Discovery District Maryland

Brand StrategyIntegrated MarketingVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX

Discovery District Maryland is where groundbreaking research meets real-world scale. Where one of the country’s top public universities connects with a community of scientists, visionaries, and entrepreneurs, industry-shaping leaders. With considerable expertise in placebranding, Grafik was selected to build the brand and marketing platform for this remarkable ecosystem. Our top strategists and designers framed the Discovery District as a place where firsts are regularly realized, sustained, and nurtured.

To showcase the brand story and highlight what is truly unique to Discovery District Maryland, we established a new brand name, brand identity, and mantra, The Next First. It all comes together in a vibrant new website.

One of the many distinct features of Discovery District Maryland is its focus on quantum computing. So designers turned to quantum science for inspiration. The result is a logo that’s constantly moving. The work of accelerating breakthroughs never stops at the Discovery District so we insisted on a brand identity that reflects that.

Activating Stakeholders

From meetings with key development partners and civic leaders to conversations with UMD president, Dr. Pines, and his board, the Grafik team laid the groundwork for a highly collaborative network of stakeholders who saw how they could be part of the Discovery District brand, sharing a consistent story and leveraging brand assets for use in their own marketing and communications efforts.

We built a streamlined website that showcases the experiences and opportunities that abound in Discovery District—and, vitally, will be able to grow as the community does. The hero features a dynamic slideshow highlighting key audiences and messaging, while other sections emphasize innovation and quantum science leadership and a news carousel shares the latest Discovery District updates.

Defining The Community

Fence banners are popping up in all corners of Discovery District’s 150+ acres, and signage is now delineating its boundaries. With a fresh new design vocabulary, developers, property managers, and marketers are showcasing the many opportunities for locals to experience their next first.

Breaking Ground — Literally

Governor Wes Moore is a regular visitor to Discovery District. His support for this destination as a hub for the Capital of Quantum Initiative (another Grafik project) brings him back often for news conferences and ground breakings. We’re proud to have our work closely associated with one of UMD’s top strategic priorities and one of state’s signature initiatives.

Outcome

Our work with Discovery District was strategic and comprehensive. From naming this remarkable destination to establishing a framework for audience-specific messaging and activating brand ambassadors, Grafik worked shoulder to shoulder with the team at Terrapin Development to deliver a versatile placebrand. Our efforts are fueling conversations with companies looking for the optimal homebase and uniting local stakeholders eager to see their community grow and thrive.

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FiscalNote

Brand StrategyVisual Identity

PolicyNote is FiscalNote’s most important product. But as the company grew, the brand ecosystem around it hadn’t kept pace. The parent brand, its sub-brands, and their product stories had all evolved on the fly. The strategy and identity holding them together had not. FiscalNote turned to Grafik to fix that—and to give PolicyNote the clarity and presence it deserved as the flagship.

To bring order to a brand in motion, we rebuilt the architecture, repositioned the parent brand, and created a modern visual identity that lets PolicyNote lead the way.

Grafik started by going deep. Stakeholder interviews across leadership, sales, product, and customer success revealed how PolicyNote was perceived, where the brand structure was creating confusion, and how competitors were showing up. That intelligence shaped the foundation for everything that followed.

A working session with senior leadership stress-tested different brand architecture models and aligned the team on a framework built for growth. With structure established, Grafik developed new positioning for FiscalNote and directional messaging for its top-level products—giving PolicyNote the strategic footing to serve as the clear flagship, not just in name, but in role.

A collaborative workshop and brief shaped a distinct visual identity for PolicyNote—focused on surfacing key insights and enabling faster, clearer decisions. Aligned with FiscalNote’s mission, the system prioritizes clarity and hierarchy, and was applied across touchpoints to make each direction tangible. Grafik then scaled the chosen direction into a flexible system spanning sub-brands and the broader ecosystem.

Comprehensive brand guidelines locked it all in: logo usage, color, typography, tone, and example applications. A refreshed presentation template gave teams an immediate tool to show up consistently, inside and out.

