We’re Strategic Storytellers

By Design Partners is a strategic brand design and integrated marketing communications consultancy. We help best-in-class companies and nonprofit institutions achieve goals for name recognition, business growth, customer acquisition, student and employee recruitment, and fundraising through market research and positioning, strategic counsel, critical insights, creative services, and compelling communications.

We define and extend our clients’ brands and are specialists in corporate identity, branding, positioning strategy, product naming, storytelling, graphic design and marketing communications, print advertising, consumer packaging, and website design and development.


Beliefs

We believe in the power of design, creative thinking, big ideas, and that often, marketing challenges are nothing more than opportunities, which have yet to be identified. We believe the collision of creative thinking, a big idea, and intelligent design will provide a memorable solution to a communications challenge. We believe the best solutions are derived from our clients’ objectives. And the best solutions take all forms, all shapes, all sizes.

By Design Partners collaborates with clients to identify opportunities and to provide memorable solutions to our client organizations’ most demanding communications challenges. We help our clients articulate their vision, their values, their aspirations, and integrate their brand promise into everything they do — at every touch point, and every challenge. How do we do it? We do it by design.

The Challenge
The Solution
Powerful Design
The Big Idea
Critical Thinking
intersection of design, big idea, and thinking

Capabilities

By Design Partners believe our capabilities and creativity are without limit, and we approach communication challenges thoughtfully and enthusiastically. Whether we’re designing an individual project or an entire branding program, our strategic approach ensures a successful and innovative outcome with bottom-line results. Our talents and expertise strengthen our marketing strategies through counsel, critical insights, and compelling communication solutions that we implement from start to finish and, by design.

Strategic
Capabilities
  • Brand Assessment
  • Brand Identity Evaluation
  • Brand Development
  • Communication Audits
  • Communication Plans
  • Core Message Creation
  • Environment Analysis
  • Product Naming
  • Qualitative Research
  • Quantitative Research
  • Strategic Positioning
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Tactical
Capabilities
  • Advertising
  • Book Design
  • Brand Development
  • Brand Identity
  • Brochure Design
  • Catalog Design
  • Collateral Design
  • Consumer Packaging
  • Corporate Communications
  • Direct Marketing
  • Exhibit Design
  • Institutional Identity
  • Internal Communications
  • Logo Design
  • Magazine Design
  • Marketing Materials
  • Media Relations
  • Point of Sale Design
  • Signage and Wayfinding
  • Social Media
  • Trade Show Design
  • Video Production
  • Website Design

Process

By Design Partners create and implement solutions to communication challenges that define, launch, reshape, and extend your brand. How do we do it? By listening. Closely. By asking the right questions. By pondering and playing. By challenging conventions and unconventional thinking. We do it, by design. We get to know your brand, your product, and your service. We then use a disciplined and methodical — and at times intuitive — process to develop a marketing strategy that transforms your objectives into tangible results. This strategy becomes the foundation for innovative solutions that influence and inspire your audience or customers to choose your brand.

One:
Strategic Planning
  • Brand Research
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Target Interviews
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Two:
Brand Platform
  • Brand Essence
  • Brand Perceptions
  • Brand Personality
  • Brand Promise
  • Brand Strategy
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Three:
Development
  • Communications Plans
  • Positioning Statements
  • Name Development
  • Tagline Development
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Four:
Communications
  • Advertising
  • Direct Mail
  • Industry Events
  • Storytelling
  • Print Communications
  • Website Development
  • Social Media

Accolades

Yes, we win awards. And we do it by design. But we’re much more interested in providing our clients with winning solutions that solve their communication challenges. Our success is derived from the relationships we build and the collaboration we enjoy with the organizations we serve. We truly win only when your organization achieves its goals. The list below is a sampling of many of the professional organizations and industry publications that have recognized and honored our work. The highest honor, however, is knowing that our work makes a difference to those we serve.

  • Admissions Marketing Report

  • Advertising Association of Baltimore (AAB)

  • American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

  • Art Direction Magazine

  • Art Directors Club of Los Angeles (ADLA)

  • Association of American University Presses (AAUP)

  • CASE Currents Magazine

  • Chicago Book Clinic

  • Communication Arts Magazine

  • Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

  • Creative Club of Boston

  • International Academy of Communications Arts & Sciences

  • International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill (IABC)

  • Print Magazine

  • Simpson Paper Company

  • Society of Typographic Arts (STA 100)

  • Type Directors Club (TDC)

  • University & College Designers Association (UCDA)