Superbase

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator at Freeformspaces, a commercial interior design partner in the Pacific Northwest. We furnish and design commercial interior spaces for offices, schools, hospitals, and other industries. In my role, I manage all of our marketing output and input and oversee our branding.

What challenge were you trying to address with Superbase?

Our company merged with a similar company at the beginning of 2021, and with that merger came a full rebrand. We already had the branding groundwork, but we still needed to pick a name and redo our branding assets and logo. Therefore, we required a branding agency to help us out.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Superbase has helped us with the branding process after our merger. Initially, we went through a brand discovery process to figure out who we were, how we fit the market, where we wanted to go with our brand, and how we would interact with other brands in the space.

During that process, Superbase dug deep into what was important to us and how we wanted to present ourselves as a brand and organization. This process included a lot of meetings with our main stakeholders.

After the discovery process, Suberbase translated the information they obtained into the first branding designs, and we went through a few rounds of branding packages and revisions. However, we got pretty close to what we wanted in the first round, so our iterations were few.

Once we landed on a logo and wordmark, we started building a brand around it, including our marketing language, brand style guide, and social media presence. The branding guideline detailed our fonts, colors, patterns, and textures for our graphic design and marketing. Moreover, Superbase developed our unique value proposition.

In addition to developing our new branding, Superbase has helped us roll out our new brand, especially in Idaho. Now, we’re working with them on graphic design and some additional branding consulting.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Kelly (Executive Creative Director & Founder). We’ve also worked with a graphic designer, a social media specialist, and their executive assistant.

How did you come to work with Superbase?

Superbase is a local company; their offices are just a few blocks away from ours’. A few years ago, we had already thought about rebranding our company, so we had a couple of conversations with them. However, we didn’t move forward with the project. When this project arose, we reached out to different branding agencies, including them, and we ended up working with Superbase.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $13,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2022, and our engagement is ongoing. However, the bulk of the project is now complete.

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

Before the merger, our company had been around for about 35 years, so people were very used to our business name and look. Still, Superbase has been a great partner to have as we’ve rolled out our new brand. Everyone has been very excited about our new brand, and we’re very happy with where it landed. Our brand definitely needed a facelift, so we’re very pleased with the end result.

How did Superbase perform from a project management standpoint?

Superbase’s budget management is very good; we’ve stuck to the budget the whole time. They’ve worked with us to ensure that what we’re looking for fits what they’re putting together budget-wise. Moreover, they’ve been willing to customize their packages for us.

As for project management, Superbase has walked us through the whole process. They’re very responsive and easy to get a hold of, and they excel at sticking to the timeline. We mainly communicate via email, phone calls, and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Superbase’s main highlight has been their great job at creating a new brand that still has features of the two former brands that merged together, ensuring that both companies feel represented by the new brand. Their team excels at creating fresh and modern designs that still keep the essence of their original brand and culture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lean into their brand discovery process and workshops. Sometimes, companies think they know what they want, so they’re tempted to skip the discovery phase and get into the design work. However, the discovery phase is very valuable, so lean into it and trust the process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company, Ricochet POS is a SaaS company in the retail software space. We offer a web and app based POS and Inventory solution that is tailored for the consignment and resale sector of Retail. I am the founder of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Superbase Creative, and what were your goals?

As our company continues to grow at a exceptional rate, our brand needed to play catch up a bit as it was getting a bit stale and dated. We felt we needed a fairly aggressive brand update that included logo re-design, new color palettes, updated marketing material including a a full redesign of our consumer facing website as well all other physical and digital marketing material. Messaging would also be updated as our goals as a company have progressed as well as our demographic is ever changing.

How did you select this vendor?

I had actually been familiar with Superbase prior to us selecting them and was already aware of their other projects which all were well done and impressive. Our companies had developed a relationship via some very small projects as well which gave us a taste of what Superbase could do.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Group and individual conversations were first had with our team and theirs to flesh out our initial ideas to changes to the brand. After a few of these meetings, Superbase compiled everything and presented us with a scope of work detailed breakdown. Revisions were made after some feedback back and forth to get to a final agreed on project scope. Superbase then presented us with a graphical timeline that broke down milestones dates for the individual projects. This gave us a good idea of when to expect certain tasks to be completed for our review, then built in time for revisions and such. This continued all the way to the expected completion date. As each milestone was reached, for example, our logo re-design, we were presented with a thorough concept document to go through options they have come up with. We would then narrow down to a chosen concept after just a few revisions. After each smaller project was complete and we landed on a complete overall project, we were given a full brand guideline doc that outlines everything from colors, to fonts, to styles, etc. We were also provided full access to all assets, artwork and such via online storage.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In total there were four people we worked with. Depending on the specific task, we worked directly with the person handling that portion.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Because of the quality of the final product, we feel our business has leveled up in appearance and professionalism. This update as solidified our spot as the top dog in our industry.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

In person and digital communication was frequent throughout the process. There were always scheduled in-person meetings where certain milestone tasks were reached and presented to us as well as impromptu communication throughout via email as we had questions, and vice versa.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The person touch of having them in office and their thoroughness in going through this project. Corners were never cut and we always felt satisfied.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing that comes to mind. I'm sure there is always room for improvement somewhere, but since this was our first rodeo with a full branding firm, not too much to compare too.