Brief

Benchmark Infotechnologies is the personal brand for Carmen Burns, a fully educated Information Technology engineer who contracts for major companies as well as running her own business. Carmen does it all, and all on her own. She has a small office in Portland but has clients all over the metro area including OHSU. Without any kind of branding to speak of, Carmen wanted something that speaks to the security and class that Benchmark delivers their clients.

RESEARCH

During the research phase for this project I considered “Why Benchmark? What does that name mean?” These days it’s used in technology to describe a standard measurement that can be measured against. Looking further back though, I found that the term originates from the chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors would carve into stones so that they could always measure from the same position. Various symbols were used, but all involving three intersecting lines to imply the triangulation of a point on a map.

Development

Being a black woman in an industry dominated by white men, Carmen has an opportunity to stand out. I wanted to create a brand that is more friendly and approachable than the common IT companies in most metro areas. Starting with the name, I chose a font that has more of a boutique feel than a generic tech company. I based the mark itself on an actual benchmark but updated it to simple vectors and added some circular contacts to evoke the shapes seen on a circuit board. In order to fully bring this circuit board motif to life I had the business cards and laptop drop-off forms printed with gold foil.

Final