Not long ago, Joe Hubers (owner of Passenger Productions) came to us in search of a new identity for his company. Passenger is a film studio based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Joe’s words, “Passenger is a creative company that employs various media to deliver well-crafted stories for business, advocacy and entertainment” or “We make things.”

When the team here at Oxide read the simplified description of what Passenger does, we were very excited. With that type of thinking, we knew that they were going to be open to a wide variety of ideas. The above logo, which was ultimately chosen as the final direction, is a nod to the surrounding landscape of Sioux Falls. As a “passenger” in a car or train in the area, this would likely be the view out your window. Like film, the logo is a window into adventure and discovery, not knowing what is around the next corner. The colors evoke a certain level of mystery and intrigue, and the layering suggests film’s ability to turn still photographs into something much more  — creating depth and ultimately telling a complete story.

(1/2) An unselected concept for the Passenger logo; presented as an evolving series

(2/2) An unselected concept for the Passenger logo; presented as an evolving series

Since it is a filmmaker’s job to tell a story by capturing moments in time, we also experimented with a kind of time-based layering. This second concept centered around an ever-changing logo that tasks the audience with creating their own story through interpolation. These combinations of random images tell a complex story by leaving most of it to the imagination. If selected, it was our intent to build out 20 or more variations, making it possible for the audience to rarely run across the same variation.

An unselected concept for the Passenger logo; this was presented to the client as an option

Our third concept focuses on several of the same ideas as the first logo. In this concept, the view of the “passenger” is out the side windows of a train, traveling through a midwestern panorama. The landscape and setting sun on the horizon evokes the romanticism of great storytelling, and the windows of the train imply the frames of video.