StoneRidge Golf Club

StoneRidge Golf Club.

Agency:

This project was completed while working as a Senior Designer at Sussner.

StoneRidge is the toughest course in Minnesota, but has been telling a story of farm friendly. It had been sitting on a great story for 25 years, and we dug it up.

Quarry tough, not farm friendly.

The first 6 months of this project were spent helping the client understand why their current barn logo was telling the wrong story. Thankfully you're reading this case study because we eventually got them there. The club was missing opportunities every day by sending the wrong message, and they knew it. There wasn't anything wrong with the barn or the illustration, but It said farm friendly when the golf course said something else entirely.

So, we went digging.

The course was built on an old sand and rock quarry. Members already called it The Rock Pile. Once we found that, the direction was obvious. The story was always there. It just needed someone to dig it up. (I told you.)

Ace.

My boss and creative director at the time is an avid golfer. He had been waiting for a project like this for quite a long time. That kind of pressure is fuel for me. It's super motivating knowing I could help our client with a serious problem, and make my boss proud at the same time. We spent late nights and long weekends burning through ideas. Each miss cleared the rubble. The tee-hammer came on the final day, the morning before the client presentation. I was sketching and two unrelated concepts collided. I got up from my desk, threw the sketch down, and said "this is it." We both nodded and presented it shortly after. Ace.

The Tee-Hammer

Their new mark simply combines a golf tee with a hammer. Rugged, direct, and masculine. It reflects the geology the course was built on and the kind of golf it demands. Approved with minimal revisions. That's usually the sign you got it right.

The barn took a back seat and became a sub-branded asset. We pulled in textures from the barn as well. It's not something we thought should get left behind, but it certainly wasn't the hero anymore.

Taking the bull by the horns

The Ridgatational is the club's signature annual member tournament, where the superintendent sets up the toughest possible conditions, and it needed its own mark. I asked myself a simple question. What if the tee was hammered into a bull skull? I mean, there IS a barn on the property... right?

Quarry tough.

StoneRidge had a story worth telling. It just needed someone to stop leading with a barn and start leading with their history. The members already knew what this place was. Now the brand knows it too.

THE place to go after a tough round

Danny's is the on-property restaurant where rounds end and stories get told. A rebrand that stops at the logo isn't a rebrand. Danny's needed an uplift to stay on brand.