The new brand:

Reestablished PolicyNote as the anchor of FiscalNote’s product suite

Gave the broader brand family a cohesive architecture and a shared visual language

Aligned leadership, sales, and product teams around a single strategic framework

Equipped FiscalNote to tell a stronger story to new audiences

Built a scalable identity system ready to grow with the company

FiscalNote now has what fast-growing companies rarely pause to build: a brand foundation that’s as sophisticated as the product it’s built around. With clearer positioning, a unified architecture, and a modern identity, PolicyNote is no longer just the flagship in strategy documents—it looks and feels like one.

The Hertz Foundation

Brand StrategyIntegrated MarketingVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX

Supporting a lifelong interdisciplinary community of innovators tackling the greatest challenges the world faces today, the non-profit Hertz Foundation was little known outside of the research world. Awarding no more than 25, five-year fellowships to PhD candidates in the applied sciences, mathematics, and engineering, the community may be small in number, yet its collective achievements, as seen in the video below, are outsized.

To memorably deliver the stories of Hertz Fellows, we created a new visual ID, logo, and mantra, Making History, all introduced via a totally re-imagined website.

Conveying how collaboration sparks innovation, distinct elements converge to form an “H” within the new logomark. Once seen, it is not forgotten.

Putting Fellows Front and Center

From the start, it was clear the accomplishments of Fellows would be central to the Hertz brand. It was also clear they needed to be presented without hyperbole and in a way that reflected the scientific rigor leading to their many breakthroughs.

At launch, the new website saw traffic increase by 70%; its lasting impact is an ease of use that supports the interdisciplinary nature of the Fellows’ research.

Awareness Ads: Name a Challenge

Increasing overall awareness was critical to the Hertz Foundation reaching both its fundraising goal and its increased fellowship applications goal. To that end, we created a social media campaign: “Name a Challenge. There’s a Hertz Fellow working on it.”

2025 saw the largest fellowship applicant pool  in the Foundation’s history.

Supporters want to see their donations are making a difference. What was a static printed piece/PDF became a dynamic narrative called, appropriately, the Impact Report—an easily navigated compelling read.

Creating a never-ending story

The new brand:

Established the Foundation as a significant, one-of-its-kind organization whose Fellows are tackling the world’s toughest challenges

Increased overall awareness while bringing clarity to its role within the scientific ecosystem

Provided consistent messaging for the community of fellows and its friends

Cemented the thought leadership reputation of the Hertz Community

Increased applications to the graduate fellowship

Attracted new partners

Supercharged fundraising

Grafik created much-needed awareness of the Foundation’s pivotal role in helping our nation maintain global technological superiority, a position threatened today both by attacks on expertise and subsequent reductions in research funding.

The growing Hertz Community now speaks with one voice through their most credible advocates, the Hertz Fellows themselves. Supplying a solid narrative all could use means they can tell the whole story while citing their own achievements in a way that matches their personalities–humble, not braggadocious, yet still impressive.

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ERT

Brand StrategyVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX

ERT

Going all in.

As ERT entered a new era of growth, the company set out to redefine how it communicates its strategic value to government customers across defense and intelligence sectors. At the center of that effort: sharpening their position as a mission-ready partner—bringing operational precision, advanced technology, and integrated data intelligence to the most complex space and ground environments.

Working closely with senior leadership, we immersed ourselves in ERT’s culture to uncover the values that drive the company—precision, agility, and purpose—and used stakeholder insights to sharpen the story around how ERT unites modeling, engineering, and data expertise to support decisive action. The result was a focused positioning strategy, brand mantra, visual identity, and messaging framework that aligned the organization and captured the mindset fueling their mission: going all in, every time.

Making a high-performing brand look high-performing

ERT has been delivering mission-critical science, engineering, and technology solutions for years, but the brand wasn’t keeping pace with the caliber of their work. As the company expanded into new sectors and doubled down on solving complex terrestrial and orbital challenges, it became clear they needed an identity that matched their momentum. The opportunity was simple: take a quietly exceptional organization and give it the bold, modern brand presence it deserved.

ERT’s new brand speaks the way the company works: direct, curious, and grounded in real scientific problem-solving. Instead of hiding behind technical jargon, the voice now highlights ERT’s precision and purpose while making complex Earth and space challenges feel clear, relevant, and worth leaning into. It’s confident without being loud, and smart without being stodgy—finally giving ERT a voice as sharp as its expertise and as unmistakably human as the people who make ERT… ERT.

