Firm Name
Kleinschmidt Associates
Location
Pittsfield, ME

Creative Brief

Kleinschmidt Associates experienced significant growth after acquiring another consulting firm in 2021, expanding our range of services and unlocking new potential. We recognized the importance of informing our valued clients and partners about our enhanced capabilities and showcasing our expanded fisheries engineering services and expertise. We also wanted to continue developing and presenting fresh ideas and content in our advertisement visuals. We collaborated with a talented graphic designer during our campaign, creating an innovative print and digital ad series. 

Rather than a conventional approach, we wanted to leave a lasting impression by presenting "The #1 Way Fish Navigate their Journey Upstream" in our advertisement. Drawing inspiration from the popular navigation app "Waze," we introduced our unique ad, named "KA FishWaze." Through this creative concept, we highlighted our various fisheries engineering services, including nature-like fishways, fish lifts, fish ladders, and collection and transport methods. 

The response from industry association and our social media following exceeded our expectations, with fantastic feedback pouring in. The analytics of our efforts showed that our approach was a success, surpassing industry standards. We began using outside the box thinking in our advertising and thought leadership assets in 2021 and it has been so successful that we are now always looking for ways to engage the hydropower industry with ads that make them stop and want to learn more. 

Firm Name
HNTB Corporation
Location
Kansas City, Missouri

Creative Brief

In today’s crowded digital landscape, capturing attention is more challenging than ever. AEC firms have the complicated task of contending with their competitors’ digital advertising efforts while, at the same time, trying to divert attention away from consumer brands with bloated budgets and endless promises.

Despite these challenges, HNTB outlined a path to success by focusing on the same objectives online as we do offline: providing extraordinary value to our clients.

In 2023, HNTB commissioned a public opinion survey, America THINKS: Funding Congestion Solutions, which was designed to explore public sentiment around price-managed lanes or toll lanes as a solution for reducing highway congestion­­, a topic our toll clients were grappling with across the country.

When survey results showed that the majority of Americans experienced congestion and were open to paying a toll to reduce it, our goal became sharing this valuable insight as broadly and effectively as possible to our toll clients.

As a result, HNTB executed an eight-week LinkedIn advertising strategy to:

• Expand the reach of the highly valuable and hyper-relevant America THINKS public opinion survey results
• Increase visibility of HNTB’s toll expertise and industry leadership
• Capture the attention of decision makers and senior leadership at the firm’s primary toll clients

Using digital advertising on LinkedIn, we successfully extended our ability to provide the ongoing value our clients need to perform their jobs to the best of their ability and make informed decisions.

Firm Name
BHC
Location
Overland Park, Kansas

Creative Brief

BHC is an ever-innovative A/E/C firm committed to serving communities with 'No Problem' service. Our expansive list of services and growing number of office locations enable us to create even more of a positive impact across the country. In 2022, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary under the "Cheers to 30 Years" campaign. As part of the 12-month celebration, we stepped out of the box and into the streetlight by implementing a month's worth of digital billboard advertising. This medium is often overlooked/underutilized in our industry, thus allowing us to take advantage and differentiate ourselves from the competition. 

We cycled four messages through two separate billboards in the Kansas City region, both thoughtfully selected to maximize our impressions and impact. One was on I-35, targeting traffic headed into downtown Kansas City, our hometown and where many of our clients and prospects reside. This allowed us to capitalize on our local market and salute our clients and employees on their daily commutes. The other billboard was located on I-435, targeting traffic into Overland Park, Kansas, a dense corporate hub seeing commuters from surrounding major suburbs. Overland Park is where we are headquartered, and we are heavily involved in the local communities, so we knew that this area would grant us the most return in displaying gratitude. These billboard locations provided us with a medium to capture impressions on both major state highways within the region, maximizing returns, including "eyes" on the company and BHC's presence within the industry.

Firm Name
GPD Group
Location
Akron, Ohio

Creative Brief

In celebration of nearly a decade of providing a lasting positive impact in the lives of 2,500,000+ children, GPD Group proudly presents the revitalization of the GPD Employees' Foundation website. We kicked off the revamp of our website and rebranding efforts to honor our upcoming 10-year milestone and reaffirm our commitment to empowering the K-12 public education experience and supporting at-risk children and those with medical and special needs.

Our mission was to modernize and refresh our digital presence and amplify our foundation's key message – to improve the lives of children. With an outdated website, we took the opportunity to create a vibrant, user-friendly platform that is easy to navigate and reflects our purpose.

Led by our internal team committed to the Foundation, the redesign included a variety of enhancements. From a complete website update to a refreshed logo and branding elements, every facet of the process was carefully planned with intention. The response to our redesign has been extremely positive, resonating with both our internal employees and our grant recipients. With a fresh interface, we've eased access to information, encouraged deeper engagement, and boosted awareness of our Foundation's impact.

