A brand Transformation Agency.
At Mekanic, we build B4C (business for community) brands. Every day we come to work ready to transform organizations and help them deliver authentic value to their communities through comprehensive strategy, brand positioning, storytelling, design, and experiences. Our name, Mekanic, is inspired by our passion for looking under the hood of a business, getting our hands dirty, and using our unique Kamp approach to co-create new brand systems that are high-performing and high-touch. With a core team of specialists and strategists who bring over 50 combined years of experience coupled with an amazing roster of clients – the results are nothing short of awesome.
headquarters
Focus
Portfolio
Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS), GO2 Foundation, USApple Association, National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA), Determined by Design (DBD), Millennia
Alexandria Chamber of Commerce
The business landscape in Northern Virginia is shifting dramatically with the announcement of Amazon’s HQ2 and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus. The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce wanted to attract new members and serve as an advocate for all businesses operating in the area. The primary goal was to re-position the Chamber as a forward-thinking, sophisticated organization that welcomes innovators and champions pro-business policies. They adopted a new name, The Chamber ALX, and a new brand story and visual identity. The Chamber wanted its new brand to suit both global organizations with a presence in Alexandria and unique small businesses that give the city its character. To spark excitement about the launch, the new brand was unveiled in a video at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting. The brand system is being applied to each of the Chamber’s channels: a new website, social media, member features, printed and digital marketing collateral, and events.
Smart Beginnings Alexandria
Smart Beginnings Alexandria (SBA) is a nonprofit operating within a statewide organization that aims to help every family find the services and connections their young children need to be ready for school. To help refine and amplify their message, they engaged Mekanic to create a new brand system, story, and website.
With an audience ranging from families and physicians to politicians and care providers, the language and visuals had to convey one succinct message: every family deserves a smart beginning.
LOR Foundation
The LOR Foundation needed an on-the-ground branded experience to facilitate a community listening project for rural communities. The “My Kind of Livable” campaign is intended to be a meaningful conversation starter for in-person events, focused on gathering the perspectives of rural community residents, civic leaders, nonprofit employees, and more to learn about what “livability” means to them and how LOR’s partnerships with those communities can support livability. In addition to campaign strategy and development, Mekanic designed custom marketing collateral to support a community listening events with giveaways like carabiners, mugs, notebooks, and other swag items to help engage audiences in a conversation. My Kind of Livable is designed for efficient execution and ongoing use at conferences and events across the country.
American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP)
As ASCP celebrated its 50th anniversary, it looked for a new way to present its brand that matches the value it delivers to its membership. ASCP develops the role of the senior care pharmacist—a dynamic, entrepreneurial, changing profession that is expanding and innovating as the population ages. ASCP wanted to shed the stigma around working with older adults and embrace a new aesthetic that showcases the commitment its members bring to the profession. The new brand represents the many practice settings in which senior care pharmacists make a difference in the lives of their patients, recognizing that there are areas of unity and also uniqueness. The mark is an abstract representation of a butterfly, a symbol of metamorphosis and taking flight. Mekanic led ASCP through a discovery, strategy and creative phases to develop a cohesive visual identity that could flex to meet the needs of various stakeholders: members, Congress and the ASCP Foundation.
USApple Association
The U.S. Apple Association (USApple) unites, advocates for, and supports the entire apple industry in the United States—including growers, packers, shippers, marketers, and other industry suppliers. Over the last two years, USApple has evolved its strategic focus to prioritize member engagement and advocacy, rather than trying to communicate to a general audience. In 2019, Mekanic supported USApple’s brand evolution in many strategically pivotal ways. First, Mekanic developed a refreshed visual identity to position the association as a forward-thinking leader in the industry with a minimalist, symbolic brand mark. It evokes the image of an apple, seasons, cycles, and forward momentum—which stands for the groundswell of young members in the industry who are making an impact. Mekanic also designed and developed a new custom WordPress website for USApple, with a more user-friendly content management system for staff use. The front-end design builds on the new visual identity with updated photography, clean, minimalist aesthetics, and prioritization of important industry updates, advocacy news, and member features. Mekanic continues to partner with USApple on a range of campaigns, marketing collateral design, and other marketing support services.
Lightility
Lightility acts as a consultative partner helping organizations benefit from financial and energy savings through sustainable lighting upgrades. After adopting a new name to reflect a maturing business, Lightility went through Mekanic’s Kamp process to redefine its value proposition, prioritize target audiences, and evolve its visual identity. Mekanic developed core brand messages to engage Lightility’s target audiences in distinct and meaningful ways, refined the existing logo, and designed a complementary visual identity system that can be applied consistently across all channels. To position Lightility as a comprehensive partner and problem solver operating at a national level, Mekanic developed compelling visuals and digestible messaging to help Lightility’s sales team communicate their results-driven process. Mekanic continues to support the development of Lightility’s maturing brand through the design and development of a new website.
