Astute Communications

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the communications manager at the Civic Design Center. We’re a nonprofit based in Nashville, Tennessee

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Astute Communications?

At the time, we wanted to go from the “Nashville Civic Design Center” to the “Civic Design Center.” That name change was an opportunity to take a deeper look at our brand and visual identity, so we contacted Astute Communications to serve as consultants.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Astute Communications helped us clarify our brand by advising us throughout the process. We already had a good idea of what our identity was, so we ended up doing a lot of the creative work internally under their guidance. That’s the value in working with a consultant — they met us where we were rather than doing everything for us. 

We went from the bottom up, starting with internal surveys to identify a baseline understanding of our brand personality. This was a good exercise to solidify what we thought our core services where, who our target audience was, and more.

From there, they led workshops to walk us through their archetypal analysis process based on Carl Jung’s 12 brand archetypes. That served as a reference for us to create a three-dimensional brand personality as we worked to define our messaging and visuals.

The project also helped our internal team better understand the separate steps of a branding initiative. For example, when designing a visual identity, you want to start off with references before brainstorming different ideas in black and white. The color comes later.

Our designers would tend to skip those steps because they already had an idea of what they wanted. Seeing the process laid out really helped build a foundation for our branding and visual identity.

The final project was translating the visuals into a website. We also did that internally, but they provided the guidelines on the wireframes and accessibility. 

What is the team composition? 

I worked with Anna (Owner & President) who has a background in design. Because we did the legwork ourselves, we didn’t work with the rest of her team, but I’m sure they follow the same guidelines.

How did you come to work with Astute Communications?

I was looking for a local agency that knew who we were and understood our situation. Eventually, I found Astute Communications through an online portal.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $5,500. As a nonprofit, we needed to make sure that we could fit their services into our budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in early February 2020, but the project went from March–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we were going for a complete visual refresh, it was less a numbers game and more a question of internal satisfaction. We were pleased with what we came up with, and I enjoyed the relationship that we’d built with Astute Communications. Having an external consultant helped us make sure that we were doing things appropriately.

How did Astute Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

They outlined the deadlines that we needed to meet from the beginning, but we were the ones who managed the project. It was really up to us to make sure we scheduled the check-ins, which allowed us to go for a lower rate than what they typically charge.

We managed the project via Airtable and shared some Google Docs. Aside from that, we mostly communicated over email and Google Hangout.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service and understanding of the brand were really exceptional. Not only are they research-oriented, but it’s clear that they cared about us every step of the way. Anna joined the highest level of our membership and ordered all of our books so that she could get a strong baseline understanding of who we were. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes our staff would spend so much time talking about what we were focused on that we might not have gotten through all of Anna’s points. It’s not her fault that we didn’t quite get through everything in the end, but we could have worked to keep more of a balance.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Respect your brand and recognize that you might find new things when you really dig in. Astute Communications starts from the bottom up, so you have to come with a clean slate and look internally to set yourself up for success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing and client relations for a general contractor based in Nashville

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Astute Communications?

We approached Astute to help us introduce part of a new image. We worked with them to help develop a mark for this that we could put on our marketing collateral, on shirts, website, and everything else. They helped us design the logo itself and what different applications we could use it on. They also helped us refine the messaging that went along with it.

The new image started as an internal rally call. We're a very transparent company, and we share our internal communication to give our audience a  glimpse into our company and culture. Astute's work needed a similar messaging style.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this new image campaign, Astute helped us update a part of our brand guidelines. Initially, the team asked us a series of questions and we provided them with information about our company. We met several times to talk through what we wanted; language to not include, aspects that needed to be included. It was an informal process, but they had structure to it.

The first mark that Astute provided was unfortunate, and it had to be changed due to timing. The team had presented several options to choose from, and we picked one that everyone was happy with. Around two weeks later, we had to start the process again. The original mark was too closely tied to several things in the media. 

The verbiage attached to the logo mark didn't change; we were completely happy with that. 

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with Anna [Owner, President and Creative Director], as well as another person that did business development. Although she left towards the end of the process, she was great as well.

How did you come to work with Astute Communications?

We met Astute at an association meeting. There are other companies that can provide the same service, but after meeting Anna, we felt that she could give us the kind of perspective that we were trying to get. We are an almost 60-year-old company, and a lot of people have worked here for over 30 years. We wanted to honor everything that we have put together so far and keep a sense of tradition, without actually using the word tradition. We wanted to freshen up the language so it didn’t sound so old, and Astute was great with that.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent approximately $6,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Astute on this project from July 2016 to December 2016

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the work was great. Astute was sharp and good to work with. The logo hiccup we had initially was just as much our fault as it was theirs. Although it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to the first time, they were great to work with through the process to fix it. In the end, we love the new mark.

How did Astute Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great with communication, and hit all deadlines. I was never concerned they weren’t going to deliver in time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really like Anna, and I really enjoyed working with her. They are a small boutique firm, which is what we wanted. We wanted someone that was a little bit of an outsider to give us a different perspective.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Only in terms of the first mark logo; it would have been nice if it had been brought to our attention that some people might consider it to mean something else; however, we should have recognized it as well, and I am not placing any blame on them for that.

The only advice I have for someone potentially working with Astute is to do all homework they give you ahead of time; otherwise, it may not be too successful. When we were asked to bring ideas, we had all drawn out our ideas and this really got the conversation going. It helped them get an idea of what we thought it would look like. It was hard to come up with something internally of what we wanted it to look like, but we needed to provide our expectations. They asked a lot of questions regarding information we wanted people to know and what words we didn’t want to be included in the verbiage. We had to work all that out prior to meeting with them.