C42D

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and vice president of business development for CGS Health, a group health plan. We’re a middle market provider of medical and pharmacy benefits to employer-sponsored health plans. I’m in charge of strategy and sales and marketing activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

Historically, we were a legacy administrator that provided and administered benefits for group health plans. The Affordable Care Act changed how to administer those plans in the healthcare marketplace, so we needed to recast ourselves as a consumer-directed health plan.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

C42D first did a discovery phase to better understand our business, core values, and mission. They interviewed various employees in our organization (from sales to senior management), clients, and the insurance carriers we work with. C42D wanted to know how we were viewed in the marketplace and what sort of ecosystem we worked in.

They used all that information to create digital and print messaging for our company. C42D worked on brand identification that encompassed our mission and values. The frontend was quite intensive, but it had great results.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with the founder and CEO of C42D.

How did you come to work with C42D?

C42D was referred to us. We interviewed a few of the agencies that were recommended to find one that fit our company culture. We chose C42D because we felt they could best help us achieve our goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in March 2017, and the site will launch next month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

C42D has set the foundation for us to use both original and curated content on our site. We should have better statistics in the next six months, once the site has been up for a while.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re highly organized and maintained contact with our team on a weekly basis. They used Basecamp for project management, which helped keep us on track. Whenever we needed an expert, they had them, whether it was copyediting, site design, wire framing, etc.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone at C42D took the time to understand our business, resulting in accurate and impressive work. Their hard work showed in the products they ultimately created.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything; we're very pleased with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a brand development design agency. We build our teams based on the industry concerned and the budget. We don’t have a conventional staff. We bring in experts that are seasoned in that particular field, industry, or type of project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

The client was an active lifestyle brand startup producing leather shoes, with links to Brazil and New York. The challenge was to tell that story and create the value proposition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their scope of work was to develop a brand style guide, an investor deck, and brand elements for a website—brand guidelines, positioning, and key visuals. We had a discovery phase where we got a download of the client’s needs. We really looked at the industry as a whole, the competitors, the target audience, and what makes their footwear unique. From that discovery phase came the positioning statement, which guided our design decisions. They went on to develop the style guide and created the voice and tone of the imagery. They also did a photo shoot in Brazil.

What is the team composition?

I worked mostly with Charley [Creative Director, C42D]. I worked with David [Founder & CEO, C42D] and all of the project management was with Christa [Project Manager, C42D].

How did you come to work with C42D?

I’ve known the founder for many years so knew we would work well together. We both started our agencies around the same time. I know that I can count on them, and am able to give them minimal direction and let them run with the project. I know I’m always going to get really good results. They had a lot of experience in the footwear space because of the work they’d done with other large brands.

How much have you invested with them?

$30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2016 until April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The project was funded immediately after due to the brand development work.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

It went very well. There was great communication between us and the project manager, Christa. They often successfully met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re easy to work with. They have a talented staff of seasoned creatives. They always come up with great solutions to design problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything went smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a full-service communications agency, handling everything from public relations to social media and advertising. We develop strategies for our clients to help them achieve their goals and then execute those strategies across multiple media platforms. I'm the director of digital and brand strategy, so I oversee our digital work – both paid and social. I also do branding work, helping our clients develop their messaging and communicate in a more effective way. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

We had a client that was responding to a large RFP, so we had to tell that client's story in the best possible way. We needed to produce various materials, working with multiple agencies to deliver a final product. We started looking for a company to help us develop a strategy to visually tell the story, produce the content, and design the materials.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us produce a 170-page book and a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation. I told them what we needed and they came back to me with a proposal, describing in detail their unique approach, the strategy they were suggesting, the timeline, and the costs. I knew what I was going to get before the work started. Once the budget was approved, their full team came in for a meeting with our team, and we provided them with further information about the project.

