{"id":444,"date":"2014-05-29T14:38:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mennosmartin.com\/blog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2025-05-15T15:34:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:34:48","slug":"a-sign-of-the-times-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mennosmartin.com\/blog\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sign of the Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dictionary definition of the term used to title this blog is “something that shows what a society is like now”. I can’t begin to explain in one blog post how our business has evolved in 72 years but I can start with something simple like our logo and signage.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_00000745\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Trent and I lead the third generation of our company we thought it seemed fitting that we rebrand it to reflect who we are today. We enlisted Gillian and David Rees’ top notch design firm Rees Communications <\/a>to help us rebrand the company. This was an overwhelming task given that our brand had not changed drastically since the early eighties. Old Time Masters was how we were known, brown and orange were recognized colours and our logo had a very distinct shape as you can see in the photos.<\/p>\n

Throughout the process, it became apparent that orange was our colour and had to remain, we also discovered that the text of the name was also something that resonated with people so changing it to an acronym like MSM wouldn’t be a good idea. Incidentally in the photo shown below, Menno Martin started the company with MSM in his original logo. This logo was pretty contemporary for it’s time!<\/p>\n

\"image(2)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over time, one can see how our look, from our vehicles to our building and even our road sign has changed over time.<\/p>\n

In keeping with our sandblasted building sign of the eighties, we worked with Peter and the great folks at The Sign Depot <\/a>to design a fantastic new sign for the building. Here is a link to a recent blog post of theirs where they speak to our connection, stemming from an accident this winter in which a car missed our driveway!  http:\/\/sign-depot.on.ca\/damage-control-where-menno-s-martin-contractor-ltd-goes-when-they-need-new-custom-sign\/<\/a>. Our road sign is being repaired this week as shown in the photo below.<\/p>\n

\"picstitch\"<\/a> \"image(1)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course we couldn’t stop there, we had a fleet of vehicles that also needed to be branded! This was probably our most drastic change as the logo was skewed and stretched across the sides to make them real head turners and turn heads they do! We have had a lot of great responses on this new look for our vehicles and it’s always great to hear someone say that had to look twice! A big thanks to Linda and her team at Twin City Graphics<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_00000587\"<\/a>\"Kitchener-20120706-00272\"<\/a>\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We like to think we are aging well, and although our look has changed, we still believe in  providing superior service and quality to our customers because Menno wouldn’t have had it any other way.<\/p>\n

Art Janzen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dictionary definition of the term used to title this blog is “something that shows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blasts-from-the-past"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Sign of the Times - Menno S Martin Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mennosmartin.com\/blog\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Sign of the Times - Menno S Martin Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The dictionary definition of the term used to title this blog is “something that shows...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mennosmartin.com\/blog\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Menno S Martin Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-29T14:38:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-15T19:34:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mennosmartin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/IMG_00000745-300x168-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"168\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/76a67a3a73c08a20677ef832afe0cb68\"},\"headline\":\"A Sign of the Times\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-29T14:38:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-15T19:34:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/IMG_00000745-300x168-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blasts from the Past\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mennosmartin.com\\\/blog\\\/a-sign-of-the-times-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Sign of the Times - 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