National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS)
Like many associations, NACAS had been experiencing challenges in recruiting and retaining members over a five-year period. It was struggling to attract Business Partners who bring revenue to the association, as a result, and conference attendance was shrinking. In addition, many members felt more affinity to their Regional association, meaning that there was less cross-pollination of networks and ideas at the national level, which is critical to NACAS’s overarching mission.
Meanwhile, NACAS was approaching its 50th anniversary and wanted to strengthen its brand presence and marketing strategy so that membership and the conference could become a more attractive opportunity for Institutions and Business Partners to forge new collaborative partnerships that benefit students.
Over the past three years, its continued success and marketing and design variations on the C3X theme continued to attract Institutional Members and Business Partners alike.
National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA)
The National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) engaged Mekanic to modernize its brand ecosystem to improve engagement with current and prospective members. As the highly-regarded technical support leader for all professionals working within the concrete masonry industry celebrated its 100th anniversary, NCMA needed to forge an innovative new path to evolve its digital presence and improve access to valuable resources for members. First, Mekanic led NCMA through a brand transformation and developed new core brand messaging, an updated visual identity, and a range of versatile assets to bring the brand to life—including a built-from-scratch geometric grotesque sans serif font for the new brand mark. This font is the cornerstone of the evolved NCMA brand system. Then, Mekanic designed and developed a unique web experience that reflects NCMA’s technical leadership with an intuitive and user-focused platform that supports existing online revenue-generating capabilities. The new web platform prioritizes the mobile experience, which is critical for NCMA members who need to access resources and reference materials efficiently while working remotely at various project sites. Mekanic also ensured that the revenue-generating capability of NCMA’s technical resource center would be preserved and deliver increased value to members. The website’s design references masonry with stacked block shapes, and the aesthetic is ideal for attracting more emerging professional members and allied professionals—like architects—who can learn about the benefits of using resilient and beautiful concrete masonry systems in their work.
GO2 Foundation
When the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation and the Lung Cancer Alliance joined forces to become the largest organization dedicated to serving the lung cancer community, they enlisted Mekanic to build a new brand from the inside out. The two organizations from opposite coasts of the United States each had their own established strategic partners, donor panels, health care providers, researchers, advocates, and networks of loyal patients that have operated independently for three decades. Six months before the merger and brand launch, the two teams gathered for a two-day workshop, where Mekanic led them through visioning exercises to help begin ideating how the new brand would be positioned, the story it would tell, and how it would come to life. After exploring hundreds of naming conventions, GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer was selected with the complementary tagline: “Empower Everyone. Ignore No One.” The new visual identity gives the organization a next-gen appeal to bring more public attention to the lack of funding, the stigma that surrounds the disease, and the new hope that breakthrough research is bringing to the lung cancer community.
Reviews
the project
Web Design & Dev, Branding, & Design for Membership Org.
“They always produce something that stands out and is different from the rest.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the COO and VP of public policy for the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. We’re a membership organization that helps businesses by advocating on their behalf and doing networking events so they can connect with each other.
Our focus is on promoting a strong business community in Alexandria. We partner with other organizations in the region to help facilitate a thriving business community.
What challenge were you trying to address with Mekanic?
We’re a staff of five so we have the core areas covered but struggled with communications, website design, graphic design, and things of that nature. Over the years we had outsourced those efforts to different members. Mekanic came in an offered to help us with our design efforts.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They've been helping us with marketing materials for years. In 2019, they oversaw our latest branding update. This included a new website, logo redesign, tagline, marketing copy, and guidance around social media posts.
What is the team composition?
Erik (Co-Founder & CEO) is on our board but our day-to-day interaction is with Sarah (Senior Strategist). She’s been instrumental in managing the overall project. Erik and Alex (Partner & Chief Business Officer) have been a part of the strategy and pieces of it. Nathan (Designer) is our designer. Tiffany (Senior Engagement Manager) keeps everything running and organized, we talk with her on an ongoing basis.
How did you come to work with Mekanic?
They are members of the Chamber.
What is the status of this engagement?
The ongoing engagement started in December 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Since our rebranding, we’ve seen increases in institution memberships and social media engagement. We’ve also seen a higher number of businesses partner with us, which we attribute to the new marketing language.
How did Mekanic perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re fantastic. Mekanic meets deadlines. They always manage to fit us in and help us out no matter what we’re asking of them. Their team communicates well and ahead of time. If a deadline doesn’t have a hard date, they’ll notify us if they need more time to figure out X, Y, and Z. We have sponsors who come in at the last second and try to get on a poster; Mekanic has always completed everything on time even when given last-minute changes.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Mekanic thinks outside of the box and tries to come up with something that’ll be a real game-changer for what we’re doing. They make sure our project deliverables are cutting-edge and the best. They always produce something that stands out and is different from the rest.
