Board Crafting is a successful Kickstarter campaign by Shandy Brown to produce custom, handmade, wooden Settler’s of Catan boards. His boards solve some important issues of the standard board, as well as look damn amazing. With the overwhelming success of his product, Shandy came to us for a new identity. 

The new Board Crafting identity takes its inspiration from Middle Ages crafts guilds and reimagines it in the modern context. We looked at what Shandy was doing, crafting these fine pieces of art with lasers and modern technology, and saw an interesting story to tell. 

Board Crafting is rooted in playfulness and story, it’s about creating thought-out and beautiful frameworks for your imagination to roam in. So we wanted the identity to have that same quality as well. The shield and symbols harkens back to a time when trades were regularly defined by their tools. Drawing imagery from this period imbues the identity with cultural authority, communicating establishment and authenticity. This inspiration is also a nod to Board Crafting’s roots in Settler’s of Catan, which takes place in a time of similar feeling. 

But there’s a sense of playfulness, too, as this historical language is juxtaposed with a laser and unusual typesetting. Choosing the type was difficult – it had to be premium and speak to refined yet hand crafted quality. We chose Brothers, a typeface that feels hand made itself, and embodies a certain working class ethic. The asymmetrical composition breaks from the strength of the shield to be more exciting, ownable and artistic. It is a reserved, engineered, yet expressive flourish.

We’re honored to have been able to create this identity for Shandy, who’s passion for quality and capacity for imagination show through his inspired work. We would gladly trade sheep for a wood with him any day.