At over 150 years old, J&L Dental is one of America’s longest-standing dental supply businesses, its history never in question, but its future less defined. The pandemic pause provided an opportunity to reset.  With the biggest challenge facing the business the growing strength of the competition, ‘the corporate machine’. The immediate need? Building out a strategy that helps put the power back in this indie’s court.

The first tactical asset on the docket of the ‘Independent’s Independent’ was their visual identity with a need to connect their look to their vision.

It was clear from the outset that keeping a link to the core American independent culture that they were founded on and stand for was imperative, only with a modern take.

Dentistry has always been their business, but pushing into bordering territories is very much in their future, so iconography within the branding couldn’t reflect dentistry. It could however reflect the moment in time when Johnson and Lund soared, the 1920s. With that, and the tidy connection that four shapes echoed in number their four lines of business, a modern nod to Art Deco was born.

After the branding was formalized those business lines were crowned with multipurpose icons to engage and help communicate their value at a glance.