Kramers
Getting lit with Washington DC’s oldest bookstore-bar-cafe, Kramers needed their rebrand to keep its klass while looking forward.
- Brand Identity,
- Collateral,
- Environmental
The original bookstore-bar-cafe, Kramers is not only a DC institution but can trace it's history through many a major capitol event since it's founding in 1976. With a cult favorite status and always irreverent approach, updating the brand was a balance between maintaining the best of Kramers without cleaning up the grit – and finding ways to evolve and re-imagine areas of the brand ripe for a refresh. Leaning into it's iconic historical nature, we built an enormous library celebrating it's star power and tied that to a simple, solid but flexible typographic, color and communication system that would help the brand for their next 45 years of business.
Design Elements
At it's core the Kramers identity system houses myriad K's that bend, flex and get busy to communicate everything from programming to new projects.
Launch
Kramers launched with a new digital presence and campaign supported by the new, iconic illustrations and swag celebrating their re-opening and neighborhood hub status.
- Creative Director Michael Freimuth
- Design Director Elisa Maezono
- Design Andrew Peters, Nana Nozaki
- Animation Ethan Fedele
- Project Management Ashley Van Belle