Project: CG
Carlisle and Gallagher Consulting Group* was a rapidly growing national financial consulting firm, in need of a brand-revision and refinement. After a few years as a start-up, CG was ready for the next step in streamlining and strengthening their brand voice. Some of the branding projects included PowerPoint templates and presentations used by hundreds of CG consultants, white papers, collateral, and website assets. As CG defined their missions, goals, and personality, Dabcovich Design (DD) helped support those goals with a strong and consistent brand.
Above: Letterhead, envelope, business card front and back with tagline “Inspired to Help You Suceed”, 9 x 12 folder inside and front cover, and 4 x 5 notecard, front and back.
Logo
CG had already created a logo and used it for their first few years, so it had some traction. However they were running into issues when using it, especially on-line, and it didn't reflect their organization the way they wanted it to. Since they were in the service business, accessibility, friendliness, believability and professionalism were all important factors.
The original logo was difficult to use online. CG made a decision to only refer to themselves as "Carlisle and Gallagher Consulting Group" in entirety, or, alternatively, "CG".
The new logo had to be more versatile, and evenly distibute the weight of the words.
CG retained their logo-mark and colors that their audience was familiar with, but they wanted improved readability and flexibility.
The final logo consisted of a horizontal layout, and a heavier, rounder more evenly weighted font.
Collateral
DD designed and produced several brochures and white papers for CG, from concept through delivery, including vendor sourcing, estimating, managing, and quality control.
Below are a few examples.
PowerPoint
One major need for CG was a PowerPoint template to enable their five different offices, with hundreds of employees across the nation, to produce on-brand CG presentations. They used PowerPoint often, with many users showing various styles of clip art, often packing too much information on one slide, and using a plethora of fonts and font treatments.
Dabcovich Design produced a custom PowerPoint template for CG with several master pages and an image library. The new template provided a new look and feel for CG, that was clean, clear, friendly, and knowledgeable.
Although templates like this always get morphed along the way when hundreds are using them, a template gives a solid foundation for a team to start with, and hopefully even within users’ variations, there is a common voice threaded through. A custom template can also help a corporation stand apart, and support their brand.
Ask about custom templates.
In addition to look and feel requirements, the new CG template needed to work well under three circumstances:
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viewed on a computer screen
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projected for a large audience
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printed out on office printers, meaning the slides do not use up too much ink!
Font choices, and use of white space were influenced by these requirements.
Click through the slides below to see how the template was delivered.
DD designed custom slides for CG that required illustration and info graphics, such as the example below with corresponding printed white paper.
Web Content
DD developed CG’s home page rotating billboard content.
Battlecards
DD created a series of “battlecards”, CG’s competitive marketing tools. These were highly dense one-sided 8.5 x 11 cards explaining the differences between CG’s services and the competition. They are color coded so they are easily distinguished from one another, while maintaining a standard template. Colors correspond with competitor brands, again as a method to easily identify the cards.
Each card offers key competitor points, strengths and weaknesses, and a “capability map” highlighting areas of expertise. There is an overview and some quick facts, and finally a take away as to why CG is a better fit. These were used by consultants for quick references during calls.
Employee Recruitment, On-Boarding, and
Internal Branding
An organization’s brand begins developing from within. If employees aren’t clear on the company's brand promise, position, voice, and attributes, then chances are the customers won’t be clear either. DD helped develop CG’s
“Brand House”, a tool to help guide employees. DD designed a positioning platform for new hires, defining core values and describing work systems.
DD designed recruitment communication for CG. CG Supplied photos of their employees.
What Happened Next?
After 2+ years, CG was ready to take their defined and developed brand communications in-house in their North Carolina headquarters. For several months they continued to grow, and eventually they sold to NTT Data Consulting. Dabcovich Design was thrilled to be a part of the team that helped CG develop their brand and meet goals.