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Brinker

The Brinker family streamlines a family of companies to build a strong brand identity in Detroit and beyond.

Outlined Brinker logo on top of downtown Detroit skyline.

As founders of a construction management and general contracting company, The Brinker family has an influential hand in making Detroit a city transformed. Their values, their knowledge and their instinct for building businesses has created a success story for two generations. But growth can bring challenges and it was time to streamline the operations to bring five companies under one name: Brinker. Our team developed a way forward for the brand, creating a new logo and collateral pieces, designing and developing their new website, and playing an instrumental part in a company event that launched their new look, feel and voice.

Strategy

For over 30 years Brinker has been revitalizing and reinvigorating Detroit. From the iconic Detroit Institute of Arts to the Fox Theatre, from entertainment facilities like Little Caesars Arena to contemporary structures like the Mike Ilitch School of Business, as well as the Detroit Medical Center Campus and Wayne State Integrative Biosciences Center—these buildings are instantly recognizable in Detroit. Now they were beginning to reach beyond city borders to new cities and needed to develop a brand identity to adequately reflect their growth aspirations.

Silhouette of metal trusses against the brightly lit evening sky. Workers tying rebar into a column form at the top of building under construction against the Book Tower building in the backgoundd.
“How bold are we in Detroit? What have we built and been a part of? Just look and point.” — Larry Brinker, Jr.
President and CEO
Brinker

Our strategy in developing their brand identity involved striking a balance between the strength and success of their business expertise and the heart they have for their family and the community. That Brinker is driven to create spaces where people gather, invite life, spark inspiration and bring joy to the people of Detroit. As a company, Brinker believes, “We’re not just constructing buildings, we're building places for people to belong.” From the beginning, their story is about a relationship with the community and “a home we call Detroit.”

To create the brand idea, we began with the origin story of Larry Brinker Sr., Brinker’s founder, starting with his entrepreneurial journey as a carpenter apprentice and presiding over today’s Brinker as owner and chairman. The story also involved the next generation with son Larry Jr. continuing in his father’s footsteps as chief executive officer. This legacy encompassed Larry Sr.’s first company of Brinker Team Construction, through the development and acquisition of four more companies, each independent sub-contractors in their own right. It soon became apparent that their strength was in their sum total and the brand idea of Stronger Together was born.

Stronger. Together.

Outlined Brinker logo on top of downtown Detroit skyline.
Larry Brinker, Jr. and Larry Brinker, Sr.
Larry Brinker, Jr. and Larry Brinker, Sr.
“BasedOn gives the best of both worlds—a fully engaged team that gets to know the inner workings of your company and an outside perspective and expertise that sees the things you can’t see. — Larry Brinker, Jr.
President and CEO
Brinker

Verbal + Visual Identity

Knowing that we were also engaged in helping create an anniversary event for their employees, we set about creating a rallying cry for the team that would be unveiled as part of a video that celebrated Brinker accomplishments. Visually, this narrative also appeared on a wall graphic in their office space as well as the brand idea “Stronger Together” and other messaging that can continually serve as inspiration for the team.

Visually, this new identity was expressed in a visual system of brandmarks that restructured the family of companies while giving them a familial feel. A new logo for the overarching Brinker would be stronger too, with block type and a palette of bronze and black symbolizing success and stability respectively—colors that threaded through the other brandmarks of the subcontractors in customized ways. Taken together, both verbal and visual messaging is clear:

The Brinker story is rich.
It’s about humble beginnings.
It’s about expertise.
It’s about community.

The old Brinker Group logo.

Before

After

We are

We aren’t like other construction companies. And we intend to keep it that way.

We’re a tight-knit family of five accomplished, independent companies—united as Brinker. And together we create more opportunity for ourselves—and for our business. Because, Brinker is more than a name, it’s a promise—a commitment to quality and integrity.

We collect­ively

Streng­then

our communities. Brinker crew gathered under the Hockeytown mural. Sparks flying off of a sparkler in dark A lady with a Brinker branded baseball cap and a backpack watching the stage at the Brinker brand launch.
  • Brand book layout on a table
  • Brand book layout on a table
  • Brand book layout on a table
Orange bokeh background Brinker office lobby with a glass wall with Brinker logo and names of its companies.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of thefe new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
  • Bold graphic of the new brand painted on office walls.
Larry Brinker, Jr. and Larry Brinker, Sr.
Larry Brinker, Jr. and Larry Brinker, Sr.
“When Brinker was looking to tie its five commercial construction companies to one clear brand, BasedOn dug deep to help us discover and clarify our identity, including the unique culture and core values we bring to the marketplace, uniting our leadership, employees, clients, partners and community.” — Larry Brinker, Jr.
President and CEO
Brinker

Summary

Brinker has had an impact on Detroit that everyone can see—literally—in the entertainment arenas, business structures and skyscrapers that form the city’s skyline. The company has created corridors of commerce and culture that have made Detroit a world-class city, and now they are stretching their business borders beyond. BasedOn is privileged to have helped this company develop a brand identity that celebrates that success while streamlining it and positioning it for greater recognition nationwide and greater growth.