Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Different...

Where have we been the past couple years? The answer is simple and yet quite complicated.

As we're all aware the past couple of years have been trying on many levels, not the least of which is a global pandemic affecting life at the simplest levels. Covid-19 has turned everyone's reality upside down for one reason or another. And just when you think you're coming closer to an end, you find out it's just another bend in the winding road to recovery. 

AEDA has had it's share of interesting tales over the past 2 years. Our staff spent a good portion of 2020 working from home, communicating in Zoom chats and trying our best to make the best of a bad situation. We weathered the storm as best as we could and managed to continue serving the region despite our remote work environments. 

And here we are in 2022! The time just slipped away. We had grand designs for the past couple of years that sadly did not roll out the way we'd hoped.

The biggest change was of course our rebranding, which we'd hoped to make a much bigger deal out of than we ended up being able to. As bumpy as the road appeared internally, the transition was actually very smooth, even if it didn't happen with the level of fanfare that we'd hoped. Let's talk about what actually occurred.

The office began thinking about new logos in 2020 as the company created an in-house marketing team to talk about what our goals were for expanding our regional exposure, increasing our customer base, and crafting a brand identity to stand out. We embarked on a 6+ month journey of trial, error, discovery and enlightenment. Over the months we tested and played with hundreds of designs, logos, and text options. We talked fonts, verbiage, color and symbolism. We labored over styles, curvatures, hidden meaning and even the name of the company itself. Would we remain AEDA or make a shift? Everything was up for grabs. We knew that there were important considerations that had to be addressed including the issue of legibility of the logo at distances, the need to convey the sense of continuity between what came before and what is to come, and the desire to become more than just a name or collection of letters.

In the end we came to the conclusion that we required more than just a new logo but that our name and history were an important bridge from the past into the new future. We also realized the need to create a symbol that encapsulated what we do and offer to the community which needed to sit front and center in our identity. 

​And so...

HAS BECOME...

So what does it all mean? At face value we've retained some of the important features. Most importantly we decided that our name was as much a part of our identity as anything we could create moving forward and we understood that we could easily hurt our business is we tried to shorten or modify our name. So we're still happily AEDA. Second we maintained a few of the important pieces of our old branding. Color for example has remained. Our traditional green has stayed with a slight freshening. And likewise we've retained an emphasis on DESIGN, which led us to the creation of a symbol "D" taking center stage. 

The idea of creating a "symbol" rose out of our desire to keep the emphasis on the "DESIGN" aspect of what our company offers and its emphasis in our logo. We don't just draw blueprints. We want to create something that is unique and catered specifically to our customers' needs. We are creators and innovators for our customers' visions. We DESIGN.
The second part of the "symbol" is how it encapsulates who we are and what we do. AEDA is a full service Architectural and Engineering firm. We practice architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, and civil engineering. This is most simply captured in the idea of the built structure for most of our work, with the notable exception of Civil Engineering, which although services the building in many aspects, is not specifically represented in the built form. And so we thought about the simple representations of what civil engineering can encapsulate...and landed on the symbol of the road. Road design is a significant part of what civil design represents but it's also a path. You might already see where this is going...
So we had to find a way to combine our focus on DESIGN with the Building and the Road/Path. And through the discovery of what we are and what we represent, AEDA created our symbol. The "D" in AEDA becomes the road that leads to the building, abstractly represented in the letter itself. The path to Design represented in journey and destination.
It is our hope that our symbol will come to represent on its own, but we also recognized a transition period bridging the old to the new was important. 
The significance of the symbol also allows us to play a bit as we move forward. In fact AEDA Engineering & Surveying, PLLC also utilizes our new logo, with variation.

As you can see this leads to interesting options for the future. And we are already seeing the benefits. We've unified our corporate image. This design change is universal across all of our company, from business cards, to letter head, to clothing and marketing efforts. 
And coinciding with the logo changes we also discussed our informal slogan. 

"We Draw Buildings that Draw Business"

A great play on words that has served us well, but that has come to represent only a fraction of what it is that we do. We recognize that a home owner isn't interested per say in drawing business...
So what do people really want out of good design? Certainly design needs to fulfill the desire of the end user, but it also stands as a testament to the combined vision of the customer and our efforts. Our goal is to design, so as to focus the eye to the detail and beauty that all good architecture and engineering should provide.
And once again, our history and vision for the future, unified.

"We Draw Buildings That Draw Attention"

It's an important distinction. We want people to be proud of the end product that AEDA begins with them. DESIGN taking center stage once again. The full circle of our company's philosophy.