Turn About.

In 2008, our fortunes took a turn for the better when we joined forces with Sara Strategies to rebrand one of the most unusual clients in our 25-year history. Their unique skills made them a go-to global resource for custom-designed industrial conveyor belt curves. The company was Portec, Inc., and APEX was hired to help their business turn the corner.

Behind the scenes at most major shipping and storage plants is a maze of conveyor belts that moves products and packages through the plants and on the way to customers as quickly as possible. In many cases, space and efficiency create demands for tailor-made conveyor belt curves and lifts. Portec provided these conveyor belt curves and connections, which were designed and built to each customer’s specific needs. Glamorous? Not really. Vital? Absolutely! And it was these custom-designed products that inspired Sara Boatz to come up with a strategic marketing plan and the new Portec tagline, “It’s Your Turn.”

As part of the rebrand, APEX designed the new Portec logo to symbolize a simple, smooth, and swift conveyor belt curve. The Portec wordmark was created with sleek, industrial-style letterforms, and the color palette was a solid blue and gray, inspiring confidence and efficiency.

Once the new visual brand was developed, the Portec marketing and sales team required detailed product spec sheets and a pocket folder to deliver their project info and proposals. With the need to include product imagery, our first choice was to explore photography of the Portec creations. However, the difficulty of obtaining the required heights and perspectives to best show off their products made illustration a better solution.

Turning to Denver-based ArtAgent, technical artwork for several different Portec products was commissioned. The finished illustrations provided us with detailed, clean, and informative assets with which to create the various product sell sheets and collateral materials. The product imagery was framed by curved graphic shapes that emphasized the nature and essence of the business.

The illustrations were created using colors similar to the new Portec brand color palette for a consistent visual presentation of the products.

In addition to the sales materials, APEX also created an extensive owner’s manual and a smaller product brochure.

For their all-important trade show events, APEX also created a clean and attention-grabbing series of exhibit banners and kiosk graphics that introduced the new Portec visual brand to their potential new customers.

Sadly, the Portec visual brand was to be short-lived. In 2013, the company was acquired by Swiss-based Interrolle, who had been one of their main competitors. Perhaps it was a just case of “if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.” Either way, the chances are good that your next Amazon or FedEx package spent some time on a Portec-designed conveyor belt curve on its way to you.

So if you’re looking for a new visual brand to help your company turn the corner, contact us today. Consultation and estimates are always free.

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