The redesign of the GPD Employees’ Foundation website and enhanced brand elements represent a strong contender for the pro-bono category - blending creativity with purpose to drive meaningful change in our community. By utilizing our internal expertise in graphic design and our commitment to community impact, we transformed an outdated website into an eye-catching user-centered platform with contemporary aesthetics.

Firm Name
Kleinschmidt Associates
Location
Lexington, SC Office

Creative Brief

Our marketing team is proud to present our pro bono work for the Hydro Foundation WC2 program, a groundbreaking initiative that aims to foster partnerships between universities and communities, facilitating collaboration and driving the development of the next generation of skilled professionals in the waterpower sector. In 2023, our Chief Growth Officer, Russ Sanford, FSMPS, CPSM crafted the concept for the WC2 Partnership while serving as an Advisory Board member with the Hydropower Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit. The Kleinschmidt marketing team volunteered our services to create their brand, brand guidelines, logo, social media toolkit, PowerPoint presentations, advertisements, marketing plan, articles, and flyers and helped with the website design and content. Our work reflects our passion for renewable energy and our commitment to supporting the development of the waterpower workforce through programs that provide future workers with knowledge and opportunities in the industry. Our work has been crucial to the WC2 program, enhancing its visibility, credibility, and appeal to students, faculty, and industry partners. It helped them hit the ground running and be able to immediately spread the word at industry conferences and other events to ensure success. We also believe this effort demonstrates our ability to deliver high-quality results for a worthy cause. The shortage of qualified workers in the hydro sector is a critical issue, and this program will have a positive impact for many years. 

Firm Name
PCL Construction
Location
Denver, CO

Creative Brief

Our entry, the PCL Cajun Classic, epitomizes the essence of community engagement and giving back. Initially conceived as a Northern Colorado Open House for subcontractors, the event transformed into a fundraising golf tournament and Cajun boil, benefiting Windsor Booster Club. The event's uniqueness enticed sponsors to attend support if they weren't golf aficionados. Event activations included a crawfish boil, cart decorating competition, awards, Bloody Mary bar, activated golf holes, selfie-station, and a performance by the Nuggets drumline. 

PCL's objective was centered on fundraising and demonstrating our commitment to philanthropy in the Northern Colorado Community. The event, in turn, elevated the Windsor Booster Club Organization, gathering more awareness for their mission and vision and increasing their reach. Windsor High School Booster Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supporting Windsor High School Students involved in athletics and clubs. Their focus is to generate funds and support for athletic/club programs in need, support the WHS Hall of Fame program, and provide four annual scholarships to graduating seniors who participated in multiple sports seasons through the course of high school. A 2022 census study found that participating in extracurricular activities develops social skills, boosts self-esteem and resilience, and lower levels of risky behaviors. 

The Cajun Classic, an experience-driven event, catalyzed community-building, fostering relationships and creating lasting brand value. The Cajun Classic event represents an innovative approach to philanthropy, seamlessly blending community support and engagement.

Firm Name
Quinn Evans
Location
Multiple Locations

Creative Brief

This piece is Quinn Evans’ written submission for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architectural practice. In addition to a firm’s design portfolio, the Firm Award takes into consideration its impact on the architectural profession.  

Our goal was to convince the selection committee that Quinn Evans embodies the AIA’s highest values – that our philosophy, body of work, and management practices provide a model to which other firms should aspire.

Our main message for this award submission is that we’re advancing climate action and social equity through the transformation of the built environment. This message speaks to two of AIA’s current priorities.

We also wanted to showcase our collaborative approach to design, which we feel makes us stand out from other architecture firms. Because our narratives focus on equity and collaboration, we chose to display quotes and headshots of individual team members throughout the document.

Beyond presenting a beautiful portfolio, we wanted to show the selection committee that we work and think differently from other firms. Putting our firm ethos into action, our Firm Award team spent dozens of hours interviewing Quinn Evans staff to deeply understand the work they do and the way they do it. These conversations form the backbone of the Practice and Profession sections that bookend the Portfolio.

Firm Name
Suffolk Construction
Location
Boston, MA

Creative Brief

To reiterate Suffolk’s support of women in construction and emphasize our Rebuild the Ratio initiative, which focuses on increasing the number of women in our workforce and engaging in nationwide partnerships for girls in STEM, we created a coloring and activity book for girls ages 4-10 to inspire them to consider a career in the construction industry. This book features illustrations of four diverse Suffolk women and jobsite activities with stickers, mazes, connect the dots, and more. The kit came with a branded envelope, coloring book, notecard about the initiative, and a 24-pack of Crayola crayons. Our internal creative team created the storyline and collaborated with an illustrator, specifically choosing a woman to lend authenticity.

We launched the book with our client Massport at Logan International Airport for International Women’s Day on March 8, 2023. Suffolk and Massport passed out kits in various terminals to traveling families, underscoring our commitment to welcoming women in STEM. To further promote the book, we highlighted each woman on social media with professional photography. We also updated our rebuildtheratio.com website to include a downloadable coloring page and quotes from the featured women.

