Two families, one business, and a name built from both. Colben resells a nanotechnology roof coating: deep science, sold to people who just want their cottage to survive the next storm. The brand had to sound like the family it came from, not the lab.
Mike and Tracy Cole, Teresa and Curtis Benson. Tracy and Curtis are siblings, Mike and Curtis grew up best friends, and somewhere along the way the two households stopped keeping track of where one family ended and the other began. The company name is those two surnames joined, and that origin set the brand: friendly first, working with people who hold the same values. Mike brings decades of sales experience and Curtis brings a career in carpentry.
That's the line we landed on, and it does two jobs at once. It says who they are and who they're for: homeowners protecting the roof and the people living under it, stopping damage before it starts. The science underneath is real, but the promise people actually buy is a simpler one.
GoNano leads with the technology and the science, which is right for GoNano. Coming from Colben, that same opening would read as intimidating. So we kept the colours for cohesion and built warmth around them: lead with what it does for your roof and the people under it, then back it up with the why and the how once someone's interested. The science is all there. It just isn't the first thing you meet.
After the brand kit came the website, the social presence, and the tools that make running it easier: their customer database connected to the site, and email automations that carry a lead through to a client without anyone having to remember to send anything. Better for them and less friction for the customer.
in their words
Working with Ellen has been an incredible experience from start to finish. Branding a business with four different opinions sounds impossible, but she made it look easy. She listened to each of us, understood what made our company unique, and created a brand that feels like "us." As people who aren't especially tech-savvy, we appreciated how patient she was and she explained everything in a way that made sense. She didn't just build us a beautiful brand and website—she taught us why social media matters and gave us the confidence to use it. Our website is professional, informative, and easy for our customers to navigate.
Tracy Cole