Counter Brand & Type

09/22/2022

We are so honored to share a can design that’s been in the works for a long time now. Our friends at have released their origin milkshake IPA, the Cuckoo Clock, for the first time in a can and we cannot be happier with how it turned out.
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The storybook, stained glass aesthetic finished with a pop of gold foil really captures the regal and elegant essence of The King Canary brand. 
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As always, thank you Andrea and the rest of the King Canary crew for allowing us to create something really wonderful together!
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Creative Direction: Michael Forrest
Illustration: Erik Mckgrew 
Project Management: Jason Moore
Strategy: Mike Edwards
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06/08/2022

05/27/2022

Last year Counter was asked to help Texas State University enhance the creative around a their newest University Brand Campaign entitled “TXST NEXT.” The university had been evolving in inspiring and exciting ways. They needed a bold and expressive visual language to convey the sentiments of what was and still is to come.
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Amid a myriad of changes occurring at Texas State University, some of the more fundamental shifts included national recognition as a research institute, a significant change in leadership, becoming a minority majority institution for the very first time and securing the unique initials “TXST”.
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The internal creative and marketing department gave us one prompt – “do anything you want with the two words ‘TXST NEXT.’” In many ways, that's a dream ask from a client, but also daunting. We got to work on building a colorful typographic and pattern based visual toolkit. Our key delivery was essentially an illustrator file packed full of logos, patterns and iterations of their colorbar.
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We also created an illustrative language for on-campus use depicting “TXST NEXT” in a variety of typographic expressions (more on that later)!
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After delivering our work to the creative team we had no idea the impact it would have on the students themselves. There came a moment when began reposting instagram posts and stories of high school seniors showing their admittance letters and packages with our type and pattern work on it! If you know Michael, you know how important education is to him. Seeing photos of newly admitted students with our work in their hands at such a life-changing moment is one of the greatest accomplishment he’s had here at Counter Brand & Type.
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Note: T-shirt Design and Admittance 6-Panel Brochure was created internally by the TXST Marketing Department as noted.
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Brand Strategy – Mike Edwards
Creative Direction / Design – Michael Forrest
Illustration – Joe Chisenal, Erik McGrew
Graphic Design – Mirna Pierre, Sean Walsh
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03/14/2022

Counter is seeking a senior level UI designer for a 3-month (minimum) contract in our Orlando studio.
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The designer we want makes with intention, thinks critically, is organized, process oriented and has a keen awareness of modern best practices, emerging ideas and methodologies.
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We’re looking for a designer with a strong portfolio demonstrating their abilities in solving complicated user interface problems for a variety of digital experiences.
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As a studio, we are often tasked with building entire brand and digital ecosystems for our clients. This requires us to create stylistic systems consistent with our clients values and ambitions. Thus, the ideal designer is able to create compelling style tiles, scaleable compositions (i.e. layout, navigation and responsive states of both) has a working understanding and practice of typographical hierarchy and must be able to create tight and consistent libraries of visual assets (i.e. way finding, icons and other visual patterns).
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IMPORTANT: We design all digital assets and compositions in Figma and the designer we seek to hire MUST be fluent.
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Please submit links to portfolios (urls or pdfs) and a little about yourself to [email protected]

01/04/2022

Occasionally we get the opportunity to create custom typefaces for our clients. Manifest Display is a single weight, limited character count modular typeface created with squares and two quarter circles whose corner radius’ vary ever so slightly. It was created for one of our favorite coffee roasters .
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12/18/2021

This tasty Winter Wing by is back on the shelves for the holidays!
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Creative Direction: Michael Forrest
Strategy: Mike Edwards
Illustrator: Erik McGrew
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12/13/2021

Hands down, the best tacos in Orlando are at . Which is why we were very excited when they reached out and asked if we’d create some new tees!
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Inspired by Dia de los Mu***os, we had our illustrators create two unique expressions in two disparate aesthetics.
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Strategy & Copy: Mike Edwards
Creative Direction: Michael Forrest
Illustration: Greg Perkins () & Sean Walsh ()
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12/13/2021

The Flying V, a new West Coast IPA by our friends at !
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This beer’s icon artwork is inspired by royal family crests and badges. This was in keeping with this brews German influence.
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It’s fun to see how our original birdcage design system continues to hold up for King Canary’s house line of beers as anticipated!
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Creative Direction: Michael Forrest
Illustration: Sean Walsh ()
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11/23/2021

