When we think of San Francisco we can only think of one thing - iconic. Its monuments, achievements and rolling hills are known world wide. We want to create something just as renowned for you.

You’re one of a kind and we like that. This is where we take your brand and give it your signature look and feel across all mediums so you can start making a dent in that universe of yours.

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Having longtime connections with Southern Australia, our good friends at Orange Roasting Co had dreamed up yet another game-changing idea: Remy & Max. Keeping the context of bar & coffee syrups in mind, we designed packaging, branding, and a solid identity to follow suite alongside liquor bottles. As well, a packaging design that benefited the server more than the customer.

Coffee Packaging from Down Under

50|50 logotype

33% details

50|50 Food Photography 

33% food photography

We knew the Zero Hospitality Group had something up their sleeves when they told us they were turning an old mechanic garage into a family-style restaurant in an upcoming neighborhood for Reno, NV. After a few branding and positioning exercises, we landed on Von Bismarck together. We were honored to be brazen with the brand across the architectural revival with historically themed typography, menu and web design, as well as food photography. 

Branding German Hospitality

Building an Environment

Stay true to your roots

Do What You Love

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As a company founded in skate culture (pour one out for all the times we've hit the pavement literally and figuratively), Environment was one of the original partners in creativity for Laxalt & McIver. With custom illustration and graphic design, we helped grow Environment's brand through art directed skate decks and tear sheets filled with graphics far cooler than any kick flip.

Environment Skateboards

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Piñon Bottle saw the gap missing in Reno's spine of bars with a focus on varieties of craft beer. With this crystal clear and within a toe's reach - they pushed onward and went for it. A couple beers later, they brought Commence along the way to tackle the packaging as well as establish an identity communicating their craft and the atmosphere in which it lies. Cheers.

Great Brews

Vast sideways logo assets all colors

Notebooks Mockup

“The site enables customers to identify their financial challenges and receive personalized service offerings, bringing ease to qualifying leads.”

Video: Mobile Scrolling

Promoting Continued Success

Landing Page (Still)

Laying the Paths

Video: Start, Fix & Grow Interactions

Expressive identity system, interactive web design and development for Vast - a consulting group offering financial expertise and virtual accounting services to small businesses, primarily in the food i

Identity, Web Design & Development

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Some of the most rewarding partnerships we've had have come through working with people as wild as we are. Meet Deso, a lifestyle apparel brand that embraces the art of getting lost. We collaborated with them to tell their stories from #wayoutthere through graphic design, custom illustration and tear sheets. Grab some gear, go on an adventure, and tell us your story - or don't... some stories are kept between you and the wilderness.

Spend a Week In The Woods

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We're going. Going. Gone. Gone to a place of unbridled freedom. Slamming back sunshine and raising our glasses to the rising moon. The wind in our faces. A 'do you trust me' flame in our eyes and a savage grin that makes the steeliest of men feel nervous. Mincing no words with haters trying to wreck our high as we motor along. Meet Turn Loose.

Sun's About to Rise, Sleepy Eyes

Logo on blue bg; spices product photo

A bunch of barnacles

BBQ sauce; Barnacle logo w wave

Bold packaging for unique foods

Horizontal Slider

With Bullwhip hot sauce

Bullwhip women and seals too

Labels

Shopify customization

Rhubarb Jam rotating web

“The new brand identity is highly recognizeable and sets Barnacle Foods up to scale with sustainability, exploration, and environmental consciousness at the forefront.”

Business Cards & Boxes

Food Photos

Sauce Photos

Rebranding, illustration, packaging and web development for the sustainably-driven Barnacle Foods, bringing locally harvested ingredients to Alaska and beyond.

Rebranding Alaskan kelp based foods with scalable packaging

We're always up for a challenge. When Bombadil approached us to help them build a Lord of the Rings-inspired flower brand, we were more than up for it! It goes without saying, we have a passion for building corporate brands but love to roll our sleeves up and have a little fun as well. 

Fantastical Flowers

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Black Rabbit Mead Co. partnered with us to create a brand identity and packaging system for their mead. Although their product is produced with honey, they make a significantly less sweet mead than other traditional varieties. It was a goal of ours to carry over this idea to a less sweet, more eerie, and regal look for their brand.

Down the Rabbit Hole Packaging Design

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Loki Pet Treats is a small, health-focused pet food & treat company based in Oregon. Many of their values lie with their love and desire to better the land with any step they take. They partnered with Tim Miley and L&M to produce a new brand and packaging that communicated that.

Better For Our Pets, Better For The Land

First impressions can be everything. We worked alongside the wonderful team at Whitmore to design a purely unique brand identity and a rich, illustrative unboxing experience to leave a lasting impression on their customers.