We gave them all the assets they needed, and they started building a design template for the book and the presentation. We circulated the template to all the partners who were working with us on that project. C42D also did branding work for us – they chose the fonts and the color scheme for the logo and developed brand guidelines, which we used to develop other materials.

What is the team composition? 

We had a main point of contact, who provided general oversight of the project. We also worked with a product manager, who was making sure all the deliverables were being met, and a few other people who helped us with the book and the presentation. 

How did you come to work with them?

I knew them from my previous job. We've met with a lot of designers, but we keep going back to them because they're strategic, creative, and smart. Also, their pricing is fair for the work they do. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project started in December 2017 and it was completed in January 2018. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We produce this work on behalf of our clients, and the clients have been very pleased. Every client that has worked with them wanted to continue the relationship. There has never been a dissatisfied client. 

I've worked with them on hundreds of projects and keep going back to them because they make the job seamless and easy. (I've worked with other designers as well, but with C42D, I've never had any problems.) They take the initiative and present different options. Understanding the pain points of our business, they always customize the design and the voice for a specific client we have. 

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're amazing communicators and are available by phone, e-mail, or texting. It was one of the most difficult projects I've worked on, but they did an unbelievable job of managing the assets and the content. We had the information coming in from about 15 different people at a time, and they didn't miss a single edit, feedback, or change. The project management was one of the best I've ever seen. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're true partners, which really makes a difference. They feel like an extension of our team – they roll up their sleeves and get down to the project, taking on the work like it's their own. That's been their greatest asset to me. The work they do is fantastic and they always adhere to deadlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I haven't had any problems with them. They exceeded our expectations. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Baymax Research Incorporated, a medical technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

We wanted to create a brand identity and logo for the whole company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After hiring C42D, they asked a lot of questions about our design goals and gave examples from other companies’ branding to understand where the market was trending. We brainstormed numerous variations of the logo and designs. They also created marketing brochures, pictures, business cards, and even letterhead to unify our brand identity.

What is the team composition?

I worked mainly with Dave [Founder, C42D] and Charley [Creative Director, C42D].

How did you come to work with C42D?

I’d known Dave for quite a while but never worked with him. I decided to look at their portfolio, and I liked the refreshing designs. I wanted to move away from designers who’d worked in the medical field before, and I thought C42D would give us a good cutting-edge look from outside the industry.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from March–July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We don’t have any quantitative data, but the feedback and opinions have all been positive.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They always delivered on time, and I was satisfied with how they managed the product. We mainly communicated via phone or email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They thoroughly did their due diligence and background research before presenting anything to me. That’s different from other companies that just give you what they think is best without doing research into the market. All their work was incredibly personalized to best fit our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could consider expanding their business and getting more talent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run marketing for a location intelligence and measurements company. We collect and analyze mobile location data to develop our analytics and measurement tool that help marketers and advertisers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

They helped us with our rebranding. We needed to upgrade the look and feel of our brand, which spans from enhancing our logo to rolling out a completely new website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for reinventing our whole company branding, which was a massive project of paramount importance for us because the brand is the business card for a company. They helped us clean up and rationalize our positioning, mission and vision statements; who we are, where we want to go and how we're going to get there in a powerful, concise way that is clear to our clients when we speak to them. That was the foundation for the development of the brand identity, the new logo, look and feel, the colors, the typography, and the imagery, which ultimately culminated in the new website that they created for us. They also created other branding elements such as templates for presentations, business cards, social media skins, all branding elements you can think of; everything that represents our brand identity that you might find on the internet, at events, it was conceptualized and designed by them.

Our website talks about who we are, how we collect the data, how we analyze it, and then our solutions that we sell to clients. We needed it to be spiced up. The one we had before was very static and flat. The one they did, they applied the new brand look and feel to develop the new website, animated it a little bit to make it more interactive and more engaging in terms of user experience. They created the wire frame, and that created everything. They added the beautiful imagery from our brand identity and brought it to life in a very powerful way. They used WordPress to build the site. When they set up the website and the content of the website, they helped us with the content.

