The Currency is a Portland-based brand design consultancy. It works with companies in Portland and with distributed client teams. Location can improve access and collaboration, but the correct partner decision should follow the business problem, required capabilities, working model, and assigned team.
What brand strategy work includes
Brand strategy defines the choices that guide messaging, identity, experience, and implementation. Depending on the problem, the scope may include audience priorities, positioning, value proposition, competitive frame, brand architecture, naming, messaging, verbal identity, visual direction, and an adoption plan.
The deliverables should support a business decision. Examples include entering a market, clarifying a changed offer, organizing a portfolio, preparing for a rebrand, aligning sales and marketing, supporting a founder transition, or building a system that a growing team can use.
When a Portland partner adds practical value
- The work benefits from in-person leadership sessions, customer research, or site visits.
- The company has physical environments, local operations, or a regional audience that the partner needs to understand directly.
- The team prefers a shared time zone and a mix of in-person and remote work.
- Local production, events, retail, hospitality, community relationships, or partners are part of implementation.
Local proximity is less important when the engagement is fully digital, the client team is distributed, or a specialist outside the region is a stronger fit. Ask how the partner will learn the business and stay close to decisions in either model.
Choose the engagement model
| Model | Useful when | Confirm before selection |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy project | The company needs a defined set of decisions and deliverables | Research, scope, participants, rounds, final artifacts, and implementation owner |
| Rebrand project | Strategy, messaging, and identity must change together | Complete deliverables, assigned team, applications, rollout, and production |
| Embedded partnership | The company needs recurring senior direction and flexible execution across active work | Cadence, capacity, responsibilities, duration, and internal decision rights |
Ask for a specific scope
Compare proposals by outputs and responsibilities rather than phase names. Confirm who conducts research, who makes decisions, who writes and designs, who manages production, and who owns rollout. Ask whether the senior people introduced during selection will remain involved in delivery.
Request examples of the actual systems and tools the engagement will deliver: positioning, message architecture, naming criteria, identity components, templates, guidelines, training, or governance. A case-study image cannot show how the system operates inside a company.
Budget for the full work
Fees depend on the engagement model, scope, research, team composition, stakeholder process, number of audiences or offers, applications, schedule, and implementation responsibility. A useful proposal makes those variables explicit before presenting a fee.
Set aside internal time and production budget in addition to the consultancy fee. Website development, content migration, photography, printing, packaging, signage, technology work, training, and launch activity may sit inside or outside the proposed scope.
Selection checklist
- The partner can restate the business problem without reducing it to an aesthetic preference.
- The proposed research and process fit the decision at hand.
- The assigned team has the required strategic, verbal, visual, and production capabilities.
- The scope names deliverables, exclusions, client responsibilities, and decision points.
- The resulting system will work in the company's real channels and tools.
- The implementation plan identifies ownership after approval.
Portland is The Currency's operating base. The work is selected and structured around the client's business, wherever the client team is located.
Review The Currency's selected work and embedded operating model to compare the systems, applications, and working relationship with the scope your company requires.