The initiative drastically outperformed our goals. We increased traffic to the rebuildtheratio.com website by 493 percent and received a 7.9 percent average engagement rate on our social content, well above the industry average. The coloring book has also had a positive impact on client relations and has been an effective piece of collateral for multiple events at hospitals, preschools and more.

Firm Name
Olson Kundig
Location
Seattle, WA

Creative Brief

Originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair, by its 50^th anniversary, the Space Needle visitor experience had grown stale. Thus began a holistic renovation of the upper levels led by Olson Kundig, repositioning the tower for its next 50 years. New Heights: Transforming Seattle’s Iconic Space Needle reveals the story of this incredible project from the perspective of the architects who guided its creation.

Pushing beyond the typical architectural volume, this book digs deeply into how a complex, innovative project happens—from ideating on day 1 to navigating engineering challenges to delivering the final, completed building—through historic images, sketches, technical drawings, and photographs. Two personal essays detail the anxieties, solutions, frustrations, and joys from the perspective of the design principal and project architect, revealing the deeply human story behind the project.

While the Space Needle is a local icon, the themes of this book are universal, appealing to an audience far beyond Seattle. Just as the original tower did in 1962, the revised Space Needle represents the cutting edge of design and construction technology; New Heights celebrates this collective effort, which spanned hundreds of project partners.

The book further highlights Olson Kundig’s expertise in public and cultural work, challenging the perception that the firm primarily designs private homes. As a tool for business development, the book underscores our ability to solve complex challenges, linking outside-the-box thinking with innovative solutions and a proven ability to deliver on big ideas.

Firm Name
HBG Design
Location
Memphis, Tennessee

Creative Brief

HBG Design’s in-house marketing team developed a comprehensive “design unveiling” campaign aimed at promoting five HBG-designed hospitality and entertainment projects scheduled for completion/opening in 2023. This new campaign drew inspiration from our previous 'A Virtual Journey' campaign in 2020, with an updated approach to email announcements, project overview videos, project releases, website posts, and social media content.

Our objective with the project-centric campaign was to sustain and enhance industry awareness and recognition of HBG Design as a client-focused brand that can be depended on to deliver beautiful, market-driven, and operationally successful hospitality and entertainment designs.

Campaign promotions were timed for distribution after major project openings and coincided with annual conferences and tradeshows attended by our principals and business development leaders.

In 2023, HBG's project openings encompassed significant large-scale amenity developments for two longstanding clients (Promotions #1, 3 & 4), a casino and event center project for an Indian gaming client (Promotion #2), and a lifestyle hotel project for a prominent commercial client (Promotion #5). The "unveiling" campaign served to raise awareness of our clients' latest successful ventures while also generating excitement for HBG Design during four industry trade shows and other networking conferences.

Multi-platform campaign elements included:

• Video – five project-specific videos showcasing conceptual and experiential design.
• E-mail – five campaign e-mails distributed to HBG’s industry contacts.
• Social media –  Total of 54 Facebook and Instagram posts featuring videos, photography, and design insights.
• Website posts served as “home base” for videos and extended project release flipbooks.

Firm Name
Middle of Six
Location
Tacoma, Washington

Creative Brief

What marketer hasn’t spent time around the watercooler commiserating about a colleague who wrote a novel’s worth of content for a half-page of space in a proposal? Or the outlaw staffer who ducks out of every interview rehearsal only to reappear day-of – overly confident in their ability to ‘wing it’? We’ve all worked with folks who unknowingly make the process of procurement a wild ride to the finish line. Through The Wildcards creative campaign, the team at Middle of Six landed on an outlet for some well-earned belly laughs and collective empathy.

In this multi-pronged, mixed-media campaign that straddles the real world and online realm, we embarked on a mission to set The Wildcards free. Through irreverent illustrations and on-the-nose descriptions, we developed a mix of print media and online content—all carefully timed to enter the market after a period of ‘Coming Soon’ build-up.

As our metrics will show, the response and return on investment has far exceeded our expectations. These little AEC industry darlings live forever on our website and appear on coasters now settled in conference rooms across the country—sure to help break the tension and maybe just maybe address the behaviors we playfully shine a light on.

And in that, we accomplished exactly what we set out to do: raise Middle of Six’s brand awareness, call out behaviors that can disrupt efforts to win the shortlist, and do so with humor and an acknowledgment that under a deadline, we’re all a little wild. 

Firm Name
Annum Architects (formerly Ann Beha Architects)
Location
Boston, Massachusetts

Creative Brief

Founded in 1979, Ann Beha Architects (ABA) became Annum Architects in 2022. Building on ABA’s accomplishments and a new generation of leadership, Annum continues a remarkable legacy and points toward the future. Our firm’s transformative work explores the dialogue between historic and contemporary architecture and is rooted, like its new name, in the idea of time. 

