Covington-based creative agency BLDG Refuge has acquired We Have Become Vikings from across the river in Cincinnati.
We Have Become Vikings, based in Over-the-Rhine, is the creative brainchild of Jason Snell and specializes in graphic design, print, interactive, illustration, and motion graphics. It has a client list that includes P&G, Sunny Delight, F1 Racing, Virgin America, United, Vitamin Water, Hershey’s Kisses, Kroger, and Amazon.
The addition of Vikings brings the number of employees to 25 at the Pike Street offices, up from 10 just a year ago.
“It brings another group of awesome people into our building,” says BLDG partner Andy Cluxton. “They bring a lot of production capability and a lot of networking and people skills to the team.”
BLDG was started in 2012. The company got its name by having its partners abbreviate in messaging that they would be meeting at the BLDG.
In the May 2019 edition of Fast Company magazine, alongside names like Nike and DDB Group, they were named as one of ten finalists in the “Advertising” category of the publication’s “World Changing Ideas for 2019” feature.
The firm has done design and branding work for several well-known organizations, including Everything But the House, Xavier University, and GBBN Architects.
Cluxton says Xavier wanted the firm’s help in crafting an identity and athletics brand that could stand with the power athletic conferences and help attract recruits and fans. The firm created updated messaging each season, and rolled out an activation campaign that included facility and environmental graphics, advertising, and apparel.
BLDG has also worked on public art around Northern Kentucky, working with street artists on more than a dozen mural projects in the last year.
They helped create the “Love the Cov” mural to decorate the Madison Avenue Kroger in Covington and developed a look that had the welcoming familiarity of Sesame Street to promote Covington’s “Read Ready Covington” project to promote literacy skills among preschool kids.
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