It's All About the Experience

A local renovation

What a city cries for is the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably- a place to meet, a real life alternative to television, an easy escape from the cabin fever of the office or home.

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One thing that stood out to us, was how many different moving parts went into the Basement.

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To start creating a cohesive feel, we had to look at the similarities of all the different shops and boutiques that would be filling up the space… and the most common element? Their location.

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This multifaceted gem needed something to bring out it’s natural elements.

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"The hand-lettered details and linework can be seen throughout the space and it provides a contrast of the clean, modern look alongside a historic setting."

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Now, three years since it’s inception - the Basement is home to many different local boutiques, retail stores, and even a gym.

Rawbry

Tahoe Nevada Love

Chomp

One historic abandoned building, big dreamers and passionate creatives, and blood, sweat and cold pressed juices later - we’ve got the concoctions for either a 21st century West-Coast horror film, or the start of the workings of the Basement.

A Community Hub Down Under

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The City of Sparks, NV hired us to create an identity for their event, Last Friday. The event focus is historical reenactments of the city's rich heritage that is family friendly.

The Last Friday, For Now

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Time to celebrate. Patagonia has hit the 20 year mark at their Upper West Side shop. We worked together with the Patagonia NYC team to create some custom illustration and tears sheets for this anniversary. Being in the ‘business to save our home planet,’ Patagonia has worked with dozens of different environmental non-profits in the NYC area the last 2 decades, so we wanted this project to tell that story and depict the history of the area.

The Freedom & The Escape

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As the first major retailer to move into downtown in over 30 years, West Elm moving to Reno was a big deal! We were hired to produce the identity for their Hello Reno Grand Opening campaign and create assets for the WE:Local program.

Reviving Retail in Reno

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We worked in tight with the Blackbird team to develop a Brand Identity that not only showcased their innovative nature, but their ability to keep ahead of the game with the fast-growing cannabis industry. We continue to partner with this growing company to help showcase their brand through lifestyle and commercial photography, as well as creating promotional materials. Together, we knocked the Blackbird-branded socks off of all the viewers.

Branding a Marijuana Logistics Company

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We like a good whiskey. Especially when it’s smoked and made of the finest quality ingredients just down the way from our Reno studio. We revived the Forsaken River brand with a new visual identity and family of packaging, including wood veneer engraved labels.

Rye Patch Whiskey Wooden Label

Building a brand based on tradition and advancement

Video

Illustration as information and inspiration

Lid illustrations

Gravallese Co is a brand that appeals to those with and without a beard. Barbers and non-barbers. Speaking the notion that self care and wanting to look your best is available for everyone.

Transparent Product Photos

Gravallese Co. came to us to create their brand identity, packaging design, website, and product photography centered around the refinement of traditional grooming products and self-care. Winning best brand packaging awards regionally and nationally.

Italian Heritage Brand & Grooming Products

Companies Page Interactions (Video)

Large 'g' small wordmark mountain background

A logo system that scales

A branded house for investments

An iconic accent

A website designed to focus on the individual experience

Homepage (Video)

Page Transitions (Video)

A diversified growth equity and advisory firm with a storied history of success, Cingulate Group came to Commence for their unique brand identity and website development.

Brand identity for the leading global investment group

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It’s hard to grow food in the desert

Core Principles

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Leaving a lasting feeling

We wanted to fully embody what it means to be natural. So we kept it sweet and simple

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To keep your future fresh, your delivery could be no more than a tap away.

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Through re-imagining organic produce in a box, we started creating an enticing and environmentally progressive identity for the Fresh Future Box; the aquaponics solution to the end of the Farmer's Market season. Whether it’s spicy peppers, rich butter greens, or plum tomatoes, we made sure we incorporated all elements of sweet sweet sustainability. Ensuring that they sacrificed nothing when it came to authentically representing their brand promise, we created their brand so it was replete with natural elements and vibrant visuals.

The Future of Community Supported Agriculture

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As much as we love doing work for our clients, we also love doing work for our planet. In conjunction with Patagonia Action Works, we designed and implemented a mural that spanned across three of Patagonia’s vast windows. The imagery and statements were chosen to bring awareness to the fracking threat that would damage the Ruby Mountains’ landscape and habitat in search for oils and fuel. The Rubies are not only full of beauty and popular for recreation, but are also Te-Moak ancestral homelands and a place that many magnificent animals call home. We stand with the thousands of people who have already raised their voices against destroying this iconic landscape. With Patagonia’s immense following and a little paint, we hope to make a big difference for the future of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains.

Defend the Rubies

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The Generator has a diverse selection of members. Seriously.

Design is Play.

“We wanted the look and feel of this page to be a fun, interactive place where individuals come to create.”