Rebranding this Boston-based firm with a rich 40-year history involved a robust and carefully-phased plan, transitioning from an eponymous firm – founded by a renowned industry trailblazer – into a minority-owned studio devoted to collective leadership and voices. Following a thorough strategy process and visioning workshops, the concept of “Your place in time” was developed to address the practice’s spirit of collaboration with clients, its approach to timeless and sustainable designs, and the creation of buildings bridging the past and future. The new chosen name of Annum – meaning “in or for each year” – evokes these principles.

Annum’s rebranding coincided with an office to Downtown Boston. With historic city views, the branding was infused into the physical space, prominently displayed on two blocks of window supergraphics.

The carefully orchestrated rollout included an animation for ABA’s homepage, announcing “Ann Beha Architects is now Annum Architects”, redirecting visitors to the new website. Email announcements, social media, industry publications, office tours, and an Open House also helped spread our news.

We believe our complex rebrand campaign deserves a Brand Awareness Award due to the challenges we encountered, the solutions implemented, and our stylish and holistic execution.

Firm Name
IKM Architecture
Location
Pittsburgh, PA

Creative Brief

In evaluating our existing behavioral health look book, we determined that it was outdated and ineffective at communicating our design expertise. We took this opportunity to craft a new look book that not only represents significant past projects, but also illustrates our understanding of current trends in behavioral health design. We developed a new structure that integrates statistics with specific project examples. Based on extensive research, we created a list of six relevant design principles and selected three projects as case studies to illustrate them. The easily digestible layout and infographics clarify our knowledge and experience in this sector. We see it as a privilege to design for this unique patient group. We are dedicated to continually learning and staying on top of trends in behavioral health, and it is important that our marketing materials reflect that. We expanded the focus of the look book content to include our expectations for the future of the sector, as well as applications in other sectors, such as workplace and education design. Overall, the look book highlights the empathy of our approach in a typically code-driven field. As architects, IKM’s goal is to design environments that reduce behavioral health stigma and recenter the wellness of patients and staff.

Firm Name
Rogers-O'Brien Construction
Location
Dallas, TX

Creative Brief

The RO Workbook Brochure project involved creating these deliverables for an elementary school career fair day. We knew we would be speaking with children from Pre-K to Fifth grade, and wanted to make sure we brought materials that were visually engaging and interactive for all age groups. We tailored the brochures for two age groups: 4-7, and 8-10. The project aimed to inspire and educate children about the construction industry, challenging stereotypes and expanding their career horizons.

The primary aim was to spark enthusiasm for construction careers among students. Interactions with students using these brochure materials resulted in increased involvement in career education for local youth and invitations to other construction education program events within SAISD. The project also enhanced brand recognition and solidified RO's reputation as a community-involved entity in San Antonio.

The brochure featured colorful illustrations, thoughtful activities and simplified language for younger children, introducing basic construction concepts and industry careers. For older students, deeper insights into specific roles and career pathways were provided.

Ultimately, our project's success extends beyond brochure distribution. It lies in the lasting impact on students' perceptions and aspirations, nurturing an appreciation for construction careers from an early age and fostering a sense of community involvement and care.

Our workbook brochure project represents a pioneering effort to reshape how children perceive the construction industry. It aims to inspire the next generation of builders and innovators through engaging content and tailored presentations while enhancing community engagement and brand reputation.

Firm Name
HGA
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Creative Brief

HGA recently updated client services to include Resilience, which has been intentionally separated out from existing sustainability services. With HGA's marketing team as a strategic partner and collaborative resource to technical staff, we initiated a marketing plan to increase awareness of the to gain new clients and projects. After numerous planning meetings, all materials were gathered, reviewed, and consolidated into one outline, and the design process began. The brochure was created for print and digital mediums. The print version has been distributed at conferences and client meetings, and the digital version has been published on a resilience services landing page.

The process spanned five months to completion. Marketing allocated a budget of $35,000 and came in underbudget at $32,140 with an additional $300 for printing. The effort took ~80-100 hours of time from two principals, ~200 hours of marketing’s time, and a few other HGA staffers who offered strategy and insight. This effort played a part in the award of a one-million-dollar resilience project; $764,700 of which is budgeted for direct labor. The ROI is roughly twenty-three times the marketing expenditure.

The process of sifting through client interviews, updating project narratives, and creating graphics for the brochure was a valuable effort to HGA and future pursuits. The brochure is a baseline for marketing staff to incorporate into project-specific materials. It has also expanded awareness with clients and can be used as a launching point to organize an internal knowledge community focused on expanding resilience awareness and services.

