From a one-man show to a team of 22 compassionate, reliable, and crazy talented people, Reusser Design has reached further than I could have imagined during that first website build in 1999.

Life is full of moments that surprise us. It’s hard to know in-the-moment which ones will end up shaping who we are at our core.

Building a website and business with my namesake when I was 18-years old remains a defining moment that has grown deeply personal. From a one-man show to a team of 22 compassionate, reliable, and crazy talented people, Reusser Design has reached further than I could have imagined during that first website build in 1999.

Why we’re still here

Although some aspects of our brand were chosen at random in those early years, the driving force behind the company’s purpose has remained. Waking up in the morning to serve others with excellence, elevate those around us, and leave a lasting impact for good through the digital products we create is what fuels our passion—even more than the good coffee here.

I put my name in the business because it was personal then, and it’s personal now. It anchors the sense of responsibility I feel to uphold our promise to clients—even when it means doing things that don’t make sense to other agencies like us.

The reality of brand evolution

Growth takes time, it’s unpredictable, and it happens regardless if you plan for it or not. Over the last decade, we’ve played in a bigger pond, branching into new service areas and figuring out who we are (and aren’t). It was a good time for us to fly under the radar and just do the next thing that made sense, but it wasn’t without vision.

We’ve grown into a results-driven agency focused on crafting innovative solutions that create demand and generate value for the clients we serve. Were we doing that before with website design? Yes. But we felt that having Design in our business name was no longer reflective of all the services and caliber of work we offer. Our team is incredibly proud of the work we do—and they should be. Refreshing our brand to honor that felt right.

We aim to support our clients on their journey to become better versions of themselves. It was time for us to do the same.

Reinforcing our brand

To be clear, we aren’t rebranding.

I know, this was a lot of build up for a non-rebrand. Hang with me.

For years, our mission, vision, and purpose were understated. Of course those things existed, but with such a small team, the trajectory of the company was pretty ingrained into the culture. As we creep closer to our 25th anniversary—and continue to add more people to Team Reusser—it became clear that the ethos of our brand could no longer remain nebulous. It needed to be put on paper (and t-shirts, and posters, and everywhere).

We hope to foster a team of brand advocates, and defining that messaging was essential. Communicating with clarity is hospitable, and if we want our team to take pride and ownership in their work, it starts here.

With a culture shift internally that’s been years in the making, we wanted to equip the team with a solid visual representation of the brand as we reintroduce our services and capabilities. A refreshed logo, clearly stated core values, and a defined branding book are just a few of the resources we’ve rolled out internally and it’s already helping to shape our internal dialect. We can’t wait to roll things out for everyone to see.

The other big change is a simplification of our business name. We’re dropping Design and officially calling ourselves REUSSER—it’s what most of our clients refer to us as, anyway. This intentional decision signifies our perspective shift as we invest more into our culture, team, and brand.

What we want to be when we grow up

In all honesty, this phrase gets tossed around with small businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors all the time, but it minimizes the years spent working to establish your brand, placing the only emphasis on what’s to come. The reality is, we’ve been working hard for 22 years and still have a long way to go—maybe we’ll never really “grow up”—but I don’t think that’s the goal.

We aim for progress over perfection, and as long as that progress is always trending toward innovation, our hard work will deliver best-in-class experiences. At the end of the day, we want to continue creating digital solutions that bring people together, serve a lasting purpose, and drive results for the clients we serve.

Clarity in our messaging, consistency in the presentation of our work, and the caliber of our services will speak for themselves.

I sincerely hope you’ll join us for the ride as we design what the future of Reusser looks like.