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Brett S. Traylor Creative Direction & Design

Bernstein Shur

Brett led this project during his 17-year tenure as Thinkso’s founder and executive creative director.

On the occasion of its 100th anniversary and under new leadership, New England-based law firm Bernstein Shur looked to reset and reposition. We implemented a complete rebrand that included new marketing strategy, brand identity, website, collateral, video, and more. The result was a distinct look and tone that synched perfectly with the substance of the firm.

The Bernstein Shur logo on a dark blue wall in the company reception area. A person sits a the desk in the foreground.

Law firms spend a lot of their time thinking about precedent, which can make convincing them to try something new a challenge. Bernstein Shur was different, though. They knew they were unique, and while the debate was lively, they appreciated out-of-the-box ideas.

Brett Traylor, Executive Creative Director, Bst.

The Bernstein Shur logo type animates and transforms to spell out "be sure."
The colorful Bernstein Shur web homepage with the headline "When being a 99 year old law firm feels so last year."
The practices and industries served page on the Bernstein Shur website listing the firm's many areas of expertise.
An excerpt from the construction practice area page on on the Bernstein Shur website.
An individual lawyer's bio page from the Bernstein Shur website displayed on a both a tablet and a smartphone.

We redesigned—and rewrote—a completely new website for the firm. The homepage targets prospective clients and employment candidates, putting the Bernstein Shur differentiators right up front. Our strategy also included structuring the site to aid cross-selling of the firm’s practices by industry, “chunking” page content to make it easier to read and digest, and mimicking the attorneys' straightforward, down-to-earth, plain language style.

A Bernstein Shur magazine ad that reads "When you need a lawyer committed to raising the bar, not just passing it."
A Bernstein Shur magazine ad that reads "When you need a lawyer that thinks like an executive and speaks like a human."

An advertising campaign, for which we also handled the media plan and buy, marked the launch of the firm’s new image and voice. The ads introduce a shorthand for the firm name, “Be Shur,” which acts as the punch line to the headlines. Sponsorship and announcement ads, created as templates for in-house production, feature a loose, gestural style of illustration to further contextualize the messaging.

Close ups of the front and back of Bernstein Shur business cards.
The covers of three Bernstein Shur practic area brochures.

Simple, bold print collateral give the attorneys solid, sophisticated materials with which to market themselves. Shown here: Business cards and three practice area brochures that we wrote and designed.

Two employees holding and looking at an opened Bernstein Shur brand spirit booklet with the title "Be better."
wo sets of inside pages from the Bernstein Shur brand spirit booklet with the headlines "Be prepared" and "Be yourself."

We created a brand spirit book to help communicate the firm’s values to its 100+ lawyers, its staff, and its future hires. The booklet demonstrates the new identity system and editorial approach while articulating exactly what makes Bernstein Shur so special.

The new Bernstein Shur identity won a Merit award in the 2016 Rebrand 100 Global Awards. It also received first place in the LMA New England Chapter’s 2016 Your Honor Awards for both brand identity and advertising.