Firm Name
DES
Location
Redwood City, CA

Creative Brief

The story of DES touches on the essence of the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. On the west side of the valley in 1973, Don Mincey was engineering buildings. On the east side, Jim Wetzel was designing them. Both worked for Northern California’s “cowboy” developers, entrepreneurs that were as independent-minded and risk-taking in real estate as their early-tech counterparts. They saw Don and Jim as kindred spirits, and encouraged the two to join forces. Together they became Design and Engineering Systems, a name that promised cross-disciplinary, big-picture design.

As the firm evolved from a two-person start-up to one of the largest interdisciplinary firms on San Francisco’s southern peninsula, the former firm name and branded identity were no longer accurately communicating DES’ breadth of seven core services or innovative, client-focused culture. 

Working closely with Bruce Mau Design, DES Architects + Engineers became DES to encompass all in-house disciplines. The new logo, a prism, expresses DES’ multifaceted capabilities and approach to challenges, embracing diverse perspectives and cultivating a cross-pollination of insights. The primary brand color, citrine, conveys an energetic quality that reflects the firm’s entrepreneurial culture. Brand communications, including a new website, celebrate our commitment to thinking across disciplines in a fresh tone. 

The core priority was creating a new brand that resonated by earning internal buy-in from employees, who were heavily involved throughout the process via company-wide surveys, focus groups, customized training sessions, and a 3-day internal conference and launch event dubbed DES Days.

Firm Name
M.J. Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C.
Location
Clifton Park, NY

Creative Brief

MJ’s rebranding journey was entirely driven by our in-house marketing staff. In just eight weeks, our four-person marketing team successfully designed and rolled out a full rebrand.

MJ is a growing, multi-disciplined A/E firm of 165 personnel with multiple offices. We last rebranded in 2008. Since then, MJ has achieved steady growth, established new disciplines, entered new markets, opened new offices, and tripled in size.

In October 2023, the addition of architecture and landscape architecture to our service offerings precipitated the need to change our legal company name. Furthermore, MJ was embarking on extensive renovations of our office headquarters and opening a new branch office. To the marketing team, it was clear that this was the perfect time for rebranding.

United in this common goal, the marketing team set out to persuade the firm’s five principal owners. We developed a presentation entitled MJ Rebrand: The Time is Now which outlined research-backed reasons for the rebrand, along with design concepts, and a detailed rollout plan.

The principals unanimously agreed to the rebranding. An aggressive schedule was established. MJ’s new brand was unveiled to employees at our annual holiday party, with a public reveal four weeks later.

MJ is a modern company with a reputation for providing quality work.  This is reflected in the fresh design of our new brand. The bold and bright orange, forward-moving line signifies MJ’s innovative mindset and focus on the future. Our new brand identity represents where we are and where we aspire to go. 

Firm Name
Salas O'Brien
Location
Irvine, CA

Creative Brief

Carl Salas and Dan O’Brien founded Salas O’Brien in 1975 with a passion for making a better world through resilient, energy-efficient buildings. Those values underpinned the firm’s success over the next 40 years and were the core of our brand messaging.

In 2012, CEO Darin Anderson and COO Paul Silva led us into an era of unprecedented growth through strategic M&A, carefully developing partnerships with teams that shared the same core values. From 2016-2021, we’d grown 618% in team size and 323% in revenue, yet our focus on high-quality expertise remained the same.

Our former brand communicated our values through the narrow lens of our original capabilities. But our growth had significantly expanded those capabilities, and we needed a new brand that:

• Honored our past
• Included representation for our new capabilities
• Could support continued growth
• Offered incoming merger teams a place to belong within the brand

We began research in 2021 and launched the new brand in March 2023. We carefully crafted new messaging that reflected our post-growth identity and vision for the future and created a modern aesthetic that symbolizes the Salas O’Brien traits are critical to our success—progress, upward momentum, authenticity, energy, confidence, and curiosity. The new tagline, “Engineered for Impact,” is a triple entendre that conveys what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.

Our rebrand helped us increase backlog and revenue, compress merger integration timelines, improve internal collaboration, energize our team around the brand, and engage more people on social media.

Firm Name
Carollo Engineers, Inc.
Location
Walnut Creek, CA

Creative Brief

Carollo Engineers underwent a comprehensive visual identity refresh in 2022 to establish a unified and consistent brand presence across all touchpoints. This initiative aimed to streamline disparate visual elements, ensuring a cohesive identity that reflects Carollo’s unique qualities. The primary objectives were to strengthen the brand, differentiate the firm in the market, enhance the client experience, and create greater efficiencies for our employees.

Before the refresh, our visual identity lacked uniformity, varying from region to region, office to office, and proposal to proposal. Variations in colors, fonts, icons, and other elements made it challenging to recognize our brand.

What made this project so successful was that multiple teams, committees, and organizations throughout Carollo came together to develop a high-quality, refreshed brand that is now used consistently across the company. Teams ranging from upper management, the Board of Directors, marketing/business development, document processing, administration, IT, and HR, to our internal Employee Engagement Group contributed to various stages of research, development, implementation, and maintenance.

