The Beacon Design Collective Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there?

I’m the director of membership for the Working Families Party, a political party in America. We’re seeking to create a party that centers around the experiences of minorities, immigrants, women, people in the LGBTQ community, and people in other non-conformist communities to influence politics consistent with our interests.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Beacon Design Collective?

After undergoing a complete, top-to-bottom rebranding, we needed some design work done to help create a coherent identity across our national brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Beacon Collective has done several design projects for us. Their work has included a six-week training process, national executive committee reports, graphics for our national event promotion, a 600-page facilitator guide, a 20-page document for specific training, copy editing, full-style design guidelines for our communications, content creation, and much more. Additionally, they help us with content strategy.

One of those projects was focused on our political education series. The Beacon Collective created a mini brand design, taking all our branding elements like fonts, colors, typography, and imagery and adding new elements to make that specific project stand out.

They usually do extensive research to present design ideas and options to us, whether we give them a vague idea of what we want or provide them with more structured ideas. They also use Google Suite and Docs, as well as other tools to do their job.

What is the team composition?

Dani (Art Director) is my main point of contact. She assigns the tasks to her team, but we’ve also interacted directly with two of their designers. Additionally, Matt (Content Strategist & Copywriter) works on copy editing and other aspects of the project.

How did you come to work with The Beacon Design Collective?

I found The Beacon Collective and worked with them at a previous job. I brought them with me for this project because they’re professional and reliable, and they do amazing work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around February 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The Beacon Collective is irreplaceable, and they’re a dream to work with. Their designs have a quality level that I’ve never seen in the work of other designers, and they have excellent content strategy skills.

Additionally, they’re committed to doing whatever is asked of them, even if we ask for something that they don’t usually do. They always find a way to hire the right people to get the tasks done while keeping costs manageable for us.

How did The Beacon Design Collective perform from a project management standpoint?

Dani is extremely organized. Additionally, The Beacon Collective offers us the transparency to let us see where everyone is on different tasks throughout every project, which helps a smooth and easy collaboration.

Their communication is impeccable, and they have never been late to deliver. We communicate through texts, emails, and worksheets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Beacon Collective is impressively competent and resourceful, and Dani’s level of organization has pushed other departments and me to improve some of our processes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times where Dani has experienced stress due to the sporadic, shifting nature of our work, which affects her level of organization. However, she has learned and adapted, and it has never caused a problem.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as organized as possible upfront to make the process easier for everyone. Dream big and trust that they are the experts; they’ve got you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of project communications for a federal port authority.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Beacon Design Collective Inc.?

We needed help with graphic design for our communication channels.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We rely on The Beacon Design Collective Inc’s team to provide graphic design, support, animation, and other content efforts for us. It’s a collaborative process, and their involvement depends on the content that we’re looking for; if it’s a brochure, we provide word copies with the content. If we’re looking for animations, we give them maps and more technical design files so they can create new content, and so on.

Their efforts also include animation videos and renderings, which we also use on our social media, websites, forums with external audiences, public meetings, and workshops with stakeholders, among other applications.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Dani (Creative Director) and Jazmin (Graphic Designer).

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I trust they’ll understand our vision and provide creative solutions whenever we ask for their support in creating a good product.

How did The Beacon Design Collective Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re solid in that area and incredibly fast in their turnaround times —they’ve never missed a deadline. I also appreciate how communicative they are; if there’s a situation budget or timewise, they let us know, which I appreciate from a transparency perspective.

They also have useful tools to track the progress, which they taught me how to use when I first joined them. I’ve never seen this level of transparency with any other provider.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work is outstanding; they approach tasks in a creative way, which helps in solving problems through their ideas and recommendations — they’re very collaborative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — my team gave them a lot of work, so as long as they maintain their good performance and grow their team, everything will be fine.

Any advice for potential customers?

Set a good onboarding process to set up a meeting and explain your vision of the project. They’re on top of everything, and they’ll be clear about what they need to provide a successful service.

Beacon is amazing. They are communicative, values-aligned partners who deliver excellently designed content quickly while being super responsive to our needs and vision. Strongly recommended.