Brinker
The Brinker family streamlines a family of companies to build a strong brand identity in Detroit and beyond.
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.
“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.
“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 gold 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.
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.
We are a formidable industry force.
Together, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
“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.