The resulting unified visual identity captures what makes Carollo unique while conveying the quality and consistency expected by clients. Internally, it fosters a sense of identity and unity among employees. The success of this endeavor is apparent in the company-wide adoption of the refreshed identity, visible in the field with updated logos on hard hats and vehicles and consistently applied colors, fonts, and graphics in all deliverables.

Firm Name
The Creative Studio at CVG
Location
Clive, IA

Creative Brief

As Bayview’s business began to evolve from a solopreneur to a thriving landscape architecture firm with staff, it was also time to evolve the brand identity. The hand-drawn nature of the existing logo was inflexible, and while brand guidelines existed, they were not consistently applied. The website lacked consistent messaging, and prospective clients could not understand whether Bayview would fit their project well. With a high-net-worth clientele, it was time for Bayview to start projecting a little more sophistication while maintaining the vibe of a small team that you would actually want to spend time with. 

CVG diligently worked with Bayview to uncover the firm’s true essence. Leading up to beginning the visual identity work, we wrote mission and vision statements, developed firm values, researched the competition, created detailed client personas, and documented and improved upon the prospect-to-client journey map. 

Spending the time to articulate the Bayview brand clearly and its differentiators paid dividends. The resulting graphic identity is a perfect reflection of sophistication and friendliness. It’s been applied across collateral, office and project site signage, SWAG, a newly launched e-newsletter, and the firm’s website. The website integrates a new client guide called the Landscape Architecture Experience Guide, a cost calculator, and FAQs to help prospective clients self-qualify, significantly improving the quality of leads and the messaging and visuals expertly guide website visitors through separate customer journeys for home design and community design.

Firm Name
Olson Kundig
Location
Seattle, WA

Creative Brief

Architecture and design practice Olson Kundig is globally recognized for high-quality work, thoughtful detailing, and careful consideration of context, yet lacked a clear identity and cohesive visual representation in its graphic materials. In a two-year, multi-phased effort, the firm’s in-house graphic design team led the research, development, production, and implementation of a Visual Identity to reflect the firm’s design standards in its graphic representation. Each visual component references the firm’s ethos, culture, and history—palettes inspired by the firm’s Pacific Northwest origins and layout systems reflecting the structural elements and kinetics central to Olson Kundig’s architectural practice.

The end goal was to create a suite of templates, tools, and trainings aligned with new visual standards. Ultimately, this Visual Identity proved to be a necessary step to unify processes in every department and create efficiencies in developing new materials.

“Overhauling the Visual Identity for our firm refocused our attention on design, allowing technical and administrative teams to focus on content development rather than layout,” says Chief Operating Officer Marlene Chen. “It streamlined our workflows, gave our teams a common set of tools eliminating repetitive re-inventing of the wheel, and made our shared visual materials look polished and consistent.”

Just as the firm’s architectural work is deliberately quiet to its surroundings, the new Visual Identity Guidelines outline a legible, accessible standard that underscores a detail-oriented approach to clients and external partners. Successful rollout is evidenced by widespread internal adoption, as well as improvement across external brand engagement metrics.

Firm Name
Barton Malow
Location
Southfield, Michigan

Creative Brief

Though all jobsites have a Site-Specific Safety Plan that they follow in the event of a crisis, entity-specific and core services support for handling crises has become increasingly more complex since Barton Malow transformed from a single company into a family of companies in 2020, growing from 1,500 to nearly 3,500 team members. Noting this growth, and that Barton Malow’s Crisis Incident Response Plan hadn’t been updated in years, more clarity and direction were needed on how crises are supported beyond the jobsite.

Working with Sabo PR, and Barton Malow’s Safety and Risk Management teams, Barton Malow’s Branding + Communications team developed a robust Crisis Incident Response Manual and plan for the enterprise to follow when managing crises. Deliverables included:

• Easy-to-understand Crisis Incident Response Guidelines that place potential incidents into three buckets - Low, Moderate, and High Severity – and offer direction on how to manage such incidents based on their seriousness.
• Low and Moderate and a High Severity Response Plan that detail proper protocol that should be taken as teams move through the crisis.
• A Crisis Response Action Plan checklist.
• Informing project teams and team members how to set alerts and join groups through the AlertMedia Emergency Communication Platform to stay informed.

While these new guidelines do not circumvent existing Safety Manuals or Site-Specific Safety Plans, they were purposefully created to help teams be better prepared for the unthinkable. Since becoming available in fall 2023, they’ve already worked to the benefit of Barton Malow in various situations.

Firm Name
Saunders Construction
Location
Englewood, Colo.

Creative Brief

The future is unpredictable. We all will likely face a crisis that impacts our business, teams, communities, and ourselves. The spectrum of a potential crisis is wide, including medical, security, data, weather, economic, societal, etc. This is why preparing for a crisis is critical to personal safety and business continuity.