​​​​​​How did you come to work with C42D?

We found them through a recommendation of another current client of theirs that we know.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked it off in March 2017, and we launched the website which completed the project on August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We've had a lot of clients or even prospects complimenting us on the look and feel of our website. The feedback has been extremely positive across the board from a number of people outside the company and prominent people of their own companies. They say the new look and feel really validates who we are and what we do, which was the objective of the rebranding. As we evolve as a company, we wanted a bigger and better presence.

It definitely worked. I have a ton of qualitative feedback on that. I don't have hard metrics yet on the website. I do see a lot of leads are coming in through the website, but it is more leads than we used to get, just from pure SEO and the website looking so much better.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really working hard on the project, particularly on the creative side. Their creative mind is really good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The creativity piece was really outstanding. Ultimately, that's what we hired them for. They were good at listening to us and being responsive. They kept everything moving along as it should, given the timelines they have set. I wish it would have taken less time, but they were very responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I just wish the project would've been shorter, but I understand that there are technical times. When I told them when I needed the project to be completed, they pulled enough resources to make it happen. They were very accommodating, very much on it to make sure that the project will be successful. I don't have anything negative to say about them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing partner at a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in early-stage technology companies. I oversee all of our external communications with entrepreneurs, technologies, and investors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

For the initial engagement, we wanted to do a lot of external marketing, which required various digital and physical materials across all of our channels. We wanted to focus specifically on content and event marketing, and we were looking for a partner who could work with us across multiple mediums. We wanted to refine the brand and change how it was perceived.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

C42D has worked on a multitude of projects with us, including our most recent website build, which was a big undertaking. They’ve worked with us on all of our branding elements, including t-shirt design, presentations, physical print pieces, signage, and other marketing materials.

How did you come to work with C42D?

I was referred to them by a previous employer and some former colleagues, all of whom had positive opinions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

C42D has consistently delivered for us. They’ve been able to adapt to the changes in our business, and have met the different requests we’ve had across various mediums. They’ve grown with us.

I don’t have any website metrics, but people are often surprised when looking at our marketing materials to find out we’re a venture firm. We don’t appear to be a boring financial services brand to most people because we have a fresh, modern appearance. There’s been a lot of positive feedback regarding the look-and-feel of our marketing products.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been timely, communicative, and responsive. C42D is good in terms of taking time for meetings, as well as providing updates. They share their works in progress with us, which allows us to make evaluations at various stages. We use email, phone, and text for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open and honest communicators, and they’ve taken feedback even when we’ve had to make revisions. They work across a variety of sectors and industries, so we’re able to benefit from what they’ve gained in previous experiences.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re very happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of C42D?

It’s important to document the work and to provide specific instructions, as well as feedback. In order to work with creative people successfully, they need to be given constraints. This is not specific to C42D, but something regarding creative agencies in general.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing partner and a co-founder of Ortoli Rosenstadt LLP, a law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

We had a website in place, but we needed to redo it from scratch because of a rebrand. We wanted to build a new site around our new name and structure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

C42D designed and implemented our website. I am a lawyer, so I have no idea what platform was used. They structured and built every element of our website, including having it available in multiple languages. From a design standpoint, they made most of the decisions. Their team implemented the project from beginning to end.

We provided some of the content, and C42D provided the rest. The site had a variety of pages that were active and being updated, including recent transactions. We also issued press releases on behalf of our clients, not just for our own purposes. C42D needed to make all of that functional, searchable through Google, and connected to popular social media sites.

C42D made a multi-marketing campaign for us based on our website. They also worked on optimized terms.  

How did you come to work with C42D?

C42D was one of my clients. I’d known them for years and had represented them in a variety of matters. Knowing that they provide professional, polished work, I turned to C42D and asked them to handle our website project.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with C42D in May or June 2016, and the project ended around January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen an amount of activity on the site as a result of what C42D has done. I think that it’s working, but I can’t provide exact metrics.

