BothPlus is a lifestyle brand for people who don't fit in a box: athletes who are also entrepreneurs, designers who are also vocalists, leaders who move between the pulpit and the boardroom. It makes premium pieces that move with them from one world to the next. We built an identity with the authority of an Ivy League institution and the ease of a modern wardrobe.
How do you put more than one identity into a single mark?
The brief was clear: Ralph Lauren meets Brown University. BothPlus wanted a crest with Ivy League sophistication and a modern edge, carrying five ideas at once: flexibility, sports, business, family and faith. It also had to scale from the smallest digital icon to embroidery and merchandise, and still feel minimal. A crest can easily drown in its own detail. This one had to stay elegant.
Our Response
A Crest With Institutional Weight
A quartered shield that spells BOTH, crowned and framed in laurel, built to read like it has been around for a century.
A Family of Marks
A full crest, a compact BP shield, a lion-and-lamb brand mark and a classic logotype, so the brand always has the right mark for the space.
A Voice to Match
A palette, type system and brand language that feel confident without arrogance and sophisticated without distance.
We started by studying the two worlds the brief brought together. We collected Brown University's crest, photography and apparel, and explored Ralph Lauren's key pieces and assets. We also looked at the history of family crests, what their symbols mean, and how crest and badge identities work across fashion, sport, food and Ivy League institutions.
The First Challenge
Bring the core styles of Brown University and Ralph Lauren into one piece. We distilled what they share into five keywords: Crest, Symbolism, Elegance, Preppy and Authority.
The Insight
Preppy style sat at the core of the brand's personality. Leaning into it gave us a route to an identity that is timeless, elegant and minimal at the same time.
The Turn
Our first crest placed the brand name inside a burgundy shield with a torch, a Bowen knot, a lightning bolt and a laurel wreath. The feedback pushed us further: simplify the crest so it feels more like a university, and let a plus, inspired by Brown's cross, take the place of the name. We broke the crest down and rebuilt it from the shield up.
Who It Speaks To
The Multi-Hyphenate
The athlete who codes at night, the CEO who writes poetry, the pastor who builds businesses, the designer who leads movements. BothPlus speaks to all of them at once, across borders.
The Design-Conscious
People who value good design and want what they wear to carry meaning. The crest gives them a brand with history in its bones.
The Ambitious
Anyone who has ever been told to pick one lane. The tagline answers them directly: For those who are more than.
The Crest
We explored heraldic shield forms until we found the right balance between traditional authority and contemporary elegance. A classic heraldic shape felt too conventional for a lifestyle brand. A geometric one lost the warmth a premium brand needs. The final shield has sophisticated curves that keep its authority while feeling approachable and versatile.
The Quartered Shield
The four quarters spell B, O, T and H, alternating burgundy and beige, so the name lives inside the crest itself.
The Plus
The orange cross that divides the shield is the plus in BothPlus, drawn from the Ivy League tradition that inspired it.
The Crown
A battlement crown sits above the shield, giving the crest its sense of institution and inheritance.
The Laurel and Banner
A laurel wreath stands for faith and achievement, and the banner below carries the motto UNA CUM MULTIS TITULIS: One with Many Titles.
Logo Variations
Main Crest
The full-colour crest leads on light backgrounds, with black and white versions for single-colour use, dark grounds and photography.
Shield and Logotype
The shield paired with the logotype in vertical and horizontal lockups, for square formats, website headers and wide applications.
Secondary Shield
A simplified shield with a BP monogram, for small spaces and moments that call for a bolder, more iconic presence.
Brand Mark
A crowned lion holding a lamb, standing for strength, leadership and the dual nature of the BothPlus individual. It pairs with the logotype or sits inside a circular badge lockup for patches and embroidery.
Logotype
BothPlus in classical capitals, set in a single line or stacked, for when the name alone is enough.
Every mark stays upright. The crest relies on vertical orientation for its authority, so when a layout needs movement, the background moves instead.
Colour
The palette draws from heritage luxury and contemporary sophistication. Burgundy anchors the brand with institutional authority and deepens into a rich gradient for backgrounds. Orange, a nod to the Black Ivy style the brand admires, brings warmth and energy alongside Golden Rod. Dark Moss Green adds unexpected depth, Beige creates refined breathing room, and black and white handle contrast. Burgundy always leads, the oranges act as accents, and the neutrals keep everything clear.
Typography
A classical, all-caps serif carries the brand's biggest moments: headlines, section titles and the logotype itself. Its carved, stone-cut forms give BothPlus the gravitas of an old institution. A clean geometric sans handles body copy, subheadings and supporting text, keeping the brand easy to read across every medium. One brings heritage; the other keeps it modern.
A classical, all-caps serif carries the brand's biggest moments: headlines, section titles and the logotype itself. Its carved, stone-cut forms give BothPlus the gravitas of an old institution.
A clean geometric sans handles body copy, subheadings and supporting text, keeping the brand easy to read across every medium.
Brand Language
BothPlus speaks to people who refuse to be defined by a single role. Its voice is confident without arrogance, aspirational yet relatable, sophisticated but approachable, direct and purposeful. Short, impactful statements sit beside longer, flowing ones, and repetition does the emphasis that capital letters and exclamation marks never do. The brand's statement lines follow the same idea: More than an Athlete. More than a Creative. More than one thing.
The Brand in Context
A brand built for people who move between worlds has to look right in all of them.
On soft, neutral fabric, the logotype in burgundy reads like a tailor's mark: quiet, precise and made to last. Its classical capitals carry all the authority the brand needs without a single symbol.
At the smallest sizes, the BP shield and the compact crest hold their shape, so the brand stays recognisable from a profile icon to a full campaign.
The Impact
Distinguished
A crest with the weight of an institution and the polish of a premium fashion house.
Versatile
A full family of marks that covers every format, from embroidery to app icons.
Meaningful
Every element of the crest carries part of the BothPlus story, from the letters in the quarters to the motto on the banner.
Consistent
Clear rules for colour, type, spacing and voice keep the brand intact wherever it goes.
What We Learned
Feedback sharpens the idea
Our first crest said too much. Simplifying it brought the brand closer to the institutions it was inspired by.
The name can be the symbol
Putting BOTH inside the shield and turning the cross into the plus made the crest say the brand's name without spelling it out.
One brand needs many marks
A crest alone can't do every job. The supporting marks let BothPlus show up fully at any size.