At the heart of the rollout is a new ERT website, built to clearly communicate the company’s mission and create a more purposeful digital experience. Guided by a focused strategy, we designed and developed an SEO-forward platform that organizes content around user needs, highlights ERT’s expanding capabilities, and makes complex information easy to navigate. The result is a site that works harder, functions smarter, and reflects the depth of ERT’s expertise in Earth and space data mission support.

We translated the strategy into a visual identity built with the same technical precision ERT brings to its mission. We documented the system in clear, practical guidelines and equipped teams with the tools they rely on every day, so the brand is applied consistently and with intent across every touchpoint.

“The things you have done for us have opened so many doors for ERT. The rebrand has changed the company’s attitude in such a positive way.”

Outcome

The transformation gave ERT more than a new look—it gave them a clearer voice, a sharper story, and a digital presence built for where they’re headed next. From messaging to identity to a smarter website, the company now shows up with confidence—ready to support bigger missions and deeper partnerships. And, the brand now reflects the ingenuity and technical discipline behind their Earth and space data mission support, positioning them for expanded impact and long-term growth.

Institute for the Study of War

Brand StrategyVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX

Institute for the Study of War

A more accessible hub for conflict insights

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) plays a critical role in providing timely, authoritative analysis on complex global conflicts. As a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization, ISW produces analysis covering topics from daily military operations to deep historical intelligence research.

However, their previous digital presence struggled to effectively convey their expertise and make accessible the vast amounts of information ISW provides. Recognizing these challenges, ISW partnered with Grafik to completely reimagine their digital experience.

A smarter, stronger platform for ISW

We partnered with ISW to reimagine their online presence—creating an intuitive site that makes research easy to find and engaging to explore. A bold new design, smarter navigation, and refined structure bring clarity to ISW’s mission, while built-in security and AI-driven tools ensure the platform is both protected and future-ready.

What made it work?

Attention to every detail

Grafik began with an extensive strategic immersion, conducting thorough research including website analytics, competitive audit, persona refinement, and stakeholder workshops. This foundational effort informed the creation of a robust content strategy focused on enhancing user journeys, reorganizing navigation, and driving engagement across distinct audience groups ranging from high-level policymakers and warfighters to scholars and the general public.

Informed by the strategy, Grafik iterated on a comprehensive information architecture (IA), reorganizing and refining multiple times as the collaborative effort led ISW to discover new organizational needs for content presentation. In addition to the IA, we worked closely with ISW on a taxonomy that added layered cataloging options to make their content much more discoverable. Significant efforts went into wireframing and UX design, crafting intuitive templates, and ensuring accessibility compliance to AA standards. The visual design phase resulted in a clean, contemporary site that leverages dynamic maps and interactive content to enhance user experience

Putting A.I. to work

ISW hosts more than 24K pieces of research and analysis on its site, and publishes new reports, maps, articles, and more each day. To ensure that no content got lost, the Grafik team created new AI tools and programming to account for each page, remove redundancies, and transform tagging structures to match content to the new organizational strategy.

In addition, the development process leveraged WordPress as well as several integrations including ArcGIS, DonorPerfect, Google Analytics, and Constant Contact. Grafik implemented a complex faceted search feature to make the depth of research and insights more accessible and discoverable. A meticulous content migration strategy was executed, carefully transferring over 8,000 pages from legacy systems, significantly improving usability and organization.

24k+

Website pages migrated and created

17k+

Maps Collected in a new Map Room

49M

Website Pageviews

65+

product lines reorganized and tagged

Outcome

The result is a strategic, technology-forward website that not only reinforces ISW’s thought leadership but also vastly improves audience engagement and accessibility of their critical research. ISW now possesses a robust digital platform strategically aligned with their mission, ensuring they can continue to inform and shape critical conversations around global security and grow for years to come.

Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation

Brand StrategyVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX

Empowering employment for neurodivergent individuals

Everyone wants the opportunity to reach their full potential, and key to realizing this is a meaningful career. But for neurodivergent individuals, the path from school to employment can be daunting. While a variety of organizations offer support for these job seekers and potential employers, their efforts are not well coordinated, they often lack funding and they all need committed, qualified people.

Washington Neurodiversity Project was created to address this head on, with a goal of launching a new foundation to finance and support these organizations in Washington State. They turned to Grafik to build their new brand from the ground up.

