Ask not how your branding agency can help you change the world. Ask how your branding agency can help grow your business.
My twenty-plus years career running branding agencies have taught me what works and what doesn’t work in terms of positioning a business for growth. Many trends, perspectives, and buzzwords come and go. New ones continually pop up.
You’ve heard of approaches like disruption, differentiation, relevance, unique selling propositions, and personalization. But today, what you hear the most is brand purpose. Not just the what, how, or who the brand is, but the “why” you should care and how it makes the world a better place. This “why” is supposed to align with something bigger, which is more important than the straightforward selling of products.
Architect Partners is an M&A and strategic financing advisory focused on emerging technologies, specifically crypto. Their senior-led team of experienced industry insiders was looking to compete with big firms edging into the crypto space—like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley —while maintaining their independent edge.
Amidst a tumultuous year for their sector of focus at large, we analyzed Architect’s business, their prospecting approach, and core customers and competitors with the goal of getting to the heart of what makes them stand out as the go-to firm for closing deals between acquires and acquisition targets. It became clear that Architect, through constant communication with industry players and published research, operates at the “front lines” of new technology markets as they develop and evolve.
We worked closely with the team to hone in on their specialized methodology and create messaging that underscored their all-in focus and front line intelligence. Our concept, “The Map and the Territory,” helped them crystallize their competitive advantage, bringing the group together around a strategic brand position. This idea of being the best equipped to map the unknown was carried through our design process to create a visual story around execution.
Their icon, inspired by the ancient navigation tool, the astrolabe, projects an elemental simplicity and power. Symbolically, it represents their upward execution path through specific lens of focus. Modern type, black and white color-scaping with green accentuation, and bold tech-inspired imagery combine to elevate their visual presence and send the message to disruptors at the edge of technological innovation that Architect Partners speaks their language. Architect Partners is harnessing their brand position, deep storytelling, and visual identity to successfully grow their business.
What We Did
Brand Strategy, Brand Positioning, Messaging, Brand Story, Visual Identity, Design System, Illustration and Animation, Website Design, Collateral Development, Thought Leadership
