Ten years ago, two graphic designers decided that they worked better together. They took a leap of faith, joined forces, and transformed a spare closet into their creative studio.
It takes a combination of optimistic obsession, brutal honesty, and relentless commitment to grow a wild idea like a business. At Circa, we feel so grateful for finding that in our team, our clients, and our communities (all of them: Nashville, Greenville, Chattanooga, Kalamazoo, and Brooklyn). We have had the incredible honor of working with teams from across the nation, with founders, with marketing directors and C-suite execs, to refine, refresh, and rejuvenate their brand identities through our proprietary brand framework.
Brand strategy is custom and nuanced work. It requires a dedication to deeply understand the intersection between the organization, the market, and the audience. Any successes we celebrate, we attribute to our client’s collaboration and dedication.
Cheers to you, our friends, our clients, and the people who have challenged and celebrated us. We know we would not be here without you!
Circa’s 24 Highlights from 2024:
- We launched over 14 brands ranging from the Nashville’s Friends of Mill Ridge Parks initiatives to supporting founders like Bobby Weis and his recruitment firm, Javelin Search.
- We built a brand system for Kalamazoo’s educational non-profit KRESA to include their ground-breaking career center (which literally broke ground last fall).
- Tori spoke at EO Talks about “Creative that Counts.”
- Craige Hoover and Brian Wright featured Circa on their podcast to discuss one of our favorite brand projects and the newest development in Franklin, Armistead.
- Tori and Megan hosted a sold-out brand workshop at Launch TN featuring David Benskin and Macaire Hopkins of Wealth Access, a client who has worked with us for over the past ten years.
- Brand Director, Emily Little, was honored as a Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Emerging Leader Finalist.
- Kalamazoo’s Korey Force became Circa’s first Brand Director of Accounts.
- Circa’s Nashville studio expanded welcoming our client and friend, Scott Dismukes and his landscape architecture firm, Firma.
- Sonya Watson and the team flexed our book design roots in collaboration with Stephen James and Leadership Lab on their latest publication, The Wisdom Within: The Secret Alchemy of Leadership.
- We worked with the communications team at Lowe’s on top-secret animation work (stay tuned for the reveal).
- Laura visited her sixth continent, Antarctica, celebrating Christmas on the flipside of the world.
- We raised a glass to our client Bell’s Brewery on the 31st Oberon Day!
- As a team, we read over 279 books (shout out to Chloe for reading 82 books in one year). Our favorites included: Lean Marketing, Profit First, and Invisible Leader.
- We branded and celebrated at the 21st annual Frist Gala.
- Emily, Chloe, Zayne and Sonya attended First Round Conference in New York City.
- We gave over $50K in both monetary and in-kind support of the organizations we love, including Friends of Warner Parks, Junior Achievement, RUF, Bread & Honey, Jason Olson’s Startup University, Tennessee Wildlife Federation, Tennessee Innocence Project, Antiques and Garden Show, and Friends of Mill Ridge Park.
- We had our 9th retreat and discovered our Working Genius profiles, thanks to Catherine Tuck!
- Laura hosted an intimate gathering at First Story with Farrell Mason from Bread & Honey.
- Emily wrote a custom python script that incorporates AI to generate hundreds of meta descriptions in minutes, eliminating hours of work and saving our clients $$$.
- RUF celebrated 25 years of ministry with the branded giving campaign and annual report (shout out to Elizabeth Givens!).
- We learned all about Chronic Kidney Disease working with Sarah Young and Ali Smith and their team at US Renal Care on educational initiatives about Mineral Bone Disease.
- Zach Mercurio, our client and friend, launched his online leadership course with Simon Sinek (check it out here!))
- 2024 Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame selected Janet Miller as the honoree and we had the incredible privilege of building out a custom Nashville map featuring her impact.
- Collectively, we carpooled kids for an estimated 4683 miles, and only ran out of gas twice!
As for 2025, we hit the ground running. We’re excited to share some new work. Drop us a line when you reach your next vital growth period. We would love to lead your branding efforts with heart and purpose, and always, results.
Stay tuned for exciting announcements about our upcoming 10-year anniversary this spring!— our Circaversary!