They don’t go with the status quo; they’re always challenging what more can be done in different ways. It’s awesome to know that if we have a question or get stuck, we can bounce ideas off of them or think through things.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I can’t articulate anything at this time.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be open to their creativity and ability to take you in directions you may be hesitant to go down because they’re not traditional. When you commit and go on the journey with them, they give plenty of opportunity for feedback. They give you options. It’s important to trust them and go along with their process.
the project
Rebranding for Nonprofit Auxiliary Services Association
“More people are attending our annual conference than ever before.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior director of business services at a nonprofit association serving the non-academic side of college campuses. We provide professional development, research, and benchmarking for the senior-level professionals in this industry.
What challenge were you trying to address with Mekanic?
We hired them to oversee our branding efforts.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They oversaw survey forms, interviews, focus groups, and worked with 18-20% of our total membership. They also did a logo redesign, tagline, marketing copy, and guidance around social media posts. Finally, they did a rebranding and renaming of our annual conference, complete with PowerPoints and graphic design.
What is the team composition?
We work with six members of their team.
How did you come to work with Mekanic?
I believe they responded to our initial RFP, but I was onboarded around the same time, so I’m not entirely sure.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in August 2016, and we still have them on retainer.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Since our rebranding, we’ve seen increases in institution memberships and school engagement. We’ve also seen a higher number of business partners and sponsorships, which we attribute to the new language that we use for marketing purposes. More people are attending our annual conference than ever before and we’ve seen an increase in revenue year over year.
How did Mekanic perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re very responsive. Both parties are on the same page and keep track of the deadlines very efficiently. It’s fairly seamless.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They take ownership and have a genuine vested interest in seeing us succeed. They partner alongside us, understand the industry, and help us bring solutions to life that ultimately better us as an organization.
Are there any areas they could improve?
At times our marketing language can be superfluous and doesn’t really say much. That area could stand to be improved.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It’s okay to push back on graphic design or language they propose. They are good listeners, and sometimes it takes multiple iterations to reach an outcome that you’re both happy with.
the project
Branding, Logo Design, & Web Dev for Education Assoc.
"While Mekanic has a systematic approach to branding, it still feels very individualized."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a higher education association.
What challenge were you trying to address with Mekanic?
We were looking for a rebrand in our identity. We had some internal transitions and were looking to make a statement about who we were, who we served, and what our priorities were.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Mekanic led a complete rebrand process. They created a new logo design, messaging, and website — both design and development — in WordPress. They integrated programs like Higher Logic and Salesforce.
What is the team composition?
Erik (Co-founder, CEO) is my primary point of contact.
How did you come to work with Mekanic?
We launched an RFP and utilized the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) marketplace to find branding companies. We reached out to many companies, and Mekanic was one of those that responded to RFP.
We ultimately picked Mekanic for several reasons. First, they had a systematic approach that involved multiple layers throughout our association, including volunteers, the board of directors, staff, and general membership. It gave them a clear picture of our whole organization quickly. We also appreciated their quick timeline. Our membership and involvement were declining, so we needed to move quickly.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $250,000–$300,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in August 2016. The project took nine months, but we still work together.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We have an average 93%–95% retention rate and have grown membership about 5%–7% year over year since we rebranded. That was awesome. We’ve also seen an increase in involvement at our in-person events and in the overall satisfaction with our association.
How did Mekanic perform from a project management standpoint?
Any holdups have been our side. When you’re dealing with a ton of volunteers and multiple schedules, it’s hard to move in a timely way. However, from Mekanic’s side, they stay on schedule and deliver early whenever possible.
What did you find most impressive about them?
While Mekanic has a systematic approach to branding, it still feels very individualized. Whenever we have an idea or need to talk through something, they’re really flexible and willing to work with us to meet our needs.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I think they could let companies take risks and experience some failures on their own instead of constantly warning us based on their experiences.
Any advice for potential customers?
Be really clear on what your goals and desired outcomes are. This helps move the process along faster and more efficiently.
the project
Branding, Logo Design, Web Dev, & Web Design for Trade Association
“Overall, I'd say we're just generally happy with the way things have gone.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I work for the national concrete masonry association. Our main membership are the producers of a variety of manufactured concrete products, including concrete masonry units, and other types of construction materials. We’ve been around for over a hundred years now, and we try to promote the use of our products and help them be successful through a wide variety of things. I'm the VP of business development and I oversee our communications efforts, from our website, to social media, to emails, printed materials, promotional flyers and those kinds of things.
What challenge were you trying to address with Mekanic?
