ISAAC WOOTEN
Colman Brohan Davis

CBD Marketing

Colman Brohan Davis, a Chicago marketing agency, in its twentieth year. A leaping dog, a folded-paper family, and one small dog who walks the footer.

2009
The agency’s twentieth year, Chicago
Levid
Creative Director, Levid Media
6 → 11
Six pieces, eleven brand surfaces
↗
Brand book
Result

A serious agency with a dog in the footer. Colman Brohan Davis was a Chicago creative marketing and brand strategy agency: integrated marketing, brand development, public relations and interactive. For its twentieth year, at Levid Media, I designed the mark, three homepage directions and a small cartoon dog who peeked over the footer. What it taught me: an established brand can afford one small, human surprise, and the surprise is what people remember.

The brief

Twenty years in, the agency wanted to look established without looking tired.

The mark started as a page of origami dogs, a boxer, a terrier, a corgi, a resting dog, and settled on one in mid-leap, built from overlapping folded planes in lavender so it reads as motion and as paper. The name sits beneath in a quiet serif. For the site I designed three directions, from a light editorial homepage to a dark one and a cracked-paint interactive page with giant ghosted type, and drew a brown cartoon dog, frame by frame, to peek over the footer: the one surprise on an otherwise composed page.

A dog in mid-leap

Loyal, agile, going somewhere. Folded planes keep it crafted rather than cute.

Lavender and one spark

A soft purple palette with orange held back for links, the active tab and one pair of ears.

Three directions

Light and editorial, dark and confident, and a textured interactive page, so the client could choose a temperature.

One surprise

A hand-drawn dog in the footer. Keep scrolling and he is still here.

The work

Eight Colman Brohan Davis lockups: a faceted leaping dog in lavender, one with orange ears, over the serif name and Innovative Marketing, Design, Technology.
The mark: a dog in mid-leap, cut from folded planes.
A sheet of hand-drawn origami dog ideas in lavender: boxer, resting dog, nodding dog, terrier, corgi, a paw print and a bone.
Origami dog ideas, the sketches behind the mark.
Frame-by-frame drawings of a small cartoon dog walking, in pencil and then coloured brown.
The walk cycle: seventeen frames, pencil then colour.
The CBD homepage, 2009: purple tabs, a BusinessWeek feature,
The homepage, 2009, with the dog peeking over the footer.
A darker homepage concept with a purple news bar and
A second direction: dark header, the twentieth year.
The interactive services page: giant ghosted type over cracked purple paint, with industry tabs.
The interactive page: cracked paint and ghosted type.

Brand system

A mark, three homepages and a dog make a pitch; I wanted to see the system behind it. Lavender, purple and one orange spark, a serif wordmark, folded-paper geometry and bright editorial light became the brand DNA, and the brand world grew from there.

  • CBD Marketing. Brand world: the leaping dog folded from lavender paper over the Chicago skyline, an orange paper arrow aheadBrand world · rendered from the locked brand DNA
  • CBD Marketing. Logo variations sheet
  • CBD Marketing. Logo construction grid
  • CBD Marketing. Business cards
  • CBD Marketing. Packaging
  • CBD Marketing. Merch collection
  • CBD Marketing. Mobile app screens
  • CBD Marketing. Website hero, Ideas that move brands further
  • CBD Marketing. Brand guidelines sheet
  • CBD Marketing. Billboard
  • CBD Marketing. Office signage

The mark, the homepage concepts and the dog are the design. The brand world is a 2026 study made with my own tool from them, not work delivered to the client.

We share your passion for success.

Colman Brohan Davis, the 2009 homepage

Role

Levid Media in 2009 for the mark, the site and the dog. A 2026 study for the brand world.

Creative direction

Founder and creative director at Levid Media, the agency that took the brief.

Mark and site

Origami sketches, the leaping-dog mark and lockups, and three homepage directions, designed end to end.

Illustration

The cartoon dog, drawn in pencil and coloured frame by frame into a seventeen-frame walk.

Eleven surfaces

Brand DNA extracted, then logo system, cards, packaging, merch, web, app, guidelines, billboard and signage.

  • Logo design
  • Web design
  • Illustration
  • Animation
  • Brand DNA extraction
  • Brand systems

Next

The work lives in the archive with the rest of the agency years.

Browse the archive →