Publish Magazine
October 1990
By Poppy Evans

Design Makeover

An NYC service bureau gets a face-lift–from one of its clients

Copytone has been serving New York City’s demanding graphic arts industry for 40 years, initially as a copy service and stat shop and more recently as a provider of digital-imaging services. Having survived over the years by adapting to ever changing industry standards, the service bureau is implementing even more changes to keep in step with technological advances as it prepares to do business in the 21st century.

Contrasting with its state-of-the-art operation, Copytone has a corporate identity that hadn’t changed since the company was founded in 1959. About a year ago, Copytone’s president, Deborah Orr, contacted David Langton of the Langton Cherubino Group, a design firm in New York, to solicit his prepress business. “We noticed the old-fashioned logo right away,” says Langton, “but she convinced us to try her company anyway.”

Langton was satisfied with Copytone’s services, but after a year he decided it was time to be frank about the firm’s dated image. “I called Deborah and said, ‘I have to tell you, there’s quite a gap between how you present yourself and the incredible service you provide.’ We pushed them to think about it,” he recalls. Not long after that, Langton presented a strategy to Copytone’s principals that took into account how the company was perceived by its client base of designers and fashion retailers. “Copytone’s primary market is people like us who react positively to good design,” he says. “We knew what it was like to be the client.”

Although Langton suggested an identity redesign, Copytone was not yet ready to take the leap. So Langton countered with a proposed redesign of Copytone’s pocket folder and promotional brochure. It was a less drastic change, which Copytone found more palatable.

The Langton Cherubino design team started developing concepts based on the premise that an image-driven campaign would most impress Copytone’s market. After considering several approaches, they settled on one that showcased artistic photography and elegant typography. “[We used] a lot of white space and beautiful imagery” for the brochure and folder design. “We wanted to play up the concept of a portfolio and the perception that Copytone is a partner in the design process,” Langton says.

Copytone’s principals were so thrilled with the look of the brochure and folder that they agreed to let Langton Cherubino redesign the service bureau’s logo, stationery, and other business materials. “The Copytone logo was driven by the brochure,” says Langton, who admits that redesigning a company’s promotional campaign before updating its identity is not the way he’s accustomed to working. In spite of the unorthodox sequence, however, the design team was able to produce consistent color, imagery, and typography that successfully link the many elements of Copytone’s identity and collateral materials.

Reprinted with permission from the October 1999 edition of Publish magazine, Copyright © 1999 by Integrated Media, Inc.,
San Francisco, CA 94107. All rights reserved.