30. JUDSON DESIGN ASSOCIATES
“This project was born out of opportunity,” Jeff Davis of Judson Design Associates confides. Opportunity here can mean so many things. What began as a whimsical, innocent, and curious internet browse, turned into a brilliant identity project. Davis wanted to adopt a puppy, inspired by a friend who had just adopted one from K9 Academy, a dog training facility in Texas. From browsing, he noticed how poor the visual identity program of the enterprise was and proposed barter. They complied happily.

Another opportunity was contained in the process of developing the logo. “The challenge was having a unique client with a not-so-unique name,” Davis explains.

The designer explored the idea of number-to-letter substitution, altering the word but not so much as to change the meaning. Davis cleverly substituted the K9 into the arrangement of the word Academy thus altering the spelling, making it more playful, inviting, and distinctively communicative. The accentuated red K9 subliminally leads the name reading. The only trick was to get the client to be comfortable with the sequence. After trying it out on customers and receiving unanimous positive testimonials, they conceded.
Ismiaji Cahyono