Client Spotlight: A Brand Refinement for Next Level Equine
Recently, our design team worked with Next Level Equine LLC, a small family-owned breeder and trainer of KWPN and polo horses in Santa Ynez, California. The business is run by Abbie Papka (the breeder of the family) and her sister Maggie (the polo player of the family). At the start of this project, Next Level Equine had a website and social media accounts set up, but no clear branding to support their online presence.
This brand refinement project involved revamping their logo, establishing a new colour palette and typography, and creating a set of brand guidelines to ensure professional and cohesive marketing collateral going forward.
Project Details
Next Level Equine approached us with a logo design idea featuring two horse heads that Abbie had hand-drawn, one jumper and one polo horse to reflect the nature of their business. Our aim was to refine this in a way that reflected the quality of Next Level Equine’s young stock. Abbie’s first foal, Pilot, just turned five and made his debut in the Baby Green Hunters, and she aspires to one day become a Platinum-level KWPN-NA breeder. What became evident was their commitment to excellence, their passion for breeding quality horses, and their connection to the equestrian community, with Abbie making breeding decisions with her mentor, Roy Maher of Prima Farm in Canada. This formed the foundation of our brand refinement project.
The Logo Makeover
The existing logo, although representative of Next Level Equine’s purpose, lacked a polished feel. Our design team carefully refined the logo, retaining the horse heads but editing them slightly to have more fluid and graceful lines. We also created two other versions of the logo, including a simplified version. Having different variations of your logo ensures versatility and adaptability across various platforms and contexts.
After exploring different typography and text placement possibilities, the client preferred a serif font to encapsulate the traditional essence of the brand, but we also included a sans-serif font to ensure that the new logo conveyed the industry’s heritage but with a more contemporary, sleek finish which reflected the breeding and training standards of Next Level Equine.
Crafting the Colour Palette
Polo player of the family, Maggie Papka, likes the apple green colour and has subsequently accumulated some of her gear in that colour, so this was a ‘must-include’ for the colour palette. The sister also liked the contrast between black and white, and we also added some blue tones to bring the colour palette together.
Creating the Brand Book
Brand guidelines, or a brand book, is a brand’s blueprint for consistency. The brand guidelines we created for Next Level Equine will act as instructions for all future brand-related design decisions, ensuring that the brand remains cohesive and true to its core.
We also included some mock-ups to show how the new branding can be seamlessly integrated into various placements, including saddle pads, business cards, and social media pages. This is usually one of our favourite parts of branding projects as we love to see the branding in action!
Ready to transform your equestrian brand and make a lasting impression? Contact us and discover how we can tailor our services to meet your needs.
