Craft Artisan Floors – Branding

Challenge

In March of 2017, Straydog was approached by Rod Gray, the President, of what was then “Antique Impressions” to help them re-invent their company’s brand, name and website. We took on this challenge with vigour and excitement, and today, we are proud to share in the launch of the CRAFT Artisan Wood Floors brand and website. Antique Impressions began in 2004 and through the years, their range of products grew from Alder to include Hickory, Oak, Walnut and Reclaimed Heart Pine. Their main focus today is Hickory, and they are viewed as the preeminent manufacturer of Hickory wood flooring in North America. Along with the growth of their product line, they have also changed the way they go to market, with a greater focus today on builders, and designers. This change required that the company re-visit their existing name and brand, which no longer supported the quality of their products, nor the re-direction in their marketing and sales. The company was not “antique” and nor were their products. A new name was in order.

Action

So how did we come up with the new name “CRAFT”? It stemmed from conversations with Rod Gray. Rod began his career, driving across Canada in his Plymouth Valiant, selling wood flooring out of the trunk of his car. Rod is truly passionate about wood, and he realized that the only way to make a genuinely beautiful wood floor – a floor that people would make a deep connection to, and would fall in love with – is to make it by hand. Since then, Rod’s uncompromising commitment to laborious and time-consuming manual techniques of craftsmanship has enabled him to produce spectacular wood flooring that exhibits textures and tones unmatched by any other manufacturer in the industry. So it is from this reference to craftmanship that the name CRAFT was born. The name is easy to say, easy to spell and is a great representation of the quality of the wood as it relates to art and mastery and the handmade ideals and values of a bygone era that Rod holds so dear. The CRAFT logo is a “dendro”, representing the core of a tree, and the design was inspired by what a wood craftsman might see as he inspects the grain of wood through a loupe. The logo is supported by a clean and simple font with the minimalistic grey and black colours chosen to support the name and logo rather than to draw attention away from the unique and clean design. The CRAFT name and bold new brand is now authentically aligned with the what the company stands for and the premium products that it offers. This is now showcased in a beautiful and visually impactful website that is the envy of their competitors.

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