Ascendant

A New Brand
to Meet New Demands

After years of working together on and off in various capacities involving multiple organizations, Lindsey Zajac approached members of Renoun Creative in 2023 about marketing strategy. She was preparing to take over ownership and management of Career Partners International – Buffalo Niagara, a firm successfully delivering outplacement and executive search services – and recently, leadership development services spearheaded by Lindsey herself – in the area for 35 years.

From those original conversations about early marketing priorities, as the process unfolded and the transitions came and went, the scope and outcomes of our work together evolved significantly.

Deliverables

Brand Identity
Brand Strategy
Content Planning
Copywriting
Graphic Design
Website Design & Development

In their own words, here’s how that’s gone

“Renoun Creative partnered with me and helped me navigate my company’s rebrand from start to finish. This was a huge undertaking and something that I knew we needed to do but was overwhelming nonetheless. For over a year, Renoun Creative worked closely with me to really understand my business, our 35+ year history, and our goals for the future. What I appreciate about their process is they didn’t rush to just brainstorm company names and logos to see what would look good on a website. They took the time to educate me on the importance of brand strategy and made sure that every marketing decision I made was aligned with my company’s overall brand strategy. I’m extremely happy with how our rebrand turned out from our new name and logo, to our brand promise and website. I could not have gone through this big of a transition without their dedication, expertise and support!”

– Lindsey Zajac | Owner and CEO of Ascendant

In their own words, here’s how that’s gone

“Renoun Creative partnered with me and helped me navigate my company’s rebrand from start to finish. This was a huge undertaking and something that I knew we needed to do but was overwhelming nonetheless. For over a year, Renoun Creative worked closely with me to really understand my business, our 35+ year history, and our goals for the future. What I appreciate about their process is they didn’t rush to just brainstorm company names and logos to see what would look good on a website. They took the time to educate me on the importance of brand strategy and made sure that every marketing decision I made was aligned with my company’s overall brand strategy. I’m extremely happy with how our rebrand turned out from our new name and logo, to our brand promise and website. I could not have gone through this big of a transition without their dedication, expertise and support!”

– Lindsey Zajac | Owner and CEO of Ascendant

Brand Strategy

From Messaging Refinement to a Full Rebrand

At first we worked with Lindsey and the outgoing owners of the firm on a limited brand strategy process to help develop clearer, more compelling messaging around the firm’s primary offerings and unique advantages, identify marketing priorities, and create a communications plan for the ownership transition.

As the new leadership team and the Renoun team discussed it over time, we came to the conclusion that given the transitions, the vision that was emerging for the company going forward, and the current workforce/industry landscape, a full rebrand was a move that made the most sense. Most of the core messaging work was still relevant for the new brand, but we updated some of that initial strategy with a revised brand story, new Go-to-Market strategy, and of course also worked together to come up with the new name, Ascendant.

To help set them up for success for the rollout and beyond, we created a 2025 Social Media Strategy for them, including overall objectives, recommended posting practices, recurring themes/content concepts, our LinkedIn’ing like a Champ workshop and resources, and brand elements and templates loaded into their Canva account so they can execute efficiently internally while staying on strategy and on brand.

Visual Brand Identity Design

Establishing an
Ascendant Identity

With the Ascendant name and the core brand positioning and persona in place, we set out to create a logo and overall visual identity to express and reflect the intentions and overall vibe we’d aligned on. We knew we wouldn’t be going with any shade of the wildly overused “B2B blue”, nor did we want to lean “feminine” with our palette just because this was a woman-owned and women-led company.

And is that logo a staircase? A mountain range? A sunrise? Or just an evocative image?
Well, that depends on you, and how you see it in the moment.

Initial Concepts

Logomark

Typeface

Website Design & Development

A Web Presence on the Rise

As we set about creating the Ascendant website, we wanted to let the visual branding and core messaging stand out for themselves, while steering clear of the typical corporate stock photos and over-aspirational aphorisms found on most websites in the professional services and leadership development fields.

Of course, it also had to be very user-friendly, search-optimized, have the structure to showcase the compelling content resources they plan on creating, and still be easy to update for their internal team members.

Content, Collateral, and Communications

Shouting it from the Mountaintops

From the original leadership transition through the rebrand rollout and beyond, and across all mediums and channels, we helped the Ascendant team celebrate their history, communicate their strengths, and share their vision for the future.