CARLISLE & FINCH | ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHIC DESIGN

Branded Experience, Concept Design, Brand Audit, Interactive design, Timeline, Exhibit design, Brand Guidelines, Production Design
Cincinnati, Ohio

The Carlisle & Finch Company is a Cincinnati treasure. They recently celebrated their 125th anniversary–no small feat for any company. As they approach their 5th Generation of ownership, they stand proud of their accomplishments and heritage. To celebrate, we designed a new Customer Experience Center (CXC). The CXC is a place to learn about C&F’s history, capabilities, and spirit. We hope to make anyone who comes in contact with C&F an ambassador of The Carlisle & Finch Company.

First, we refreshed the C&F brand to celebrate their past while setting a path for the future. We created new brand guidelines that organize their logo, graphic elements, and story. Once complete, we utilized these standards to create the new branded experience that pays tribute to their past, examines today’s products and capabilities, and finally looks into future innovations and markets for the C&F team.

We divided the room into three sections, placing a hero C&F searchlight front and center. This acts as the lighthouse that all other content orbits around. It is exemplary of the innovative mechanical and electrical engineering, combined with manufacturing excellence, that has been the DNA of everything C&F has produced over the years.

Light beams became a common graphic device used throughout the brand experience. Abstract beams in the carpet delineate the different parts of the brand experience. Past, Present, and Future exhibits tell the complete C&F story. In the Past area, artifacts and captions tell the brand story of C&F from 1894 through today. The Today section is made up of a large-scale timeline. Dimensional and printed graphics show the current applications, products, and technology. The Future exhibit predicts technologies and applications to come. Together, the new CXC helps sell current products while building trust with their present–and future–clients.

A projection screen at one end of the CXC plays custom designed presentations for specific customers or general information videos for all audiences.

A large-scale, “Ownable Wow” wall informs visitors and employees alike about Carlisle & Finch’s rich history. It also shares fun facts that no one else can claim.

Winner of the 2019 Cincinnati Design Awards. The CDA program recognizes the best in design projects produced by Cincinnati-area architects, interior and landscape designers, community planners, and experiential graphic designers. See the full story on our blog here

White Design Studio is a multidisciplinary design firm located in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. We specialize in the design, production, and installation of integrated branding solutions. Our solutions orchestrate corporate identity, marketing, storytelling, environmental, photography, video, print and interactive elements. At White Design Studio, we believe the best way to communicate your brand’s story is through branded environments and experiences. We work with manufacturers, service providers, non-profits, architects and developers, agencies, distributors, governments and municipalities, and museums. First, we identify the work that a campaign, space, or interactive needs to do. We can then model a vision of what success looks like, and design to meet that vision. We are passionate about helping clients communicate their value through well-crafted storytelling, a consistent 2D, 3D, and digital design approach and expert production techniques.

Strategy: White Design Studio is your strategically-focused design source. Our marketing communications are custom-tailored to meet our customers’ objectives. Our creative solutions take many forms, but all are designed for maximum effectiveness. Each solution delivers key brand messaging to a wide variety of audiences.

Brand Audit: Every brand needs realigning every five years or so. White Design Studio provides comprehensive brand audits to help evaluate what existing materials support or, more importantly, dilute your brand. We’ll make your identity stronger and offer suggestions to move your group to a more integrated brand experience.

Brand Guidelines: Every use of your brand is an opportunity to reinforce your messaging and differentiate you from your competition. Our Brand Guidelines, or Brand Platforms, ensure that each opportunity is meaningful and effective. These Guidelines are your branding playbook; illustrating your brand story and defining graphic rules for use in designing brand materials. We’ll help guide you on not only how your brand talks, but how it looks as well.

Branded Experience: Sometimes called Environmental Graphic Design or Experiential Graphic Design, White Design Studio designs and creates strategic, compelling and memorable experiences. Our solutions deliver key messaging, branded specifically for each target audience. Workplace, Corporate Briefing Centers, Showrooms and Lobbies, Museum Displays and Exhibits, Retail Showrooms and Store Design are all great examples of White Design’s sweet spot of design, fabrication and installation capabilities.

Interactive: We combine unique technologies and fabrication techniques to create impactful interactive solutions for conveying our customer’s messaging objectives. Our installations deliver critical information to all of your audiences in a way that is entertaining and memorable. RFID, Projection Mapping, Touch, Proximity Detection and the use of Motion Activated Devices are just a few of the tools we use to deliver your message. White Design Studio’s goal is to make the technology invisible so nothing comes between your audience and your message.

White Design Studio operates most efficiently in the design sweet-spot between environments, identity, and communications. Comfortable stretching any direction, we are at ease designing for one element. But, we are at our best when we can combine each element to develop a fully integrated brand and messaging system. We collaborate with industry-leading professionals on large-scale projects, but can also comfortably operate as your single-source design partner. We partner with Developers, Architects, Engineers, Facility Managers, Creative Directors, Marketing Departments Advertising Agencies and other Design Studios.