketing team without the overhead associated with four walls and a roof. So get in touch, and see what freedom from boundaries can do for you.

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