Creative Brief

KNA, founded in 1996, was at a crossroads. We had steady growth, yet we knew that in order to survive the next twenty years, we had to make a change. As the firm’s founders, we wanted to transition the firm to younger principals while we planned ahead for our exit.

Our reputation preceeded us most of the time, yet we knew the staff did not know what we stood for, the logo was designed by us (phew!), we were viewed as a stepchild to architects (no differentiation) and our culture was dull (white guys, no diversity). With a tight job market, finding talent and securing new clients was at the top of our priorities; we knew a rebrand would help.

Evaluating these challenges, we retained Comet Creative to join our team. Getting all of us in a room we were able to define the foundational elements of brand: mission, vision, values, positioning and other key factors would begin to set us on the right track.

We decided to change our name, design a new logo (designers said no blue), share the positioning and differentiation results with staff, hold a social media workshop and enhance the office with graphics.

Following the rebrand, Comet Creative continues to function as our marketing department. 2017 was a record year with 2018 our biggest in our history--we hired four women engineers with diverse backgrounds, promoted two engineers to Principal, secured three contracts with new architecture firms and have a more energetic and lively culture.