I was approached by the lawyers at the Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC to design a logo for their new legal practice.  They requested a combination of a symbol and wordmark.

Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC, located in Green Bay, WI, are attorneys that assist their clients in the practice of family, corporate and business, personal injury and estate law, as well as, estate and elder planning, traffic and ordinance violation and probate.

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My initial mandate by the lawyers at Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC was that the logo shouldn’t include any obvious law-inspired symbols or icons, such as the scales of justice, a gavel, or Lady Justice.  That led me to begin sketching out a typography-based logo using the ‘L’ in Liebmann and the ‘V’ and ‘S’ in Van Straten.  The clients liked the idea, but were concerned that the singular ‘L’ wouldn’t work well with the ‘V’ and ‘S’ as one would overpower the other.  The goal for the typography-based logo design was to create a design where one of the partners wasn’t overshadowed by the other.

After all of the initial logo sketches, I began to narrow the options.  I was also given the idea that two of the Liebmanns were a third and fourth generation in their family and Van Straten was a second.  I tried to use these numbers in designing a courthouse or a pillar design but this fell into the law-inspired symbols category they were hoping to shy away from.  I even tried to use the pillar design in the ‘LVS’ logo, but these ideas were abandoned in favor of returning to the initial typographical logo.

I eventually came up with the idea to combine the ‘V’ and ‘S’ lettering which allowed both sets of initials representing the lawyers to stand on equal footing in the logo.

The final logo sketch was approved when I linked the three letters and made both sets of initials level at their foundation, as well as their pinnacle.

The color scheme for the Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC consists of the colors navy blue, white and silver.

Navy blue was requested especially by the Legal Group.  This was a very intelligent request since navy blue stands for trust, responsibility, knowledge and integrity, all of which are important traits in an attorney.  A dark blue color also symbolizes one’s authority in a subject.

White and silver are the other two colors used in the logo.  They compliment the darker tone of the navy blue, making for a more vibrant, eye-catching design.  White represents hope, protection and order.  Silver establishes a feeling of dignity and sophistication.

The final logo for the Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC features white lettering featuring the lawyers’ initials inside a navy blue square.  This symbol design is outlined in silver.  It is above a wordmark featuring ‘Liebmann & Van Straten’ in a serif font and ‘Legal Group, LLC’ in a sans serif font.

The use of a box in relation to a legal group’s logo plays an important part in the overall design.  Conventionally, boxes or squares cause the mind to subconsciously think up concepts of sturdiness or a foundation, which denote feelings of trust.  This leads anyone who sees a square design in a logo for a business or firm to be trustworthy, strong and stable.  Such is the case for Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC.

The letters inside the box, as well as the ‘Liebmann & Van Straten’ in the wordmark are serif typefaces.  Serif typefaces incorporate a line at the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol.  This is important to the overall design of the logo and wordmark in that serif fonts are the oldest typefaces in the world, making them highly traditional.  Serif typefaces also make the viewer know an organization that uses them is also reliable, respectable, reputable and dependable.

Standing in contrast to the serif typefaces used in the logo design, the ‘Legal Group, LLC’ in the lower portion of the wordmark is a sans serif typeface.  Sans means without, so sans serif fonts feature letters or symbols without decorative lines at the end of each stroke.  Sans serif typefaces are generally more modern and contemporary.

Combining the two styles of wordmarks is especially crucial to the Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC philosophy to law.  They are a firm that is steeped in the tradition and history of the rules of law, but also believe in a newer approach to helping their clients.  Their motto is to recognize each client as an individual person or person, as opposed to simply commodities.

The following are the finished logos, first with a white background and then with a navy blue background.

The following additional pictures show the new Liebmann & Van Straten Legal Group, LLC in use on the sign outside of the building, as well as the front door of their law practice.

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