Earlier this year the Smeraglia family asked us to reimagine and update their e-commerce pet boutique, “Smagdog.” They wanted to leverage their 35 years of success as a world renown breeder and share their expertise with the larger pet community by offering the finest canine goods on the market. We needed to completely overhaul the brand with a new name, a visual identity system, and creative positioning. This new brand needed to make an impact both online and in an entirely new brick-and-mortar experience.
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Our Discovery process uncovered a simple objective that the brand would build on - to nurture the relationship between dog’s and their owners. The Smeraglia family have built a reputation of quality, authenticity, innovation and trust in everything they do. At their core, they breed a bond of love between dogs and their owners. Fletch & Lo, serves as an opportunity to maintain and extend that relationship. ‘Smagdog’ didn’t capture the warm and cuddly essence we knew this brand needed and it didn’t exude any sophistication to match the luxurious product offerings.  
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'Fletch & Lo’ short for Fletcher & Lola, derives its name from two important pups to the Smeraglia family. ‘Fletcher’ was the first ever English Teddybear Golden Doodle, and ‘Lola’ was one of the first ‘Schnoodles’ - an adorable breed of schnauzer and poodle. The brand identity system pays homage to Fletcher & Lola as well as the Smeraglia’s distinguished pedigree of English Goldendoodles, Schnoodles and Twoodles.
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Our creative work included Brand Discovery, Brand Positioning, Naming, Copywriting, Creative Direction, Brand Identity, Illustration, Iconography, eCommerce Design and Development.
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Thank you and and a very special thank you to our incredible team (listed below)!
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Brand Strategy – Mike Edwards
Creative Direction – Michael Forrest
Naming Strategy – Matt Yow •
Brand Design – Val Waters •
Brand Messaging – Meg Rosenoff •
Web Development – John Sheppard •

02/03/2021

My name is Michael. I am the Creative Director, founder and now proud Partner of Counter Brand & Type.
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I believe in the power of design – that it’s a vital asset and discipline for our relating to and navigating our human experience.
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I’m almost 15 years into my career and I have had quite the incredible journey. I have been blessed to have been mentored and taught by some of the most thoughtful educators and creatives, worked for some amazing design studios and publications, and have been able to work on some of the most amazing projects with even more amazing clients.
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Our little branding studio is growing and I am blown away by what we have been able to accomplish so far. It just keeps getting better and better, so keep your eyes peeled for some great new content and work this year!

02/03/2021

We’ve never really taken the time to introduce you to our team, we’ve just shown the work we are so thrilled to do everyday… Well, honestly now is perfect timing to do some intros! I, Michael, am so excited to share that Counter has added a partner and his name is Mike Edwards. Mike’s responsibilities include Strategy and Operations and he is killing it!
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Mike and I met years ago and worked side by side as designer and project manager. Working for a myriad of clients and on a variety of project types, we put our heads together and developed processes that helped our team connect the visuals we were creating to the values and ambitions of our clients.
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I started Counter nearly three years ago. But everyday I came to work, I knew it would never be what I wanted it to be or dreamed it could become without having someone like Mike. I told him there is no one else in the whole world I would trust more than him to run my studio.
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So, with that… I am humbled, honored and overwhelmed that Mike took the leap to join me at Counter. He’s already kicking ass and has enriched our approach and how we take care of our clients twofold.
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Welcome to the team amigo!

07/17/2020

Counter officially turned✌🏼last month and to celebrate we had these limited edition ball caps made! DM us if you’re interested in snagging one!
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It’s fun to reflect on all we’ve accomplished creatively this year with honestly, the most amazing clients a studio could ask for. We’ve learned a lot how about who we are, what we make and are eager and exited about what year 3 is already looking like.
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So many people to thank, and so much work to show. Stay posted for new work!
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05/05/2020

We love when our clients let us explore and push what’s possible in print. Like when we got to create a 4 color plus blind letterpressed thank you card with edge paint for . These beauties were printed at the one and only mamassauce!
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04/05/2020

Fidget Display, our experimental, modern mashup is only $5 for a limited time only! Link in bio...
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