By: Skott Schoonover, Strategy Analyst | 07/07/2021 |

This month I spoke with Kellen Crow, who created Percepta’s new branding package in 2019. I asked him some questions about the process and what helped steer the direction of the rebrand. He had some very interesting answers.

What inspired you to create a new Percepta branding package? 

• In late 2018, we started working on a major initiative with TTEC called Engage2020. One of the sub-projects was to create our brand and social media strategy. We worked with TTEC to develop our brand assets, something similar to our parent company, but with enough nuance to call our own. We have our own font, Gilroy, and our of course logo is quite different, but our brand colors/pillars are similar. The commonality for us is super helpful with enterprise tools and organization-wide announcements around things like benefits and health and wellness.

How long did it take to complete the entire package?

• Our initial brand assets library took around 6 months to develop, but this is really a work in progress/labor of love for years. We’ve added new tools including photo and -roll galleries so our culture can come to “life” a bit more. We created new channels and content including the Percept Blog and out Stories, all extensions of our brand.

What was the first thing you came up with? Logo? Colors?

• The Percepta logo that we use today was developed before my time. While it’s not the original Percepta logo, it’s the most recent and one we use today. The color scheme was very much brought over from TTEC, however, the way we use the colors that we have is a little different based on how I set it up.

Did you do any mock-ups of other designs? 

• We are working now to develop a couple of logos for internal branding within our functional areas, but as far as the logo for Percepta, no.

Were there any restrictions that you had to work under? (for example, Certain Colors? Keeping with the previous branding? Etc?)

• We knew we wanted to stay close to TTEC branding as far as the colors go – this was done to help with consistency – but the way we use colors was up to me – I like to find ways to make things POP as best I can with what we have, so I chose to use our dark gray color as a primary background color and we added some great Orange to the mix, which helps to pop off that dark gray – I think it’s sharp!

What was the biggest hurdle? 

• I think the biggest hurdle in design is when you are asked to “color inside the lines” meaning, we had a set color scheme we wanted to stick with that was kind of predetermined – so it is hard to get super creative when you have something already set. Secondly, I think our logo could be brought up to date to be more modern, however, that’s a rather large financial thing to have changed out in our sites, etc. – so that’s a hurdle, for sure. I also think that globally distributing these things is a challenge, too. It took a lot of time, meetings and follow-ups to get the brand guidelines out to everyone. Lastly, the most current hurdle is keeping folks “on brand” 🙂

Have you ever done a Branding package before?

• Yes – I love branding and design. It’s my passion. Even outside of Percepta, I love it. I have had the opportunity to work on a handful of large design projects in my career, including branding for a manufacturing plant, branding for a Non-profit habitat organization, and a couple of other projects. Not to mention, I am a creature of learning and am always looking at new things, trends, and ways to design or brand things. My eyes are always on that kind of thing.

How did you get into it?

• My first job out of college was primarily a design job. On my first day, the lead designer took me under his wing, and for 10 hours taught me everything he could. I soaked it up like a sponge and fell madly in love with design! Now, I eat it up – I am constantly looking and learning and doing more to get better whenever I can.

Do you have any professional training? 

• I took 1 graphic design class in college. The rest I was taught by my mentor, David (shout out!) and then learned from there.

What’s your favorite part of the new brand?

• For me, a brand is a living breathing thing. Brands are developed and brought to life and meant to be a living breathing thing. It’s a creative process – it takes time but once they are created – it’s something you never forget. Getting into the creative process of brand creation is actually my favorite process to do. It can be intimidating to think of all the things that go into creating a brand, on the outside, but once you get to it, it’s fun. The last thing is to remember, that the people behind the brand, the employees of the company, are what make a brand whole. They create the culture and the overall feel of the workplace that helps make the brand whole!

Did you learn anything new about Percepta during the creation process?

• Always learning something new when you dive into a brand – it’s fun to learn about our business and what makes us so great and unique in the marketplace.

Is there anything you would change, or do differently if you were to do it over again? 

• That’s the beauty of branding – once you create something, it can always be altered or tweaked. I do my absolute best to stay up on trends and things going on with design — I can say that I already have changed the way I do a few things here and there with the brand to help keep it fresh and new looking. We are always adjusting to stay relevant!

Thank you, Kellen for giving us an inside look into the creation of the design, and the designer, of Percepta’s new branding. I appreciate your time and thoughtful answers!