We formed a partnership with WNP’s team and visionary founders to launch The Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation in 2025, by:

Clarifying the mission
with clear navigation and filtering functionality so users can access the research they need within seconds.

Setting the brand strategy through stakeholder research and definition of brand pillars, positioning, and audience messaging.

Naming the organization “Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation” to evoke the shelter, growth and connection they are building.

Designing a logo and full visual identity to capture tone and imagery to bring the brand to life.

Developing canopyfoundation.org website and suite of brand materials for launch and ongoing communications.

We made it work.

Deep commitment.
This was, and is, personal for Canopy and for our Grafik team. Helping our own neurodivergent children, nieces and nephews, and friends reach their full potential hits home for all of us, and Grafik has been working with organizations focused on this cause for many years.

Collaboration and camaraderie
Yes, there were weekly Zoom meetings, but we also traveled to Seattle many times for in-person sessions with the Canopy team. Every trip was impactful and meaningful, creating connection, unified vision, and an engaging and collaborative relationship.

Attention to detail.
Every word and phrase was crafted to be appropriate for and respectful of neurodivergent individuals. Every image and website page was designed for connection and compliance. And every part of the brand was focused by Canopy’s clear and compelling mission.

We envision Washington state as a leader in employment neuroinclusion, where a broad community of people come together to shape a future where neurodiversity in the workplace is acknowledged, accommodated and celebrated.

Thank you for the extraordinary work and partnership shepherding our nascent identity from quiet existence to proud presence! Thanks to your efforts, we have an official name, great taglines, a complete website and a path forward for brand building. Even better, those things were built in settings filled with kindness, humour, empathy and patience. You are all amazing and fun and thank you for the service to the cause. GO GRAFIK!

THE CANOPY TEAM

Outcome

Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation launched in August 2025, beginning its dedicated quest to bring about change… We at Grafik are thankful for this collaboration, very proud of the work, and confident that Canopy will make a real and very important difference in Washington State, and beyond.

Mantech

Campaign DesignMedia StrategyVisual Identity

Always Advancing

In 2022, following its acquisition by Carlyle’s Global Private Equity, Mantech embarked on a strategic transformation to reposition itself as a digital-forward organization. While traditionally known for engineering excellence, the company was looking to highlight its expanded capabilities in digital services such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. With expertise spanning cybersecurity, AI/data analytics, IT modernization, and systems engineering, the company needed to build on its reputation for delivering secure, mission-critical technology solutions across C5ISR, cloud migration, logistics, and lifecycle operations.

Shifting to a digital-first innovator

Early initiatives—including external market research and a website redesign—helped initiate the shift in perception and identify key areas for growth. As the company’s vision evolved, it became clear that a more comprehensive brand strategy was needed to fully express its future direction. Mantech recognized the opportunity to redefine its brand identity, reshape market perception, and guide internal culture through transformation. To achieve this, the company turned to Grafik.

Standing at the center of the new brand expression is a mantra created by Grafik—a bold rallying cry that honors Mantech’s 50+ year legacy while embodying its relentless innovation and mission-first focus.

To maximize external impact, Grafik designed a full suite of creative assets for a high-visibility Metro Center station takeover in Washington, DC—a campaign featuring more than 200 ad placements across 13 unique formats. The refreshed identity came to life in one of the city’s busiest transit hubs, amplifying Mantech’s bold new presence at the heart of the nation’s capital.

Grafik also designed a full suite of branded collateral to ensure consistency and impact across every touchpoint. This included a flexible system of supporting brand patterns and a custom-designed icon suite to bring clarity and cohesion to complex content. Comprehensive brand guidelines tied everything together, giving Mantech the tools to maintain a strong, unified presence moving forward.

To spark excitement internally, Grafik designed custom employee swag kits that brought the new brand to life. Each kit was packed with bold, high-quality items that reinforced pride, unity, and Mantech’s forward-focused identity.

Outcome

The refreshed brand launch made a clear impact inside and out. Employees quickly embraced the new identity, energized by bold visuals and branded experiences that brought the cultural shift to life. Outside the organization, Mantech’s Metro Center takeover turned heads and signaled its digital-first direction. According to Mantech, the Grafik-designed creative sparked strong engagement and visibility, reinforcing its role as a forward-looking tech partner. The result: a sharper, more modern brand that honors its roots while successfully repositioning itself as a leader in digital services ready to meet the brand—and mission—needs of tomorrow.

