Leadership That Lifts

True leadership leaves a trail of inspiration that raises us all. Sixth Wing helps shape these types of leaders. This trusted executive coaching and leadership development firm offers a unique approach specifically designed to empower individuals to thrive, cultures to flourish, and organizations to soar. As the organization set out to evolve its offerings and elevate its positioning, the team sought Contrast & Co. to envision the reimagined brand and website experience that would effectively embody where the firm’s going next. This is the next evolution in leadership development. Welcome to Leadership that Lifts.

The Logo

From the beginning, Sixth Wing has been different. With cofounders who met while at the US Naval Academy and a name that nods to their shared focus there, we knew we needed a visual experience that drew on signals of expertise, precision, and ambition—but without the often-overplayed stars-and-stripes style. So we crafted a mark built upon the roman numeral six, and reinforced their distinct culture and approach through accenting elements that reference concepts of forward momentum. The construct is also highly flexible, breaking apart to coordinate with the organization’s six core principles, and serving as a visual tool for everything from photographic compositions to kicker accents.

Contrast & Co. has exceeded all of our expectations; they've listened to our input and created a brand look that feels incredibly personal to us. Their ability to capture the essence of our company was incredibly impressive. And they are really fun to work with all around.

Bridget Ruiz | Cofounder, Sixth Wing

The Visual Identity

This is a brand with a meaningful role to play in cultivating current and future leaders in critical sectors. So we knew we needed a visual identity that was as big and eye-catching as the firm’s aspirations, while ultimately adhering to a feel of discipline and sophistication. The result balances the bold with the reserved through a carefully honed color palette, measured typography, and imagery that trades the usual posed portraiture and board room tropes for uplifting photography that’s active, welcoming, and conceptual. Perhaps most importantly, we’ve designed for function as well as form, with simple, scalable elements that adapt easily across training programs, presentations, leave-behinds, and all manner of touchpoints that make up the organization’s core offerings.

The Training Presentation Deck

Every one of Sixth Wing’s trainers and experts operates in slightly different ways. So when it came to the team’s core training deck, we needed a practical design system that would be fluid enough to accommodate a number of presentation styles, topics, and ideas. The finished resource is dynamic and varied, all while sticking to utility essentials like fallback fonts and repeatable page styles for short- and long-form content alike.

The Website

An invaluable introduction to the organization’s distinct capabilities and ethos, the Sixth Wing website was an exercise in restraint and intention. Visually, the interactive experience is marked by crisp, clear components, lots of breathing room, and plenty of subtle motion to reinforce the firm’s point of view. And from a tactical perspective, the experience is effortlessly scalable, with an easy-to-manage backend and adaptable layouts poised to scale up as the organization builds upon its successes.