Scope of Engagement: Brand Research and Analysis, Brand Strategy and Platform, Brand Architecture, Visual Identity Refresh, Marketing Collateral System & Templates, Website Redesign, Content Strategy, Messaging and Copywriting.

Founded in 1953, Century Engineering has experienced significant growth. With plans to continue expanding both geographically and in the scope of services, Century was looking to strengthen its brand, bring organization and a consistent design standard to its corporate collateral and to expand and improve its online presence.

The challenge

Our in-depth brand assessment and research process uncovered high levels of frustration among customers in Century’s key markets. Customers saw engineering firms as average. We heard the word average again and again.

It was clear that this disappointment would be significantly lessened, and customers’ needs far better met, if firms were willing to take on a very important customer-focused challenge: striving to do better.

The opportunity

Notably, Century was seen by its customers as an example of a firm that stood out, rose above the rest.

Based on the industry need for engineering firms to raise the bar, combined with Century’s internal drive (as gathered from the internal stakeholder input) to be a valuable, responsible and invested partner, we saw an opportunity for a differentiated brand position.

An opportunity for Century to even further separate itself from its competitors, to rise even higher above the sea of average service providers and not only be better but to set a new standard for the industry. Century Engineering can be the firm that’s Raising the Bar!

The Brand

Building on the brand idea of “Raising the Bar,” we developed a new brand platform that sets the overall strategy for the brand and future marketing execution.

Core Message: We believe clients have had it with average engineering firms offering services that are merely average. It’s our mission to raise the bar by always acting as the responsible, invested partner our clients need and want.

Creative Execution

Identity

Keeping the Century’s existing logo design (per Century leadership’s request), we updated its typography, added a secondary color and slightly altered the relationship between the mark and type, making the logo more modern, streamlined and visually balanced.

We’ve also introduced a new color palette, typography and a “bar” element to align Century’s visual identity with its new brand.

Collateral

Century’s collateral needs are very diverse – from high-end professionally printed overview pieces to proposals that are output in-house to miscellaneous print and digital templates.
Our approach was to develop new collateral architecture, bringing clarity and efficiency to the firm’s collateral management. We then designed a modular design system that can be used to create an unlimited number of multi-purpose pieces in the future, while maintaining the overall visual consistency across disciplines, offices and geographies.

This flexibility enables Century to address its diverse communication needs, as well as specific requirements for each business unit, and to do so efficiently and cost-effectively, while reinforcing the overall brand.

Website

The website needed a complete overhaul. In addition to the website’s design needing an update to reflect a more modern aesthetic, its structure, content and functionality needed to be rethought to better support Century’s digital marketing strategy and website design and development best practices. And, of course, the site needed to work seamlessly across computers, tablets and phones.

Substance151 took Century’s team through the comprehensive website redesign process – from web strategy and information architecture to design, development and WordPress CMS integration. We developed a lead generation strategy and incorporated strategically placed calls to action (CTAs) to provide opportunities for visitors to engage, request more information, fill out a project inquiry and sign up for Century’s email updates.

The new website, an online extension of Century’s brand, clearly demonstrates the firm’s competitive differentiators, solutions, project experience and industry expertise and provides clear access to key information that the website visitors are looking for.

Century’s in-house marketing team now has full access to the administrative functionality that’s customized to their needs.

Your approach to web redesign has “science” to it, the perfect balance between strategy and creativity – Substance151 knows the exact formula!

Century Engineering

This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to work with Substance151. The team has proven why they were the best choice to help Century navigate its rebrand and website redesign. Despite our arduous approval process, Substance151 was able to engage our leadership team, get everyone’s buy-in and keep the project moving. Their strategic creativity led to a new differentiated brand, a revamped collateral system and a website that raises the bar high for other firms in our industry. I look forward to working with them again soon!

Rachel Collier, CPSM, Senior Marketing Associate