Insights

Ideas and insights on branding, marketing and web design.

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  • Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt, over a photo of a runner blurred in motion against a sunlit concrete wall.
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    Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt

    As a society, we’ve started letting the metric make the decision instead of informing it. I’m a recovering NCAA athlete. I spent the first 24 years of my life chasing…

  • Laptop displaying the MAREK website homepage with the headline "Build with Quality Service" beside a MAREK hard hat
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    How a New Site Makes MAREK Customers The Hero

    Sometimes, even when you are truly different, you end up sounding like everyone else. That’s exactly the challenge MAREK brought to us. Headquartered in Houston, they’re behind some of their…

  • Hoist & Crane team member at a work site with the words "Raising expectations. Elevating people."
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    Raising Expectations: How Hoist & Crane Elevated Its Digital Presence

    As an agency, we spend a lot of time talking about elevation—elevating brands, leveling up digital experiences and boosting engagement. But for Hoist & Crane Service Group, elevation isn’t a…

  • Harbour Group marketing collateral
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    Aligning Harbour Group’s Brand With Its Foundation & Future

    Harbour Group didn’t need reinvention—they needed alignment. How we updated the brand and website to match a company built on decades of trust.

  • A large sign and 3-D production of the Alberici logo bring the brand to life at the company's headquarters
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    Full Circle: Bringing Brand to Life in St. Louis’ Most Sustainable Office

    Most teenagers don’t tour corporate office buildings for fun. But I wasn’t a typical 15-year-old. Vice president of my high school’s Environmental Club, I hung out after school planting gardens…

  • A person walks past a multi-panel digital billboard with tech infrastructure company Lightedge's new brand identity

    Lighting the Way: The Tech Merger Brand Story of Lightedge and Connectria

    Mergers can be like marriages—thrilling and risky, combined with serious discussions around identity, responsibilities and who makes better coffee.  When Lightedge and Connectria tied the corporate knot, they needed an…

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    Ideas on branding, marketing and web design.

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    • We Rewrote Our Healthcare Marketing Guide for the AI Era

      We Rewrote Our Healthcare Marketing Guide for the AI Era

      Back in 2016, we published a guide called Content Marketing: A Guide for Healthcare Marketing Managers. It told…

    • Rebranding versus Brand Strategy: Knowing Which One Your Business Actually Needs

      Rebranding versus Brand Strategy: Knowing Which One Your Business Actually Needs

      A client call last week reminded me of a question I hear all the time: rebranding versus brand…

    • Brand Due Diligence: The Risk You’re Not Measuring

      Brand Due Diligence: The Risk You’re Not Measuring

      This is for my friends in private equity. From my experience, private equity firms stress-test everything. Cap tables.…

    • Three Ingredients for M&A Brand Systems

      Three Ingredients for M&A Brand Systems

      I love watching that Netflix show, “Chef’s Table”. In a Michelin-starred restaurant’s kitchen, every person has a station.…

    • Branding by Committee: You Don’t Ask Everyone Where the Couch Goes

      Branding by Committee: You Don’t Ask Everyone Where the Couch Goes

      I was scrolling the other day and read that a medical device business got carved out of its…

    • Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt

      Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt

      As a society, we’ve started letting the metric make the decision instead of informing it. I’m a recovering…

    • How We Built Our Website With AI (Oh Yeah, and People)

      How We Built Our Website With AI (Oh Yeah, and People)

      Fifteen years is a long time to have the same website. Our old website did the job. It…

    • A Repeatable Marketing Strategy Framework

      A Repeatable Marketing Strategy Framework

      Originally published in February 2015. Rewritten in July 2026, because AI changes marketing execution. When I first became…

    • We Rewrote Our Healthcare Marketing Guide for the AI Era

      We Rewrote Our Healthcare Marketing Guide for the AI Era

      Back in 2016, we published a guide called Content Marketing: A Guide for Healthcare Marketing Managers. It told…

    • Rebranding versus Brand Strategy: Knowing Which One Your Business Actually Needs

      Rebranding versus Brand Strategy: Knowing Which One Your Business Actually Needs

      A client call last week reminded me of a question I hear all the time: rebranding versus brand…

    • Brand Due Diligence: The Risk You’re Not Measuring

      Brand Due Diligence: The Risk You’re Not Measuring

      This is for my friends in private equity. From my experience, private equity firms stress-test everything. Cap tables.…

    • Three Ingredients for M&A Brand Systems

      Three Ingredients for M&A Brand Systems

      I love watching that Netflix show, “Chef’s Table”. In a Michelin-starred restaurant’s kitchen, every person has a station.…

    • Branding by Committee: You Don’t Ask Everyone Where the Couch Goes

      Branding by Committee: You Don’t Ask Everyone Where the Couch Goes

      I was scrolling the other day and read that a medical device business got carved out of its…

    • Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt

      Sleep Scores and Search Rankings: Over-Optimized and Under-Felt

      As a society, we’ve started letting the metric make the decision instead of informing it. I’m a recovering…

  • An Atomicdust team member holds a laptop with the Secure Data Technologies website

    Building a Website (and Trust) With Secure Data Technologies

    Owning a business is difficult. Owning your brand identity is even harder—especially as a designer. For me, nothing is ever good enough. Even when I personally make it. Do you…

  • Warehouse management system branding for InfoPlus on a billboard

    How a Rebrand Put InfoPlus Clients at the Center of Everything

    Pandemic-era shortages showed us all how fragile supply chains can be, from production and warehousing to shipping and last-mile delivery. InfoPlus sits at the center of the mayhem. As a…

  • Didion Branding and Website Design by Atomicdust

    Revolutionizing a Legacy: Preparing DIDION’s Brand and Website for the Future

    In the world of family businesses, there’s a myth known as the “three-generation rule.” This idea suggests that many family-owned companies fail by the time the third generation takes the…

  • Illustration representing commercial construction website design
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    Eight Key Benchmarks for Your Commercial Construction Website

    If you’re in the commercial construction industry, it’s unlikely someone is going to hire you based solely on a visit to your website. That’s bold talk from a construction website…

  • The Atomicdust team discusses B2B lead generation strategy with notes on a whiteboard

    Is Your Lead Generation Campaign Missing Something?

    I’ve never met a B2B marketer who wasn’t concerned about lead generation. It’s usually the reason B2B marketers exist—sure, we need to build brand awareness, create compelling messaging and foster…

  • Alberici logo
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    Modernizing a Construction Brand for Alberici

    Alberici has built some of the most complex and important structures in North America. We’re talking critical infrastructure like water treatment plants and heavy industrial production lines, and highly technical…