In May 2023, Saunders offered a comprehensive, in-person Crisis Management Training designed to build awareness and skills around this crucial topic. A collaboration of the Marketing, People Services, Learning and Development, and Safety Departments, this training was developed using FEMA’s Tabletop Methods and from previous events faced by Saunders. Attendees learned how to:

• correctly recognize what is considered an incident and what is considered a crisis,
• identify where to find crisis management resources, and
• understand and confidently execute their role and responsibility in a crisis.

The training informed attendees of the steps to take in a crisis's first critical minutes and hours. Then, groups of 8-10 set up mock jobsites using aerial photo posters and construction-themed toys. Teams were given scenarios (e.g., active shooter, site fire, worker fatality) to work through and write down their response plans. During the exercise, mock representatives from first responders, OSHA, media, and Saunders executives visited each group to provide added challenge and context to the situation. All groups reported their scenario and responses in a post-exercise debrief.

To ensure full retention, all teams were required to conduct a full mock crisis drill on their jobsites and offices within 90 days of the training.   

Firm Name
O'Donnell/Snider Construction
Location
Houston, Texas

Creative Brief

The Beat the Heat campaign was a multimedia campaign distributed by O’Donnell/Snider Construction’s (OSC) Marketing team that highlighted the company’s heat safety initiatives while providing educational materials on how to combat heat while on a job site. These materials strengthened OSC’s commitment to wellbeing, strengthening company culture through educational sources along with a “Survival Kit” containing items to combat heat. This initiative is in wake of the brutal summer of August 2023, Houston’s hottest month on record. 

With O’Donnell/Snider Construction’s branding in mind, various mediums were used to ensure that critical heat safety information was disseminated in an engaging, relatable, accessible, and impactful way. The campaign commenced with multiple E-blasts, informational emails highlighting crucial heat safety information. The graphics from these e-blasts were converted into leaflets and distributed to jobsites around the city. Additional QR codes were created to make the vital information even more accessible to Team OSC.

The campaign was completed with a physical Beat the Heat “Survival Kit”, disseminated to field employees that work primarily outdoors in these brutal conditions. The kit included more educational materials on heat safety alongside a branded cooling wrap, reusable ice cubes, a packet of electrolyte powder, an electrolyte drink, and a bottle of water. The Survival Kit reinforced heat safety in an exciting and interactive way, guiding field employees to take their newfound knowledge and put it into action.

Firm Name
Turner Construction Company
Location
New York, NY

Creative Brief

Turner’s 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) Impact Report shares our equity journey and demonstrates our commitment to pursuing data-informed actions and leading the industry through empathy and care. Turner’s progress towards our aspirational 2030 vision – to reflect the communities in which we live and build, and to achieve equitable representation at all levels of our company. This vision is driving our collective efforts and the report is a key tool to share our journey, hold us accountable, and inspire others to join with us. 

Central to the report is the sharing of demographic data, including year-over-year progress toward our representation goals – offering an unprecedented level of transparency in our industry. Through colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics, we are telling the story of our recruitment, retention, and staff development progress. The accompanying narrative offers realistic and objective summaries, highlighting specifically the areas in which we are working to improve. The narrative was purposefully succinct and less formal, to keep the content easily digestible and engaging.  

Ultimately, this journey is about our people; and the report reflects that focus. The compelling stories, the images, as well as the thoughts and ideas conveyed in the report are focused on our employees and leaders who are working tirelessly to spur meaningful change within the company and the industry. The images and bright colors are meant to evoke a dynamic approach to cultivating an environment where every individual feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives. 

Firm Name
Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, Inc.
Location
Charlotte, NC

Creative Brief

At Little, we emphasize caring for one another and our communities and do our best to spark a spirit of excitement and discovery in everyone around us. Our annual MLK Day book drive celebrates Dr. King’s legacy by advocating for systemic change through the power of culturally inclusive literature. These books, which reflect diverse cultures and experiences, foster belonging and empathy among readers of all backgrounds. They also play a pivotal role in shaping children’s worldview, ensuring they perceive the world as it is—wonderfully diverse!

Partnering with a local literacy nonprofit, each Little office collects culturally inclusive books through donation drop boxes and curated Amazon wish lists during a weeklong book drive that coincides with the MLK Day holiday. Internally promoted, the campaign serves as an opportunity to unite employees across Little’s six offices and promote social equity, embodying the firm’s brand values of Care, Stretch, and Spark. External promotion on social media invites widespread participation, amplifying the drive’s impact.

This year, we collected 662 culturally inclusive children’s books during our 2024 MLK Day book drive, surpassing our goal by 164.8% and achieving a remarkable 274% increase from 2023. Each office had a participation rate above 71%, with four offices collecting more books than their total staff count. But most meaningful were the heartfelt notes of gratitude received from our nonprofit beneficiaries.

Firm Name
Kitchell
Location
Sacramento, CA

Creative Brief

Kitchell acknowledges the underrepresentation of women in the construction industry as research shows that women represent only 10.8% of the workforce in the United States. With this in mind, Kitchell spearheaded a Women in Construction campaign that championed diversity, equity and inclusion.

