“Office furniture affects office culture. But first it has to reflect it. Our strength is knowing what makes companies tick.”

Contract furniture dealers are known mostly for the brands they rep. This has a commodifying effect, forcing firms to compete on price. Our client had a different idea. They wanted to transform the company’s marketing from product-driven to people-driven. While we had originally been contracted to build a website, we knew that any such transformation had to live at the brand level. 

We started with the name. Resource & Design Interiors had clung to its cumbersome name long after the community had nicknamed them “RDI.” 

We formalized the monogram, arguing that, just as Minnesota Mining & Materials was better served by the clipped “3M,” so too would they. Next we tackled their logo, which was colorless and dated. Our goal was to elevate the mark from “competent” to “charismatic.” The design we ended up with references the heyday of american furniture design (mid-century) and the rhythmic, humanist typography of the era. On the web, we keyed in on the “R” in RDI and placed resources at the core of our design. The new site lets users easily navigate the world of contract furniture websites without ever leaving RDI’s own site.