Red Army (Seattle)

(Google search for the red army)

From the website:

We’re all about serving you.
"For more than 12 years The Red Army has been delivering creative solutions for clients in need of advertising and graphic design expertise. But we don’t just meet marketing objectives and solidify brands, we foster an environment of teamwork. Our clients get involved in the process — as much or as little as they want. We work with you and want you to feel comfortable working with us.

You’ll find The Red Army strategically located in Seattle, Washington. We are able to connect with you locally from Puget Sound, or mobilize quickly, adjust our staff accordingly, and help you take on marketing issues wherever your business demands. No matter where you work with us, your projects will be delivered on time, on strategy and on budget.

Our structure also allows us to provide extremely focused attention to your project. We are a minority-owned company that has worked with a wide range of clients in a variety of industries. You’ll also notice that our work is not constricted by a single look or feel. Our goals are simple, and focused on satisfying your marketing needs. Simply put, we want to:

1) Establish long-term relationships with our business partners.
2) Make our business partners look good. "


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My Take:

Website Strengths:
Clear navigation, straightforward content. Clearly written case studies. Brief presentation of process. Avoidance of brandspeak™. More "you" oriented than sites I've reviewed so far. Selling message seems to be: "We're a flexible minority-owned design firm."

Weaknesses:
Readability a potential issue. More work, more case studies, and more of how Red Army thinks would be a good thing. And being flexible doesn't seem to be much of a mark of difference.

Phinney/Bishcoff Design House (Seattle)

(Google search for all things Phinney Bischoff)

From their website:

About Us
"We work with clients in highly competitive markets to help them develop breakthrough ideas through an inclusive, transparent creative process. This is where a lot of it happens. Four floors and 5,500 square feet of collaborative thinking space that’s home to 20 brand design phenoms and one dog. Along with the wonder dog and the wunderkinds, we’ve also got fedoras, sombreros, fezzes, bowlers, a ten-gallon and other assorted thinking caps. You could say the house is the spiritual home of our creative mojo and a symbol of our collaborative spirit. That’s why we’ve got a parking spot reserved for you in front."

Our Practice

"Great strategy is creative. And great creative is strategic. One without the other is like having one sock. That’s why we’re an independent, multidisciplinary brand design firm focused on bringing together the best talent to develop the best ideas. We’ve been at this for a long time, but you know what still makes both our socks go up and down? Red-hot strategy brought to life through world-beating creative."


We’ve thrown out the old model.

"Here’s the typical client+agency engagement.

1. The client briefs the agency on a question or challenge facing the company.
2. The agency goes away—to an exclusive, magical location—for several weeks. The agency returns for the big reveal, and presents 3 preordained directions.
3. The agency silently hopes the client likes one of them, because most of the schedule and budget are now gone.
4. The client silently wonders why the agency wasted so much energy on so few concepts and hungers for the ideas they didn’t get to see. They might even second-guess their decision to hire the agency.

This industry standard is broken. So we’ve developed an entirely different approach.
The PBDH model.

Great ideas in brand design start with inviting clients directly into the process. Ultimately, a transparent, more-inclusive approach creates better work. Here’s why:

* While we’re extraordinarily quick studies, we’ll never know as much about your business as you do. That’s why we’d love to brainstorm with you. Your participation in brainstorms enriches our thinking. And better thinking fuels better concepts.
* Big reveals are a dangerous addiction. Unveiling ideas the client has never seen before gives agencies a rush. Part of that rush comes from how dangerous it is—you’ll either be thrilled or disappointed. But the biggest risk in a big-reveal approach is time and expense. Our approach replaces potentially wasteful leaps of faith with collaborative “small reveals.” We show more ideas, and earlier in the process. This saves time and resources, getting you to market faster.
* All the reasons for having a more-inclusive approach are about enriching the brand design process. And all the reasons for not having the client involved are about an agency’s ego or insecurities. So, your big brain is welcome here anytime."

The Blog

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My Take

Selling idea: They're a design firm that's been around a long time and they work "transparently" and collaboratively with their clients. Does it come through? I think it does. Does it sell me? If the work's good it does.

Website Strengths:
Portfolio, process, people all are easy to find and navigate. The writing is solid. It's very easy to drill to more information if you want it. More examples if you want them. And the navigation and linkages back and forth within the site and over to the blog feel natural.

Blog Strengths:
Integral to the site and to presenting the depth of thinking they have. Each participating blogger furthers the picture of who Phinney/Bischoff is. Great job. (Disclosure: I've taken a class with Devin Liddell)

Weaknesses:
Don't see any.