CB&I Rebrand Exploration

CB&I really needs a rebrand because what the initials stand for, Chicago Bridge and Iron, doesn’t make sense for where they are located and what they do now. Sure, heritage of a brand name is important, but a lot of brands outgrow the names and design as CB&I has. Not only that, but their current logo is really generic while the font they use evokes a small town business look, when they are now a global technical energy engineering company. There are also technical problems that could come with the printing of the color logo with the transparent "&" symbol, the drop shadow, and the gradient. I thought about combining their old globe looking tank design with the globe design itself as one logo idea. I layered a skinny tank onto part of that globe/tank design for one idea. I deconstructed this tank/globe idea to make the CBI initials. Then, I thought about the bridge structure as a design choice because a bridge can be a metaphor of a company using it’s history to strengthen it’s decisions and engineering in the future. I also used the triangle designs to relate back to their buyout of another company with a deep heritage, The Shaw Group and their triangle logo. After doing much research, the current mission of CB&I is all about energy in one way or another, so the name change would need to be more about this mission then about building bridges. Some other ideas I had were in changing the name before the word “Energy” so that it does match the current and future mission of the company more relevantly. One name I came up with is Bridge Energy because again, bridge can talk about the past heritage and history of the company leading into it’s future. Another name idea I had was going back to the beginning and using the founders’ names. The Horton Energy name came about since that is the original founder of the company. The other idea was Horton Wheelock, which was the first merger partner of the company. Going back to the past in the name after doing much research, seemed as if that would be a vision this company might actually pursue. They really believe in their brand, their history, their heritage, so if they had to change the name, then they would probably go with something more profound as the actual founders’ names. Updated 2021.

Graphic Design, Identity, Branding, Creative Direction - Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe Stock, Creative Market, Mr. Mockup, Mockup Bee, iPhone, Wacom Cintiq

The current identity is very generic, has transparencies, and uses a small town font called Benguiat
which isn't that appealing to an international audience.