Earlier in 2018 the founder of ShiftForward came to us at a pivotal moment. He was in the middle of merger with a larger company. He understood that no matter how he worderd his arrangement with his parent company in the end, the bigger company would have more influence. He wanted to proceed strategically, and with delicacy to ensure his employees satisfaction. Our task was to assist him in making the transition seamless.
We visited the office and interviewed ShiftForward employees to discover what worried them. Since ShiftForward never officially documented the company's values, their employees feared their "way" of work would not be accommodated. Without proof of a chill, geeky, competitive work environment they could not communicate its existence.This fear was only compounded by signs of condescension from their New York counterparts. Their unwillingness to recognize non-execs as representatives of the company was offending them. We concluded that the employees needed to feel valued and represented at their new company.
“ We feel like we have a culture but we have not found the words to explain it “ — Paulo Cunha, CEO, Velocidi, former CEO of ShiftForward
While we had the perspective of the employees, we needed to understand Velocidi's stance on the matter. We interviewed Alan, the Managing Director of Velocidi’s European operations at length to understand what he expected merging with ShiftForward to be like. He revealed that Velocidi was suffering from a lack of identity themselves. Since this was the case, Velocidi was more than willing to accept ShiftForward's culture as their own.
Inside the office there was a mural filled with inside jokes and memes that only the employees would understand. To them it was just another fun thing to do, but to us it was their identity. Our goal was to create a design language based on the existing wall design at ShiftForward. We wanted to implement the language with tangible, identifiable products that can help communicate ShiftForward’s culture.
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After presenting, our designs were quickly implemented with new inside jokes, and memes that represented the entire company! We created a new unified graphic language that could be used in different offices and locations to reinforce the notion that it is one big company with offices spread worldwide.
"This should be in every office!" — Paulo Cunha, CEO, Velocidi
My teammates were wonderful, check out Robbie Hilado and Miguel Pinto if you're ever in Porto, Portugal!