Marathon Consulting is a New York IT consultancy founded in 2002. Their aim is to provide small businesses and non-profit organizations with low-cost, high-quality solutions to complex IT challenges.
In 2007, AREA 17 was hired to develop their brand strategy, visual identity and website in order to help them convert their working philosophy into words and images.
Marathon was looking to redefine how people look at information technology outsourcing — that scary domain that every small company and organization needs but is afraid to deal with — and get users to contact them for their services.
To address this, we needed to think beyond information technology in order to help the brand become more exciting and personable, relatable and approachable. At the same time, not go too far from the domain of technology — a tricky tightrope to walk and a complicated message to convey for a company whose communication is mostly text-based.
Our approach was to use their name as inspiration and look at IT as a performance sports brand such as Patagonia or North Face. Abstractly speaking, both types of brands have the same characteristics of utility, simplicity, agility, achievement and of course, performance.
With the logo, we attempted to create a look that stands out in a crowd of bland IT brands (sorry) and conveys a feeling of energy and simplicity — that information technology can be seen as a sporting event.
The mark itself — most obviously an “M” — is transformed into a heart-pulse, runners or even a mountain-range … reaching for the sky.
With the website, we wanted to assert a strong promise and show it in action — broken down by services, packaged solutions and the success stories that show proven results.
The main objective of the website is to get users to call Marathon — for once spoken too, their friendly, knowledgeable and human approach speaks for itself.
The Marathon logo is one of five logos designed by AREA 17 that is featured in the design book “LOGO” by Michael Evamy (Published by Laurence King, 2007).