Byington Steel Treating
Byington Steel Treating is a NADCAP-accredited metal heat treating company in Northern California offering industry-leading quality, capacity, and consistency.
Founded in 1952 by current CEO Sean Byington's grandfather with $100 in his pocket, three generations later, the family business has grown to be the largest heat treater in the Bay Area.
They needed a new brand and website that was modern and visually communicated their team’s expertise and high-quality products and services that the company delivers.
The old logo (above) was a fireball icon. Conceptually, we thought it was pretty awesome, but it desperately needed to be refined and vectorized. We created an elevated brand synonymous with quality material processing: a parent brand under which their additional companies could live and be connected to.
We redrew the fireball icon, elongated and simplified it in a modern, flat, illustrative style. The colors stayed close to the original art (their warehouse facility is painted orange and blue), but they were cleaned up to be less muddy and more saturated so that they pop out on a light and dark background.
Instead of positioning the icon to the left (with a destructive trajectory headed straight for the company name!), we repositioned the fireball to the right of the company name, showing the heat treatment coming from the company instead of into it.
This subtle shift makes the logo easier to read because we read from left to right in Western languages. It also visually distinguishes the design from traditional left-aligned icon logo placements in a lockup. Right-icon-alignment creates a unique, modern, memorable aesthetic, creating a compelling and distinct brand identity.
In conjunction with the type design and overall lockup, the fireball fits perfectly in the negative space next to BYINGTON. Their name is set in an antiquated sans serif font inspired by vintage wood type. Its masculine and retro qualities are a hat-tip to their historic brand story, evoking feelings of nostalgia.
The name set in all caps gives it impact and emphasis. The letters occupy more space, making the company name prominent and creating a bold and authoritative look. The logo also works brilliantly in a single color application or metallic treatment, making it adaptable in different contexts.
Their logo is now easily recognizable, highlighting the brand name and icon. It conveys a sense of confidence and credibility, which is highly appropriate for a family business with 73 years of experience that processes tools for aerospace, electronics, automotive manufacturing, and medical industries, where failure isn’t an option.
We also designed an anniversary logo badge they can use to celebrate how far they’ve come! We used it throughout the website as a graphic element; they can use it on staff t-shirts, and it can be updated each year going forward!