We started with needing to re-do our website. It had been 5-6 years using older technology that wasn't mobile responsive and we couldn't find the resources we were trying to get to them. We later realized it was time to take a look at our overall brand from top to bottom.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They led us through a process to identify how we could re-do our brand and re-do our visual identity. Once we got that part of it put together, then we transitioned into them completely redoing our website organizations. They redid our logo, our brand narrative, identified our main core audience that we were trying to reach, and redeveloped the layout for our printed flyers, business cards, and stationary. In addition to the main logo, they created a whole series of sub-brands for different things our association does.
For our website, it felt like they did it from scratch, but we did have an existing one already. We took a look at it from top to bottom in terms of who were the people using the website, how did we want to communicate with them on how to organize our business. Then, based on our wireframes, they completed the site. Their work is ongoing with some marketing and website consulting.
What is the team composition?
I initially started working with Erik (Founder & CEO), and I worked with three other members of their team, including one project manager.
How did you come to work with Mekanic?
We started out with three full proposals and felt like Mekanic was the best fit. They were smaller, more responsive, and we liked their experience with associations. The price was also in our range, which led to us working with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We've invested approximately $300,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working together in November 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We more than doubled our total sessions on an annual basis. We went from 5,000 sessions on the old site to more than 200,000 on the new site. Our web traffic has more than doubled since the relaunch as well. The rebrand and everything has been well-received from our membership. Overall, I'd say we're just generally happy with the way things have gone.
How did Mekanic perform from a project management standpoint?
They're very responsive and I was very happy with how things turned out. We completed everything on time.
What did you find most impressive about them?
From an association standpoint, their experience was really helpful. They were willing to talk to our board, our management and our membership and really engage with them. They did backend research that really served to inform a lot of our decision making.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I don't think so. Overall, we were very happy and had a lot of positive impact.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
A lot of it is what you put into it. I know I spend a lot of time really working with them and providing the best of my input, but leaning on them because they know what the consumers will like best.
the project
Rebranding for Pharmaceutical Membership Organization
“It felt like they were an extension of our team—they understood us so well.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
ASCP is a nonprofit, membership association. I oversee marketing, communications, and membership.
ASCP is a nonprofit, membership association. I oversee marketing, communications, and membership.
What challenge were you trying to address with Mekanic?
We were going through a rebranding, which is why we solicited Mekanic’s help. We’ve been struggling with our identity for many years now, and were thinking about branding and name changes.
We recently brought on a new CEO, and he was very supportive of the efforts we’ve done. We wanted a third party to help us do this in the most professional and effective way. We didn’t want to start from scratch, because we had been through surveys and background information on that. We went with Mekanic to modify the process to take into account the work that already had been done. We had a tight timeframe, and we wanted to debut this at our annual meeting.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We wanted a unique icon. Our logo consisted of our acronym and our name, so we wanted to change that to make something more visually representative of us. We challenged them to find something that wasn’t a hand or a tree, like a lot of other senior associations.
We also have a diverse membership, and we wanted to highlight all of our members so they all felt like they identified with it.
They came up with a logo, a style guide, how we were going to debut it at the meeting, and provided samples of all the assets and marketing materials that we might use moving forward.
A survey went out to our members, and based on that feedback, we sent another survey to a tighter group. From there, they did a brand camp for us. Basically, it was a one-day workshop where a dozen people from our team went into their offices. We spent a full day talking through survey results, and getting down to the nitty-gritty of who we are and understanding what we needed out of the brand. By the time that workshop was over, they really understood our organization.
After that meeting, they came back to us with three different versions of the brand. They presented those to us in a really comprehensive way that made us feel like we kind of got a feel for how all three of those would work. Then our board of directors and staff went over it
How did you come to work with Mekanic?
They’re in our building, so we knew them. We met with them and felt like their culture was aligned with ours. We meshed well and they seemed like a good fit.
What is the team composition?
We had a few—they used an online system that managed our communication. Eric signed us on, and Sarah was one of the leads for the technical end of it, Tiffany was the project manager we worked with, and Darryl, was one of the lead designers.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent less than $50,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from July 2019–January 2020
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The feedback from the live launch of the brand was really impressive. And on a whole, extremely positive. And for an association that was really nervous about rebranding and about taking this large of a step and really expecting to have some feedback all over the place, we really we heard nothing but positive feedback from our members and from our stakeholders.
How did Mekanic perform from a project management standpoint?
They used an online communication system that was really effective. It was very timely—I never felt rushed. It went very well.
What did you find most impressive about them?
It felt like they were an extension of our team—they understood us so well. They were focused on bringing our vision to life in a way we wouldn’t have been able to do ourselves.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, not really.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
We were very honest and open about what we wanted, and they responded extremely well to that. I would encourage that openness and honesty.
The deliverables have received positive internal feedback and praise. Mekanic meets deadlines and is easy to work with. They think outside the box and produce cutting-edge deliverables. Their team is effective at encapsulating a vision and creating a design, look, and messaging that reflects it.