Crispin Porter + Bogusky is rebranding (and moving that plus)

MDC Partners agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky is rebranding and tweaking its logo from CP+B to be "CPB+." It will also go by simply "Crispin Porter Bogusky" -- which is pretty much what everyone called it anyway. (Editor's note: Ad Age style does not honor the + sign in agency names, so other than in this story, the shop has been written as Crispin Porter & Bogusky within Ad Age.) The shop saw the return of namesake Alex Bogusky over the summer, and made changes including closing its Miami and Los Angeles outposts as it sought to consolidate operations in the U.S. The day Bogusky returned, he was already eyeing a brand refresh for the agency, says Adam Skalecki, co-lead of design at the agency. Skalecki said the new branding hopes to honor the "rebellious nature the agency has always had," along with "punk" spirit. The moving of the plus sign in the logo is subtle, but has significance, he maintains. "Moving that plus outside the name makes it less about just the addition of Alex as another partner, and more about CPB's partnerships with other people," Skalecki claims. The company's new stencil-type logo font is also a way to convey a DIY spirit. "We wanted something that felt slightly industrial, slightly maker-y," says co-design lead David Balsamello. Also new is the agency's website. The site is meant to feel more like that of a modern tech company than an agency by identifying exactly what its services are and selling those products, Skalecki says. It features PDFs of its old creative process and a new "lean-agile creative process" called Gut+, which it says is faster, cheaper and higher-touch than the old way of doing things. (David founder Anselmo Ramos now runs an agency called Gut, but a CPB spokesman said the shop isn't worried about any confusion. When asked for comment, Ramos responded by email: "We actually think it's great for us. Every time CPB mentions their new lean-agile creative process, clients will think about GUT ;)." Then there's "Crisp Jam" for "projects and clients that typically have a hard time finding a home." That involves tiered offerings ranging from "Tinder" to "Dinner and a movie." The site also has a shop offering everything from a real T-shirt to a jar of Crisp Jam, which links back to its new offering. Visitors to the site can also see the agency's new claim that it will give 1 percent of agency profits to media literacy.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is rebranding (and moving that plus)

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