Assembly Required.

Some of the best creative agencies have surprisingly quiet brands. I think that’s often intentional. When your business is making other people look good, maybe your own logo doesn’t need to enter the room wearing a feather boa. That made rebranding CINQ surprisingly difficult.

We knew CINQ was distinctive enough to deserve a memorable wordmark. Figuring out what that should look like was another matter. Eventually, we presented something that clicked with the team and helped shape everything that followed. Skill? Experience? Dumb luck? Probably a healthy cocktail of all three. We wanted a logo that felt unmistakably ours. But we also knew the real measure of CINQ would be the work we did for everyone else.

“We wanted a logo that felt unmistakably ours. But we also knew the real measure of CINQ would be the work we did for everyone else.”

A year after our rebrand, the website still feels like the clearest statement of what we set out to prove. We didn’t just want a new look, we wanted a working argument: that a web presence can be distinctive, technically ambitious, and useful in the same breath. I treated the build as a chance to stretch our legs with an original design paired with functionality and user experience we hadn’t ever shipped before, with the ultimate goal being that when we sat down with a prospect we could point to something we built and say, if you want this kind of experience, we can build it for you.

That intent has changed how the work feels, too. The site isn’t only a portfolio piece; it’s ideally a conversation starter. Prospects may arrive already imagining what their own presence could become, but maybe they'll imagine something bigger. A year on, I trust that shift has made relationships and expectations more collaborative and exciting.

The rebrand also clarified our own standard. But pushing the technology experience was and never should be only for show. It was so we could speak honestly about craft, intention, and results, and so clients could see themselves in a more ambitious version of how they appear online.

“A web presence can be distinctive, technically ambitious, and useful in the same breath.”

One thing I learned rebranding to CINQ is that doing creative work for yourself is way harder than doing it for a client (cobblers’ kids have no shoes, right?). Client work has a finish line. You explore, find the idea, build it out, tweak it a couple times, and eventually put it into the world. When it’s your own thing, there’s always one more idea, one more font, one more color, one more "what if we did this..." waiting to explore more and more. But at some point, you have to shut off the part of your brain that wants to keep tinkering forever and just say, "That’s us."

Now multiply that by five creatives, all with a very real stake in the outcome and plenty of opinions. Choosing the name, look, colors, tone, and personality was definitely an adventure. There were ups, downs, ideas we loved, ideas we killed, and probably a few moments where we quietly questioned each other’s taste.

But that was also the best part of it. We pushed each other and learned a lot about how each of us thinks and works. In the end, CINQ became more than a new name or a new look. The process forced us to really define who we are and what we want people to feel when they experience us.

“At some point, you have to shut off the part of your brain that wants to keep tinkering forever and just say, ‘That’s us.’”

A question that I tried to keep asking myself throughout the rebranding experience was: how will this brand identity exist within the current design landscape, and where will it go when that landscape inevitably changes?

To tend to a brand is a careful effort, something laborious and detail-oriented. I find it humbling as well. When you look back on something you worked extremely hard on, you feel the hours you spent on it. An organization must have the courage to go back to its brainchild and challenge it over and over again. Otherwise, the brand ceases to make an impact.

I feel the strength of the CINQ rebrand within the additions carefully added over time. I see it with every site update, with every additional article to Assembly Required, with every pitch deck. Good brands never get comfortable with where they are at, but instead are their own harshest critic, and their own biggest fan.

“Good brands never get comfortable with where they are at, but instead are their own harshest critic, and their own biggest fan.”

Writing for a client is a little like being handed a puzzle. You get to stand on the outside, move the pieces around, and figure out what makes them interesting. Distance helps. It makes the good stuff easier to spot.

Writing for yourself is different (especially during a rebrand). Suddenly, every word feels loaded. You know too much. You remember where every phrase came from and all the versions of the company that came before. It becomes easy to overthink a sentence that would take just a few minutes to write for a client.

The challenge with CINQ was learning to create that same distance for ourselves. To stop asking, "Does this capture who we've been?" and start asking the more useful question: "Does this sound like who we've become?"

“Stop asking, ‘Does this capture who we’ve been?’ and start asking the more useful question: ‘Does this sound like who we’ve become?’”