I have lots of positive feedback on the design and functionality of the site. I’ve heard it time and time again. I believe that C42D has gotten three clients as a result of our clients asking them to work on their own projects.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

It took about six months for the site to be built, but I have to assume much of the blame for that timeline. As lawyers, we are not as efficient as we probably should be in terms of dealing with our own marketing materials. C42D spent a lot of time following up with us about our progress. The team was responsive, professional, and organized. We needed a parent figure in the room, and they served that function.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their design, which had the sense of being fresh, new, and constantly evolving. At the same time, their work had a lasting component to it. I feel confident that when C42D comes up with something visually-oriented, it will be striking and sophisticated in its own right.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were a relatively difficult client, and they did a great job with us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Spark Ideas, and we are a boutique consumer insights firm based in New York. We do qualitative research projects for clients. So, when companies like Google, Hershey's or Aramark need to determine why certain consumer behaviors are happening they engage us to talk to whatever audience is relevant for their needs. Sometimes that's their customers, sometimes that is their competitors' customers, sometimes it's defining a new target audience for them. So, we bring that customer to life using our proprietary research methodology, primarily an app called LookLook.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

I look to partner with C42D any time we need a visual voice developed for our clients. Their expertise to me is really understanding the DNA of a brand and being able to interpret that visually, whether that is in the form of a Keynote or a PowerPoint presentation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The largest project we ever did with them, which was enormously successful was for a retail chain called FYE, which stands for your entertainment. And this was an unusual project for us because it started with research but we ended up helping them design a new retail concept with a consultant who specializes in retail space. C42D helped us reinvent their logo and an entire inside signage system. So it was very much about giving voice to this new brand, the new philosophy of the brand, the energy of the brand. And they had to work with pretty serious constraints when they couldn't start from zero with the logo. They had to work with what they had. They had to work with the thought of an existing color palette that they somehow managed to bring a really premium tonality and voice to be an entire brand identity for the new pilot store.

Their deliverables were an entire signage system from digital signage to the design down to the smallest bit of point of sale. So there are great problem solvers in terms of figuring out what time this is going to work in tight spaces, as well as the creative end of it which is figuring out what music and visuals work to call attention to promotions.

So that was by far the biggest project that we've done with them. They are also the company that developed the logo for my company. And they have created all of our kind of branded templates, everything from stationery, letterhead to our holiday card to our PowerPoint and keynote presentations. We might be their oldest client and definitely their most regular client. They're like an extension of my own company because they really do understand what a brand is trying to get across and they can quickly translate that into a number of different media.

How did you come to work with C42D?

We met because we were both working on behalf of Time Warner Cable. So, Time Warner Cable had hired us to do a branding project and C42D was hired to put together some branding material. We actually collaborated as a team on that project, and after I decided to hire them to give a voice to our brand. We have never looked anywhere else. There's just no one else I would trust to understand what we want to convey visually. They are really high-end.

How much have you invested with them?

For FYE, I believe we paid $40,000. I would say we pay them about $15,000 a year for 5 projects. FYE took place in 2014 and that was unusually high that year because of all the pieces of signage that were part of that project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for 7 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It's more subjective and objective in my field. I think the most important indicator is whether clients come back to us. And, we have a lot of repeat business. When people see our research findings interpreted through the visual lens of C42D, they come back to us and sometimes they ask us who is doing the design and we refer them to C42D.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

It's been a really even growth curve for them. We've grown together as companies, and David Card [Founder at C42D] has trained some excellent people in customer service. They have as good an offering in terms of account management as anyone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very accessible, very responsive, and very nimble. I go back to them constantly for their work. Not every graphic designer can create something as transcendent as they can.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I can think of is growing pains at certain points. Sometimes they have just been shorthanded you know. But I think that they're in a really good place. I think they're able to manage their workload very smoothly. If you give them a reasonable timeline, they're always able to go through.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president and owner of Katz Brunner Healthcare. We are a managed care consulting firm, and we work with our hospital systems primarily in the Midwest part of the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

They've actually done quite a myriad of work for us over the years, but most recently they redesigned our company's website. We certainly needed to you know make it more modern and up to date and more relevant to the services that we were providing.

