• Brand & marketing strategy
  • Identity redesign
  • Print
  • Search & social strategies
  • Website redesign
  • Role: Creative & Design Director, visual design
  • Agency: GregSimmons.design

Overview

Sculpture & Sanctuary

Christy & Company Architecture designs and manages the builds of custom, high-end residential estates and commercial structures. Looking to grow their business by identifying and acquiring clients whose values and visions better align with thier own architectural ideologies and business focus, I was tasked with reinventing their identity. Along with a redesigned identity and design system, I developed a marketing and communication strategy to accurately communicate this updated vision.

From research to strategy to execution:

  • Competitive analysis
  • Identity discovery process & mission statement
  • Brand & marketing strategies
  • Search & social strategies
  • Identity redesign & corporate identity system
  • Website & landing pages
  • Print & magazine ads


* This is an ongoing effort. Not all facets of the strategy have been implemented.

What we left behind

Previously, CCA did not rely on digital communications for lead generation or representation. Word-of-mouth was by-far the primary lead generator supported by awareness from receiving dozens of awards and accolades in prestigious architectural publications as well as limited print-advertising.

Based on the new goals for the business, it was immediately clear the identity and design system, as well as the limited digital and print marketing collateral that was in existence, did not connected with this new vision. An entirely new, more appropriate identity, brand and strategy needed to be created.


Research

Competitive analysis

To better understand CCA in a business context, it was appropriate to conduct a competitive analysis made up of contemporaries, colleagues and competitors. A set of criteria was established and the analysis of 11 companies was performed.

Website analysis criteria:

  • Corporate identity, brand & presence
  • Visual design system
  • Messaging & communication
  • Taxonomy & nomenclature
  • Technology environment
  • Overall grade

* Search and social media competitive audits will be performed at a later date


Identity discovery & Mission

Identity Discovery is a workshop I conduct for understanding multiple layers of clients’ needs, wants, values, attributes, how’s, what’s and why’s. The process is a deep-dive into the real and actual nuances that separates, and uniquely identifies, my clients from their competition.

The I.D. process culminates in a mission statement rooted in a client’s beliefs, values and convictions. Here’s CCA’s:

Transcendence

In a world littered with architectural uniformity, CCA empowers the opulent homeowner to experience creative freedom—by being an active collaborator—while together, we forge a truly authentic, custom home and estate of dreams...

because we believe our clients deserve the indelible harmony of a personal, uniquely-crafted Sculpture & Sanctuary instead of conforming to the limited possibilities of another’s style or imagination.

Sculpture & Sanctuary

The essence of CCA’s architecture principles

Sculpture: form
Sanctuary: how you feel in, and around, form

Sculpture & Sanctuary succinctly captures CCA’s drive, motivation and passions in pursuits of holistically-designed architectural solutions. As a brand strategy and outward-facing message, however, Sculpture & Sanctuary affords potential clients the opportunity to interpret and define it themselves. It’s both an ideology and conversation starter. It’s a maleable, agile message that:

  1. changes with context and
  2. elicits authentic and substantive reactions
It’s a Mediterranean estate nestled in a valley. A contemporary home built atop a mountain. It’s a garden, a kitchen, a master bath, a walk-in closet...it’s inspired by the home owner and realized by the archtects at CCA.

The new identity

After an exhaustive logo sketching process, three contenders were pursued...ultimately deciding on direction #2.

The system

  • Logo
  • Letterhead
  • Business cards
  • Envelope
  • Mailing stickers
  • Invoice
  • Blueprint
  • Email

Premier placement

From the A.R.A. to Luxe Magazine, we strategically targeted space inside luxury residential architectural publications with double-spread ads purposefully designed for impact.

A new digital presence

Step 01 (shown below) : Design and build a single page website for the identity re-launch.

Step 02 (roadmap) : Architect, design and develop a robust, CMS-based website with CRM integration.

White Christy and Company Architecture logo