Aledade

Campaign DesignIntegrated MarketingVisual Identity

Do More Good

Aledade is the largest network of independent primary care in the U.S., enabling clinicians to deliver better patient outcomes and generate more savings revenue through value-based care. By providing actionable insights and dedicated support, Aledade enables primary care organizations to succeed financially by keeping patients healthy. Together with more than 2,400 practices and community health centers in 46 states and the District of Columbia, Aledade manages accountable care organizations that serve nearly 3 million patient lives.

Since Aledade’s founding, so much had changed: a five-person start-up is now the nation’s largest network of independent primary care and a pioneer in value-based care enablement.  As Aledade marked its ten year milestone in 2024, leadership recognized it was time to update their visual identity and increase brand awareness. That’s where Grafik came in.

Delivering a purpose-driven brand

Aledade had just minted a simple, yet powerful brand mantra, Do More Good, inspired by their mission to deliver better health, better care, and lower costs — creating a health care system that is good for patients, good for practices, and good for society. As Grafik’s designers set about to bring Aledade’s visual identity to life, our marketing strategists created a channel plan tailored to three primary audience segments, and creative leads began work on a powerful brand video to demonstrate the full impact of partnering with Aledade.

With a clear vision and a powerful message, Grafik teamed up with the talented folks at UNRIVALED to bring their story to life. By choosing to feature partner physicians and their patients, we produced a brand video that not only captured the heart of Aledade’s mission, but also delivered the real-world power of value-based care — while generating a wealth of footage for 15- and 30-second ad formats. Every scene, from interviews to b-roll, was thoughtfully crafted to tell a story that resonates.

Grafik was tasked with redesigning Aledade’s visual identity, from developing a new logo to supporting brand awareness with strategic campaign recommendations. With the goal of simplifying and strengthening the brand, the new logo delivers modern clarity, while the broader identity highlights Aledade’s human side with more authentic imagery, a rich 508-compliant color palette, and carefully refined typography.

A clean, versatile icon designed for shorthand use — perfect for social media and anywhere the full logo isn’t needed.

Outcome

This deeply collaborative effort unified stakeholders across growth, communications, and policy under a revitalized brand platform. Grafik delivered a flexible suite of creative assets — including a new visual identity, video content, and a multi-channel campaign strategy — that not only elevated Aledade’s market presence, but equipped the team with tools to drive awareness, influence decision-makers, and sustain long-term growth well beyond the initial launch.

Services

Branding

Marketing

Web Design & Development

Discovery District Maryland

To showcase the brand story and highlight what is truly unique to Discovery District Maryland, we established a new brand name, brand identity, and mantra, The Next First. It all comes together in a vibrant new website.

Activating Stakeholders

Defining The Community

Breaking Ground — Literally

Outcome

Our Featured Case Studies

FiscalNote

The new brand:

The Hertz Foundation

To memorably deliver the stories of Hertz Fellows, we created a new visual ID, logo, and mantra, Making History, all introduced via a totally re-imagined website.

Putting Fellows Front and Center

At launch, the new website saw traffic increase by 70%; its lasting impact is an ease of use that supports the interdisciplinary nature of the Fellows’ research.

Awareness Ads: Name a Challenge

2025 saw the largest fellowship applicant pool in the Foundation’s history.

Supporters want to see their donations are making a difference. What was a static printed piece/PDF became a dynamic narrative called, appropriately, the Impact Report—an easily navigated compelling read.

Creating a never-ending story

The new brand:

Our Featured Case Studies

ERT

Going all in.

Making a high-performing brand look high-performing

Outcome

Institute for the Study of War

A more accessible hub for conflict insights

A smarter, stronger platform for ISW

What made it work?

24k+

17k+

49M

65+

Outcome

Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation

Empowering employment for neurodivergent individuals

We formed a partnership with WNP’s team and visionary founders to launch The Canopy Neurodiversity Foundation in 2025, by:

We made it work.

Outcome

Mantech

Always Advancing

Shifting to a digital-first innovator

Outcome

Aledade

Do More Good

Delivering a purpose-driven brand

Outcome

2025 saw the largest fellowship applicant pool  in the Foundation’s history.