SMALL BEATS BIG
Kollin Altomare Architects are a small architecture firm based in Long Beach, CA and Chicago, IL, with a focus in hospitality design. They were doing great projects but kept getting relegated to Agency of Record status – redesigning sections of resorts – instead of Lead Design firm. When we met them they were ready to take the next step but had no idea how to cross that threshold.
We spoke with everyone – learned how they differ from other firms, why clients love to work with them, and why they always end up the bridesmaid if not the bride. Boiled it down into a strategy that not only spoke to who they were and their strengths over larger agencies, it was the second project in a row the lead client teared up. And then we adjusted the clothes to fit – logo, visuals, website, heck, even holiday whiskey gifts.
And it worked. The following two years were a windfall, landing several high-profile lead design jobs, and evolving some of their Agency of Record projects to be triple the original scope.
Brand Identity + Logo
KAA didn’t just work with any old hotels – they were luxe the whole way. The design language had to reflect that, bringing some modern elegance to their communications. Their logo is built off architectural drawings – specifically the angles found in door illustrations and walls – that’s equally comfortable on the wall of their new office as it is on blueprints. Their blue and grey colors elevate them to fit in alongside high end clients like the Four Seasons, Montage, and Ritz-Carlton. Also, they put the design on an F1 racecar. So there’s that.
CD/Design: David Levy
CD/Copy: Shawn Wood
I Made A Phone
One of the things that having a small firm gets you is that when you call their office you can actually speak with the guys who have their names on the wall. To highlight this difference, we gave their important clients a type of Batphone – prepaid cell phone with pictures of each of the three partners that would call their cell phone directly. Then we added some photo galleries of some beautiful projects for good measure.
Initially I built this phone myself. Handed it to Michael in our presentation and in less than 20 seconds of it being in his hands his cell phone started ringing on the table. It’d be meeting theater if it didn’t work so effectively. Sure beats a business card.
CD/Design: David Levy
CD/Copy: Shawn Wood
KollinAltomare.com
This site reflects my theories on web design perfectly – make the experience for the people who are going to use it based on human understanding and rock-solid strategy, “internet best practices” be damned.
There are only about 10 people who can award a job to KAA, mostly old men who don’t use the web like you and I. So the homepage cuts to the chase – beautiful images of our award-winning projects scrolling slowly across. Rolling over them shares a quick synopsis of each – you don’t even have to click.
Sure, if you delve deeper you can learn about literally every project we’ve ever done, sort them by what you’re looking for, and on and on. And some people need that info. But for those who just want to see that they’re a “real” company, they can get that reinforcement in less than a minute. Did I mention how they won every job they were up for for about 2 years? Yeah…
CD/Design: David Levy
CD/Copy: Shawn Wood
