Elevating Brand Impact
DigiBC | DigiBC Careers | Signals
Brand Discovery | Design | Brand Content Kit Service | Copywriting and Editing | Press Release Development | Social Media Content and Design | Landing Page Design and Development
How Do You Tackle a Brand Refresh For Three Different Brands—Under Pressing Deadlines?
Efficiently and playfully. While deadlines do get the heart thumping, great branding must engage the creative spirit too.
DigiBC needed to quickly brand and launch the Signals Expo along with a new provincially- endorsed program.
they also needed to to clarify & refresh the digibc brand … and website.
DigiBC, the Creative Technology Industry Association of British Columbia, had its hands full when they approached us. First up: they needed to announce the launch of the Signals Expo, an interactive and immersive expo showcasing bold and innovative storytelling in AI, XR, film and video games. As a part of that, they also needed to put out a call for submissions to the Signals XR Lab—which invited creative tech talent to envision projects for the expo.
But in order to do all of that, they urgently needed a logo, brand, landing page and high-impact social content.
And if that wasn’t enough on the place, next up on the list was getting out a press release about an exciting new program: the Work Placement Pilot Project, aimed at creating new opportunities for post-secondary students in creative tech. But that needed bold branding, copy, a landing page and social content as well.
Last but decidedly not least was the DigiBC brand itself. For this project, there were no strict deadlines attached (thank goodness!) but rather the important aim of creating an overarching identity to act as an umbrella brand, encompassing both Signals and DigiBC Careers, along with all of the other mission-critical work DigiBC does in the province.
We had our work cut out for us—so dug in with gusto.
To meet deadlines, we tackled this project in reverse.
we developed branding and content for the ‘children’ before the ‘parent’ brand.
For most branding projects involving ‘parent’ and ‘child’ brands (a larger business or brand with products, services or programs that also need distinct branding), we take a holistic approach. That is, imagine the parent brand in relationship with its children—with a clear understanding of how each functions independently, and how all function together.
On this project, however, we had a week to meet a key deadline for advertising the Signals Expo. This would require nailing the branding for Signals, while designing a landing page and social content to tell its story. So that’s where we began.
Fortunately, we had just launched our Brand Content Kit service when DigiBC approached us—and thank goodness for that. The service promises elevated branding and content in a week, and that’s exactly what Signals needed. But could we pull it off?
Naturally. Led by our dynamic PM Kelsey Westbrook and our insanely talented Creative Director, Lara Kroeker, we got to work.
The Brand Content Kit process involves collaborative discovery, and iterative, real-time work.
it’s a joyful, fast, and thoroughly rewarding process for us, too.
For every Forge & Spark project, we follow a tried, true, and efficient process involving Discovery, Strategy and Content Development. For our Brand Content Kit projects, we have tweaked the formula to make it even more creative, productive and fun, all while delivering top-notch design and content that our clients can use and put to work right away.
And for DigiBC, we did it all three times … getting more efficient, and fine-tuned, with each iteration.
Starting with Signals, then DigiBC Careers, and then DigiBC itself, our Discovery phase involved asking brand stakeholders to complete a questionnaire, letting us know on a broad level the ‘model brands’, colours, values and personality traits to consider as we began considering how the fresh brands should look, feel, and embody. Stakeholders and our creative team then came to the table (a Zoom kick-off call) to discuss and refine our understanding of the branding direction.
Setting up stakeholders with their communication tool of choice (Slack, email, phone, Zoom, etc.) we then got to work. Like, right away. That first 1–2 days of Discovery for us is all about getting a handle on our client’s vision for their brand, and literally playing with logo styles, colours, imagery, and wording; reaching out frequently to the client to check whether the direction we’re travelling is the right one.
By the time we asked Signals, then DigiBC Careers, and then DigiBC, for sign-off on their foundational brand assets—logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery—they had already weighed in, and fallen in love with all of it.
the branding felt right.
but There’s nothing like having real content in play to see that the branding really works.
The next stage of the game? You guessed it: developing the content itself. As part of each Brand Content Kit, you get 10 ‘content credits’ to spend, having our crack team put your new branding to work, applying it to all kinds of different content offerings.
Included among the diverse content assets we developed for DigiBC’s three brands were:
- Full microsite design and development for Signals, WPP and DigiBC
- A messaging framework and copywriting for each microsite
- Development of Brand Voice & Tone guidelines for DigiBC (including prompts to apply Brand Voice & Tone to AI content)
- Design of social media headers for channels including Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Instagram
- Design and copywriting for multiple social media posts, to be used as templates for future social media content
our work helped to launch a new provincial program and a tech expo, garnering high-quality project applications.
and digibc says the branding has also sparked a renewed sense of organizational PRIDE.
Aside from helping DigiBC successfully launch the Work Placement Pilot Project—endorsed by the Province of British Columbia—DigiBC’s new branding work helped them to launch the Signals Expo, and to generate a huge volume of quality applications for their incredibly cool Signals XR Lab, thanks to thanks to the microsites we designed for the Lab and for Signals itself.
And after applying their Content Credits to redesign the DigiBC home page (to ‘test’ its new branding), we are now working a complete website refresh for DigiBC, too. Stay tuned.
Working backward ultimately allowed us to delve into DigiBC’s specific programs and audiences, to help reveal—through the branding process—the breadth and depth of the impact that the organization creates. And by the time we completed branding and Voice & Tone guidelines for the parent brand itself, we felt we understood the organization’s impact inside-out, too.
We’re so proud to report that DigiBC credits the brand refresh work we did with clarifying their value and impact, internally and externally.
Why We Love Them
Developing the three Brand Content Kits was truly a playful, eye-opening, and impactful process for all involved, and we couldn’t feel more grateful for the juicy, rewarding work. Thank you, DigiBC, WPP and Signals for your open hearts and willingness to trust and collaborate with us.