Project of the Month: TAPCO Credit Union's Rebrand

The backstory of Plumb Signs and TAPCO Credit Union.

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This month we had the pleasure of working with our long time customer and friends at TAPCO Credit Union again. We've been working with the TAPCO team since 1990 and really admire their commitment to evolving and growing their brand. TAPCO recently reached out to us with a new vision for their brand that included the revitalized tagline, "For the Love of People". 

Equipped with new branding guidelines, TAPCO asked us to retrofit all 4 of their branches with a signage packages that aligns with their new look and vision.

Here's a look at their new logo design.

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Given the updates to the logo, we faced a few challenges in terms of converting this new look into clean and professional signage for all of their branches. The challenges included:

  • Matching the new pantone branding colors with vinyl colors.
  • Keeping everything within budget.
  • Working within a tight timeframe given the launch date of the rebrand. 
  • Last but certainly not least, all 4 branches had existing signs that had been there for years and the codes then were more liberal than they are now. In order to maintain a large sign that met the coding restrictions, we were required to design the new signage within the existing dimensions for that particular space.

A look into the project from start to finish.

TAPCO reached out to us with their new branding guidelines at the end of January and the unveiling of the new logo was set for April 4th. It was crucial to have the signs installed for all 4 of their branch locations by this time to align with the PR efforts for their rebrand launch. These are their 4 branch locations:

  • Main Branch | 6312 19th St. W
  • 6th Avenue Branch | 2802 6th Ave.
  • Canyon Branch | 5303 112th St. E
  • Tacoma Avenue Branch | 933 Tacoma Ave.

We had our surveyor go out to each site and take an inventory of every sign along with measurements and photos. Then we ran all sites through code research. Our findings were that a lot of the existing signs were much larger than what we were currently allowed due to coding restrictions. For budgetary reasons and to keep the larger signs it was in the best interest of all those involved to reuse these signs.

The next step was to start the design process. The design process was the bulk of the timeline as we not only had to layout the main ID signs with the new branding, but our designer needed to come up with concepts of how all the wayfinding signage would tie in with the new branding. Color matching was a challenge as the branding guidelines called out Pantone colors that did not match up with vinyl colors. As a result, we suggested vinyl colors that came close to the pantone colors and instead of painting the signs to the branding guideline colors we painted the signs to match the vinyl. The end result was perfect.

Our fabrication team met the short time line and our install crews finalized the signage for all 4 branches within 2 days, which were the Friday and Saturday before the Monday unveiling. It was important for TAPCO not to have signs up any earlier as the branding was not made public until April 4th.

And here's a look at how it all came together!

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If you're interested in learning more about TAPCO's new look and renewed promise then please take a minute to check out their latest video. It's really well done!

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