SOLVING A LEGACY BRAND’S IDENTITY CRISIS
Yet another historic Pittsburgh brand, Desmone is an architecture and interior design company founded in 1958 by Luke and John Desmone. With a team of more than 30 employees and a strong portfolio of past projects, Desmone approached Top Hat in hopes to continue building their rich legacy.
But even with 60+ years of business in western PA, the Desmone team still found itself lost in a sea of competing firms and lacked a strong brand story to stand on. Without a clear path forward, Desmone entrusted our team to create a robust Brand Strategy that would pave the way for their brand for years to come.
Envision
Plan
Design
Execute
Thrive
After conducting quantitative research of the Desmone brand as well as a competitive analysis of the architecture and design firms in the area, we found an overwhelming opportunity for the Desmone brand to move away from industry norms and seek to connect with customers on a deeper level. In order to achieve this, Desmone needed to pivot its practice and become one simple thing: human.
This new focus needed to be seen and felt through the entire Desmone service journey, all while connecting back to an appealing brand aesthetic that followed suit.
That’s Not a BUICK An Architecture Firm!
Armed with a clear Brand Strategy, it was time to give form to vision. Desmone’s humanist brand is anchored by a jarring departure from an industry of convention – mechanical serif fonts, stark color palettes, and boring geometric shapes.
We took a page out of Walt Disney’s book and channeled a custom script based on the founder’s iconic lower-case signature.
We carried that script through the brand’s iconic “circle d” mark to evolve their past identity for the new era.
Pittsburgh
Morgantown
Delmarva
Put it on Paper
With the ingredients of their new brand in place, we got to work creating the firm’s print collateral, complete with custom business cards, a sleek corporate letterhead, and an extensive proposal deck to convert new business. We also overhauled the firm’s construction signage, focusing on limiting information to their impactful tagline and contact info.
Put it in Pixels
Desmone’s e-newsletter serves as an agent for connecting to clients and partners on a deeper level. A periodic dose of key snippets from ongoing projects and company update showcase the unique and talented faces behind the business. We utilized Mailchimp to create a distinctive newsletter template that their team could own month-to-month.
Inspired by Your Vision
The last piece of the puzzle was Desmone’s online presence. Much like the rest of their former brand, the previous Desmone website lacked vision-casting, a footprint outside of Pittsburgh, and struggled to showcase the firm’s projects in a way that attracted the right clientele.
We developed a custom, interactive, and experiential new site that connected Desmone’s five-point service journey seamlessly to its vast portfolio of projects, creating a lead-generation machine that stood out boldly from the crowd.
New project? Question? Compliment? Let’s chat. New project? Question? Compliment? Let’s chat.