Timeless Relationships
Smallwood’s leadership team identified the timely need to make a meaningful connection with their client partnerships through a compelling and optimistic brand awareness campaign. Timeless Relationships is both the creative concept name and the outward-facing title for campaign activations. The campaign direction was inspired by Smallwood celebrating the endeavors and successes of their clients through creative collaboration. The resulting campaign consisted of a carefully considered print suite with custom details that lend a thoughtful, personal touch while encouraging imagination, play, and creativity.
Smallwood is an internationally established architecture firm with offices in Atlanta and Singapore. They provide innovative design & build services for commercial, hospitality, industrial, and educational projects worldwide.
The campaign visual system is a thoughtful collection of iconic artwork, architectural projects, and symbolic words that expresses a love for design, building, working with clients, and nurturing the next generation of architects.
Drawing powerful, visual relationships between creations of the past and the art of Smallwood architecture is the campaign device that communicates the concept of differentiating design principles & a unique approach to creative problem solving.
The campaign celebrates the idea that just as creativity endures through time, it is the inspired relationships that make each Smallwood project a lasting creative endeavor. Timeless Relationships also reflects the way Smallwood thinks & operates: with an insatiable desire to remain inspired, and a collective point of view about the power of different perspectives.
Deliverables:
Client gift suite of printed collateral
Custom notecards and envelopes with debossed and diecut detailing
Flip book
Packaging system
Photography and art history research
Image + word pairing system
Production material research
A completely custom “Timeless Relationships” gift was designed, produced, printed, and deployed to roughly 250 top clients around the country. The gift package comprised several individual print pieces, including personalized cards, an interactive “flip” book, and exterior branded packaging. This involved months of collaborative writing, design, photography research, development of the campaign’s image + word pairing system, and exploration of the client unboxing experience. From top to bottom, every detail was highly considered and given a personal touch — a characteristic that is recognizably linked to the Smallwood brand.
With the idea of public artwork in mind, we juxtaposed paintings, sculptures and fine art against these architectural works, sourcing images through open access, public domain, and unrestricted Creative Commons Zero licensing. The artwork appearing in this campaign also belongs to the public and is invited to be shared, remixed, and used in new ways. The concept of art belonging to everyone and being available for re-interpretation and creativity is what inspired the myriad interpretations possible while flipping through the panels of each book.
A key conceptual aspect of this campaign lies in the idea that architecture is public art. These buildings can be viewed, inhabited, appreciated, and interpreted by the anyone and everyone. In many ways, these built environments belong to all of us.
We also expanded the existing careers brochure and turned it into a mini art book, incorporating the campaign story as a way to create intrigue and engage with audiences.
Team
Client: Smallwood Architects
Agency: IfThen
Executive Creative Director: Jack Whitman
Strategists: Christina del Rocco, Kenny Ferguson
Senior Designer: Julie Sharpe
Program Manager: Mollie Santanello