Culture differentiates

Let’s face it. Architects can be boring. It’s all about work, work, work. Differentiation is not a huge strength. But what if a firm actually does have a unique culture that sets it apart? They balance hard work and joy. High quality and thoughtfulness. Dissatisfaction and improvement.

Omni Architects fits this description. They are a collaborative firm focused on intentional design for people, communities, and the environment. They believe the best buildings are designed with everyone at the table. They support and teach each other every single day. And their client satisfaction proves they are great to work with. But while Omni embodies these qualities, they aren’t sharing them front and center. Their brand doesn’t align with their culture.

We partnered with Omni Architects to help them effectively communicate their culture and work through a new verbal identity and website. To better position them as leaders AND human beings in a competitive — and sometimes robotic — industry.

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A contagious culture

In-person workshops can help us connect with clients more quickly. Not that virtual is not effective, but there’s something about a face-to-face meeting that creates comfort faster and develops a temporary microculture that builds trust. We spent time in Omni’s world: seeing their open office structure, hearing their inside jokes, and counting the three microwaves in their kitchen (yes, they have three). The culture was immediately contagious, which made our work fun. We dug deep into their work and culture through various exercises that forced them to answer tough questions about who they are and why they do what they do.

We uncovered new core values and other pieces of foundational language that convey the unique culture at Omni. And set a strong foundation for designing and developing a website that extends the brand. For the site, we broadened the color palette to move away from some bumblebee aesthetics and offer Omni more flexibility for the future.

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Work or culture?

The biggest question when we began working on the website was: what comes first? Work or culture? This was a tough question for this group. Because they not only want to showcase their award-winning work to potential clients and partners, but they also want to recruit the best architects in the industry. We created equal paths on the homepage to highlight both work and culture. Websites can sometimes become a foggy “choose your own adventure” playbook, so we outlined clear paths for visitors when they first land on the homepage.

Omni has done a lot of good design work — more than 50 years of it. We helped them focus on what makes them unique and showcase the breadth of their projects without going over the top. Omni is confident in who it is and what it does, and we created a vessel for it to tell its story.

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