The site practically invites you to play around.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.

As well as showing off the access to tools and resources, it was important to the Generator to demonstrate the most important value of becoming a member — access to the community.

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Do What You Love, Love What You Do.

In a community of makers, creators, and innovators - The Generator stands out. With a growing number of well-known projects around the world, from Burning Man to the Smithsonian - it leads the way in community maker spaces. However, their website didn’t reflect that . While gearing up for a large member push, they reached out to see if we would help with a landing page. We did one better - here’s to creating an interactive scroller in line with the other printed elements. Work began in March 2018 and the site is now live in May 2018.

A Hands on Place to Create

A growing coffee roaster, brand-new storefront, and "product testing" almost to the point of brain aneurysms (no, really), creating an identity for Magpie Coffee Roasters was less bravado, more art -- just like the coffee itself. Through creating a familiar symbol for the brand, as well as artwork that craves to be collected - we made the coffee aficionados at Magpie look as good as their brews taste. Keeping the known simplicity of Magpie in place while infusing their credibility and stature in the industry was imperative. We didn’t want to make them into something they weren’t.

Coffee and Aneurisms

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It is no secret that we love to work with cannabis companies. So naturally, creating an identity and packaging system for the Alaska-based concentrate connoisseur Matanuska Apothecary was a perfect fit.

Alaskan Cannabis Dispensary Branding

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Releasing in Southern California as well as select locations throughout the Lower 48, Indo saw the opportunity for releasing an affordable high-end tea - if that makes any sense. We helped out by dialing in some bullet proof packaging with ironic notes of Midnight Watermelon as well as Mango Camouflage - not to mention the entire brand & identity.

Rethinking the Shelf

Custom Serif Logo

Photo Grid

Featured services shown in style

Services start at the website

The Virgil coworking and events venue wanted to make luxury accessible. Commence created the venue’s brand identity and website with community-oriented elegance. Now The Virgil has become a hub for collaboration.

The Virgil – Coworking Space Identity and Website Design

Theme & Palette

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Sustainable Recognition

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A Site you don't want to miss

Check it out

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Dayton Valley Aquaponics partnered with us to create a brand that represented their bio-fueled take on farming that provides fresh produce year round in the High Desert of Nevada

Rethinking Produce through Aquaponics

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Throwing it Back

The Impression of Color

Out of this World Experience

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Don’t Just Drink It, Sport It

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But, wait… there’s more. Prepare for a website beyond your imagination.

Vast and Encompassing

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Bringing the coffee buying experience to the next level. Introducing a subscription system for legends.

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Coffee Forever

Mobile + Coffee = Love.

Become an Expert

Swipe for More

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RetroRocket Coffee is a purely web based coffee brand that has it all. Starting from step one, we created the color palette, brand, packaging and website for this intuitive company. Packed full of space exploration references, sweeping design and unique web experiences, you'll want to know every detail of the rise of RetroRocket.

Launch The Day 

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Using science and high quality ingredients we are upping the morning bake game in 512. One degree at a time.

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Our team was tasked with creating an identity for Clever Baking Co. that captured the witty spirit of their business-to-business bakery. Founded by two specialty coffee die-hards, Clever Baking Co. partners with local coffee shops giving Austin, TX an otherwise impossibly fresh experience: pastries baked fresh all day.

Get Baked

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We Heard You're Vegan, but this Cookie Isn't

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Let's Call It...

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Ritual Baking Co. specializes in unique and decadent cookies baked in Reno, NV. We were challenged with not only creating an identity for this punk rock baking company, but also given the opportunity to help name it. Our team developed multiple directions of identity, each speaking to a different atmosphere of unique, high end junk food.

Beat or Be Beaten Packaging

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L&M was tasked with bringing new energy to Off Beat, a grass roots music festival in Reno, NV. It’s a citywide, multi-venue festival that’s all about discovering the amazing new things being created right here in Reno – music, food, drink and more. 100+ performances are at a mix of 17 venues from small bars to large theaters, from art galleries to restaurants and even shops, where you can see over 40 bands at different venues around the core of Reno.



Reno Is For Creatures

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Identity Exploration Re-crafting the look

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Colors to match coffee’s personality

You can never go wrong with badges

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Being a group of creative professionals, its only natural to be fueled by caffeine and cold brews. Coffeebar is a supplier of just that— not to mention wine, baked treats, good times and great memories with even greater friends. At the start of Summer 2017 when Coffeebar was gearing up to open their 5th location we began a partnership to achieve an enhanced social presence and build a brand new website in preparation for the much-anticipated arrival in Silicon Valley.

Un Vero Gusto Italiano

Brand Identity

San Francisco

Brand Identity in San Francisco