We were looking to get more clients and leads. Another big reason for the new site was to give credibility to the company and the services that we provide. We also wanted it to be a resource for existing clients, in terms of sharing news articles and various information that we gather that that would be important to them.

They've also done marketing work in terms of creating brochures and marketing signage for conventions that we attend as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the layout of the WordPress website. They did the design, the color scheme, and identified the photos and various images to feature on the site. They made recommendations on which direction to take the site. There are fewer pages on our site than there used to be.

They did also help us in making it more succinct and targeted to our customers by editing the text and verbiage of the site.

They built some archive features that allow our clients to be able to access articles and news pieces in a way that were categorized and easy to find.

Aside from the site, they also provided some branded marketing materials for us. It entailed everything from business cards to hand out brochures, to you know table cause with our logo on it and marketing signs to use for our convention vendor booths.

You know for all that and it was great because it was all patents in It was it fit together very nicely, and they did a really great job in terms of making something that was visually attractive.

They really did a fantastic job and helped us once again with the wording of what to put on the various marketing materials how to make it more impactful.

How did you come to work with C42D?

To be honest, it was through a friend of a friend who introduced us. We had some initial conversations, and they put together a proposal. We got to meet their team.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $35,000 and $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January of 2014. The last project ended this April.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I would say ongoing compliments we get from attendees of the conferences let us know that it's been a successful project.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They were just very organized, very schedule-driven. They set their own deadlines and met them.

We re-occurring conference calls that were set up either weekly or biweekly on the project to give us updates and to get our feedback.

Their creative team is top notch. They really establish the parameters and they met them. And they were realistic and very flexible as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're a small company, and I felt like they gave us the same level of service that has some of the bigger clients that they have. They didn't make us feel like we were anything less because we weren't a large project for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everybody can improve. I think we could have done a little bit better job of cost estimates and some of the budgeting expectations. I think there was a little miscommunication from time to time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the worldwide editorial director at Ogilvy & Mather. We are one of the largest global advertising agencies in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with C42D?

We had an important thought leadership paper with high design requirements that we had not been able to achieve with design teams we had used in the past. The paper was five years in the making and had high visibility globally and was of great importance to our CEO. We turned to C42D to create new visual language for the paper and logos, to design the paper and executive summary, and host it on the website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for delivering everything from initial mood boards and concept development through a final PDF that worked with page-turn software and could be uploaded to several different systems. They sourced stock photography and used our photography as well, did a page layout, page design, chart graph, and mapped development. There wasn't really a web design per se, but a PDF that was uploaded to a page-turn PDF site. They made the conversion for that and did the upload.

How did you come to work with C42D?

A colleague recommended them to me years ago. I used them for Ogilvy internal work and for our clients. Long after that project was over, I continue to turn to them on a regular basis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them for design in 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I can't share metrics because we treat those as proprietary, but suffice it to say that it was a successful launch and we reached the audience we wanted to reach. It is less about sheer numbers and more about specific classes of people and impact for awareness purposes. We successfully reached those groups and we had high praise for the professionalism and artistic merit of their work. I have never been anything other than totally delighted with their work.

How did C42D perform from a project management standpoint?

They dealt with a difficult task, and they did it with charm and without frustration. They delivered on time for us and exceeded our expectations in terms of quality.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think it's important to note that they're able to turn things around quickly. They have creative expertise that one would expect from a hot creative agency, yet it’s a boutique design studio. They bring a level of creative insight and quality of execution that I don't see from similarly sized and staffed design firms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no criticisms.