The Background

Barkman Concrete’s story began in 1948, when three brothers – Arnold, Edwin and Peter Barkman, began making precast concrete products in the backroom of their small hardware store in Steinbach, Manitoba.

Nearly 75 years later, the brothers’ modest company has grown significantly, with three manufacturing locations across Canada, 250 employees, and customers worldwide.

The Opportunity

Because Barkman Concrete had grown and evolved significantly since its humble beginnings, its management team realized that it was time for its brand and its brand standards to evolve with it. Management believed that a refreshed look and a cohesive brand platform could bolster its push to gain market share while at the same time differentiating itself from its competitors. Barkman Concrete turned to Relish’s Development Team to get this done.

The Solution

Barkman Concrete is an industry leader and has built a strong brand and reputation for quality, reliability, and innovation. The challenge for Relish’s Development Team was to create an updated brand look while staying true to the essence of the organization’s long-standing brand identity. The new branding and brand standards also needed to be presented consistently and cohesively across multiple mediums and channels.

Relish presented Barkman Concrete’s leadership team with a new brand identity standard and a style guide that strongly represented the brand’s essence and differentiated it from its competitors. The guide also provided clarity and rules governing the organization’s internal and external communication. The new identity shunned the bold, masculine fonts and heavier colour tones frequently used by competitors, instead favouring elegant typography, white space, and minimalist design, allowing the product design’s aesthetics to speak for itself.

With its new brand standards in place, Barkman Concrete has an updated look, defined, consistent brand strategy and web presence that sets it apart and maintains its reputation as a trusted industry leader and innovator.