The Plaza Theater has been around since 1967, but it’s never had any branding. The current owner has owned it for the past twenty or so years and started using the theater business for a job skills program for at-risk youth, and it’s been awesome. They’ve since halted operations due to the pandemic.

When you see a logo like those from Best Buy, 3M, Target, and General Mills, it would be easy for most people to think those were easy to come up with. But try it. Choose some local hardware store near your house or even your sister’s Etsy shop, and see if you could make something that works. I’ve heard it said a good logo could/should last 50 years. That seems like a stretch; even Google, Apple, and Amazon all changed theirs plenty of times in their first 5 years of existence.

Good logos can be like Thomas Edison’s lightbulb, where you only end up at what works because you first had to find a hundred things that don’t. But between my dear friend, Joanna Hallstrom and I, and with about 4 straight weeks of different directions and plenty of drafts, we finally landed on something that we both loved. It was simple but old-looking with thick lines and a good make-me-want-to-see-a-movie vibe.