This® opens the door to backcountry access in BCA’s rebrand

In the backcountry, when you’re fumbling for a transceiver in a high-stress rescue with snow past your knees, tactility matters. That physical reality shaped This®Studio’s rebrand for Backcountry Access, where the logo needed to function as more than just a visual mark – the brand needed to save lives. Under new ownership, the originally Boulder-based avalanche safety gear manufacturer sought an identity that would welcome newcomers without compromising the serious, life-or-death nature of their products. For This®, a team of outdoor enthusiasts themselves, the brief carried personal weight. Their approach centres on a single guiding message: entering the backcountry isn’t exiting the real world – it’s entering it. “We started by analysing mountain logos across the outdoor industry,” Co-founder & Creative Director Toby Grubb explains. “In snow sports, the majority of brands – from Patagonia to Burton – use some kind of mountain peak iconography. In fact, we’ve had the opportunity to design a few ourselves.” BCA’s existing logo featured a literal dual-peak mountain with a trail down the middle, trapped inside a circle. It felt closed, cautious. The studio wanted something more open, confident, and bold. Coming off successful redesigns for OnX and Vermont SportsCar, This® had developed a philosophy of executing more with less whilst accurately portraying usage, purpose and location. One of the earliest logo sketches drew from the core elements of Bauhaus – square, circle, triangle. The triangle emerged as the hero, capable of creating rhythm, repetition, and balance. Senior Designer Kevin Evans refined it to its essence: a powerful, minimal mark that communicated the most with the fewest strokes. He built the ‘A’ with an open counterform as an invitation to enter the mountains. The right face featured a jagged, electrical bolt – a nod to BCA’s first innovation, the Big Blue electronic transceiver.