Case Study: Ascent Corporate Identity and Website Development
Ascent is a company with two key offerings. The first is an established charter helicopter service that boasts a team of highly-skilled pilots and engineers. It is led by Trent Lemke who personally has 17 years of aviation experience, and over 8,000 hours of accident-free flight time. They maintain a top-quality, fleet of customized aircraft that services those in the natural resources, film and TV, construction, medevac, fire suppression, and heli-skiing industries.
The second is a research and development group that designs and manufactures innovative aerospace equipment. This operation is specifically aimed at making efficient and effective forest fire suppression systems and associated helicopter modifications. Their core product is a system that allows for faster loading and more precise water drops in dangerous fire settings.
Both divisions of Ascent had concerns that we felt could be addressed through better messaging. The charter helicopter business is one with many competitors and most all of these make identical claims of being “experienced” and “number 1 in safety and service.” Ascent Helicopters still needed to convey such notions, but they were concerned by how similar theirs sounded next to their competitors.
Ascent Aerospace was also grappling with issues of confidence. As a new company, their credibility was somewhat harder to establish, in spite of the technology they had already developed. They needed to assure anyone from government entities around the world, to helicopter companies requiring specialized technology for fire-fighting, to future users of aerospace equipment, that working with Ascent was a sound decision.
Our Discovery process is a curious thing. While many start the design/marketing process by exploring what they could do, we believe it much more worthwhile to step back, research, ponder, and then establish a sensible plan. The things you find by just looking around are so immensely valuable that they often lead to fertile, and largely untouched, territory.
As we examined helicopter marketing we noted that in spite of their claims of expertise, many packaged themselves in a campy and amateurish fashion. Some featured weird “swooshy” logos while others utilized cartoonish drawings of helicopters with happy-faces. Perhaps it’s just us, but few of these groups left us wanting to step into their aircraft—in spite of the promises they were making.
As a result, we started to look at how Ascent could do the exact opposite, which led us to explore notions of exclusivity. We mined iconography and treatments from federal agencies, secret societies, and other groups that left us almost intimidated by how serious they felt. Doing so helped us establish a visual direction that seemed to convey a sensibility that was appropriate given Ascent’s level of skill and experience.
With this direction in place, the identity and website took shape. We can’t emphasize this enough: by having a clear direction in place, the actual design process largely becomes one of execution. This is a highly gratifying way of working, as it minimizes more subjective discussions, putting both agency and client on a path that’s more sensibly acted upon.
Although we started by looking specifically at the helicopter business, our chosen direction lent itself to both of Ascent’s divisions. We subsequently built a kind of measure for each element we produced, aiming to create pieces that felt dependable, precise, and solid. This was achieved through a series of treatments: the Griffin icon that alludes to the mythical and majestic nature of flight, a sober and reserved color palette, crisp metallic inks, a combination of mechanical and detailed organic patterns, and a selection of photographs treated in a visually rich manner.
The end result implies what kind of a company Ascent is: a group that has thrived in this industry and is here to stay; one whose experience and relationships afford high-level service to the most discriminating clients; and, an organization that is worthy of trust given how technically precise and detail oriented they are.
“You have captured the essence of all our efforts and dreams.”
—Withanie Lemke
Ascent Aerospace & Helicopters