In March 2023, Kitchell featured professional women from all corners of our company in four short video interviews. Women shared their experiences, diverse voices and perspectives shaping Kitchell's dynamic culture. These women offered unique insights into their experiences, challenges, and triumphs in the construction industry. The videos included custom graphics and images which were shared on Kitchell’s intranet homepage and social media channels. Kitchell also held WIC events throughout our California, Arizona and Texas offices. Events included a virtual panel discussion on gender bias, a project site tour for students at MiraCosta College, networking events and a panel discussion with various Kitchell women titled “Let’s Talk Diversity.” Other noteworthy events included a panel discussion at Fresno State and book reading sessions for eight classrooms at San Juan USD where Kitchell employees read and donated children’s books about women in construction. Kitchell recognizes there is no better way to attract future diverse talent than to introduce kids to career possibilities in construction at an early age. A custom flyer was created to highlight all our events and custom hard hat stickers were distributed as well.

We received great feedback from these events and the impact extends beyond Kitchell’s walls. By prioritizing DEI, Kitchell’s workforce composition includes 28% of women.

Firm Name
PCL Construction
Location
Denver, Colorado

Creative Brief

Our April Fools' Day prank, orchestrated through generative AI, epitomized PCL Construction's bold corporate identity, featuring a fictional moon groundbreaking by our team. This innovative holiday campaign leveraged generative AI to craft compelling copy and graphics, capturing our audience's attention.

Employing a strategic blend of humor, professionalism, and realism, we targeted employees, clients, partners, and industry peers, aligning with our majority social media following identified through analytics. By mimicking familiar project milestones, such as groundbreakings or grand openings, we resonated deeply with our audience.

Powered by AI-driven content creation, our communications and graphic design teams crafted a faux moon groundbreaking announcement, sparking remarkable engagement and making it one of PCL's standout posts of the year.

The campaign surpassed expectations, garnering over 80,000 impressions, 98 comments, 141 shares, and a remarkable 6.3% engagement rate. Its success demonstrated our ability to captivate a diverse audience, eliciting humorous reactions and genuine surprise.

Ultimately, this campaign represents the epitome of successful social media marketing. It captured attention, sparked conversations, and left a lasting impression on our audience. For these reasons, we believe that this submission is a clear standout for recognition, demonstrating PCL Construction's ability to innovate and inspire in the digital landscape.

Firm Name
HITT Contracting
Location
Falls Church, Virginia

Creative Brief

HITT Contracting’s marketing team wanted to bring holiday cheer on social media to team members, clients, partners, and subcontractors with a festive animated video that matched HITT’s overarching holiday branding and increased awareness of the firm’s national presence. The video showcased a vintage pickup truck hauling a tree driving through landscapes in states that visually represent HITT’s 14 offices nationwide. We wanted to create a uniquely shareable video for social media that could easily be divided into shorter, snackable clips so team members from each office location could share the entire video or just a clip of their own state with their followers. Drawing inspiration from a movie scene in “Barbie” where characters travel between the Barbie world and the real world, the truck would stay in place while the scenic background moves behind it. Senior Brand Associate Nancy Mears learning a whole new program and animation style to create the video, using Adobe Illustrator to build graphic elements within video including each of nine regionally-inspired background scenes and the truck. Once completed, the art was moved into Adobe After Effects to create the moving animations of the truck traveling through the different scenes. This video was distributed via HITT’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Reels, Facebook, and X channels in mid-December and was warmly received. We wanted to increase post engagement and gain followers utilizing this creative video, both of which were achieved with average 5.1% engagement rate across all channels, and ~500 new followers across two days.

Firm Name
KFA Architecture
Location
Culver City, CA

Creative Brief

The Happy Holiday from KFA 2023 “Peace Lanterns” Video was the centerpiece of the firm’s 2023 holiday client outreach campaign. Annually, our client holiday outreach campaign is always a part of KFA’s marketing plan as one the last client touches to reconnect before the end of the year. 

KFA's annual holiday video shows all staff members coming together to create something original, visually interesting, and clever. Focused on themes of peace and unity, you will see KFA staff and their families decorating the 100 globe paper lanterns to ultimately create a glowing peace symbol from 150 feet above. Each lantern was decorated with words and messages of inspiration and peace.  A small group from our firm's management team spent time scouting the production location, as well as designing a template to ensure the garden stakes were all properly placed and aligned to form a peace symbol that was 60 feet in diameter. The production team visited the production location in the park several times to do drone video tests at various heights and times of day. The original music was composed, scored, recorded, and mixed by one KFA's project managers who is an incredible musician. He was also the principal vocalist and played several of the instruments heard in the recording. Creating this video was a complete joy for everyone who contributed to it, as well as for those who received it via email or viewed it on social media.