Let us (re)introduce ourselves
Author
Vanita Carrillo-Rush
The decision to rebrand is a big one. After all, branding is reflective of your company – it can convey a mission, the type of work performed, a company’s culture, and so much more. Understanding who we are as a firm, how our approach to design is uniquely ours, and how Scott Edwards Architecture is perceived by clients and industry partners were pivotal steps to getting it right. Now, as we share our new brand with you, we are proud of the introspection, collaboration, and effort that helped us get here.
Discussions to rebrand began in 2018. We were in the process of designing our new headquarters, a significant shift that would bring all of our staff under one roof. Also, our firm had grown in recent years and we had established ourselves within 9 distinct market sectors: civic, commercial, community, education, healthcare, hospitality, houses, interiors, and multi-family. We were on the cusp of a transition and we wanted to give shape to these changes.
Early Research Informs Direction
One of the first steps we took was to conduct a survey asking clients and industry partners their perception of our current brand. We learned from this research that our name’s acronym and our brand colors did not differentiate us from other architecture firms in the region. We also performed an internal survey of our staff and learned how they felt about our brand’s representation when compared to our firm’s distinctive culture. The results of both surveys substantiated what we suspected – by having a brand that blended in, we weren’t portraying why we stand out.
When we decided to move forward with the rebrand we enlisted the help of The Beauty Shop, a boutique creative agency here in Portland. They conducted staff interviews to learn more about our firm, our approach to our work, who we are, and what differentiates us. Four differentiators stood out to them: how our firm is people-first, our vibrant team culture, the diversity of projects we design, and the synergistic collaboration between our studios and disciplines. These, along with the importance of our “People First. Design Forward.” ethos, drove the direction of the new brand.
“The Beauty Shop took care to define and capture the meaning of our ethos, our brand personality, and our core values in a manner described by founding partner Sid Scott as ‘like holding up a mirror’.”
Getting to the heart of what “People First. Design Forward.” meant to our firm was central to our rebranding goals. While we knew it when we saw it, articulating it was a different story. Our People First brand messaging shares the who and why we’re here doing this work, ultimately arriving at the following distillation:
Our vision is a world that is people-first. In this future, design responds to people, centers communities, supports the surrounding environment, and respects the planet.
Our Design Forward brand messaging shares our desire to look toward the future in our designs, culminating in this summary statement:
Our mission is to design forward. When we design forward, our clients are our teammates. Our community is our inspiration. And each project is guided by a collaborative intention to shape the future we want to see.
Capturing Our Firm’s Character
Alongside language, we needed to be able to express who we are visually as well. For us, this started with our logo, and our logo started with our name. The decision to use our full firm name, Scott Edwards Architecture, came from what we learned through our internal and external surveys – we understood that to be easily recognizable we needed to move away from the acronym and the vertical bar. Keeping the Scott Edwards name also allows us to pay homage to our firm’s history. And don’t worry, you can still call us SEA if you want!
The icon in our logo is a major departure from where we were before and manages to capture so much of our firm’s character. The Beauty Shop described the development of our icon to be much like a puzzle for them and this idea resonated with us. The icon’s interlocking shapes represent our 9 project market sectors, and more broadly, the diversity of projects we work on. The way the shapes come together reflects how we collaborate as a team to solve unique design challenges. The colors represent our vibrant team culture and help us to stand out and be bold, which feels like us!
Our new brand’s internal reception has been resoundingly positive. The new colors, messaging, typefaces, and icon shapes open up a world of possibilities, and not just in marketing materials. We have seen the colors used to elevate site plans and differentiate organizational categories. The brand messaging has helped us to describe to new employees what drives our firm and where we place value.
A Dynamic and Representative Website
The logo and brand messaging informed our approach to our new website, both in feel and functionality. We carried our firm’s foundational elements into the digital space, from our “People First. Design Forward.” site navigation to an aesthetic that we can confidently say is uniquely us.
We are a firm of thought leaders who are active in our communities and passionate about our work. Our vision for our new website was an intuitive site that gave us the room to dive deeper into our design process, project stories, and firm values. We developed an expressive, dynamic website that represents Scott Edwards Architecture today and will allow us to grow into tomorrow. While you’re here, we hope you’ll take a look around.
The process to rebrand has been valuable not just in the result, but in the discoveries we’ve made along the way. As the adage goes, sometimes it’s more about the journey than the destination (although we are really excited about the destination). We’re still the same firm – putting people first and driving the design forward – only now we have a brand to match. We’re feeling reenergized to continue doing the work that we love and we can’t wait to share it with you.
