CKD has built a 38-year reputation on public-sector work. Public and private work both move in cycles, so the next chapter runs both as two studios under one brand. When one sector slows, the other carries the firm. That builds a stable pipeline and a deliberate, selective lane into private work, without losing the public-sector trust that built CKD. This is the plan.
Thank you for the time on May 12. After we spoke, we went deep — on your portfolio, your competitors, the industry, the public-funding picture, and how the top Bay Area firms position themselves. This brief is the result. It's organized around three things that came out of your call:
1. The work is cyclical, so the mix has to balance. Public and private funding both move in cycles, and right now public is in a down part of the cycle. The opportunity is to run both lanes so they counterbalance: when one slows, the other carries the firm. That means a deliberate, selective private-sector motion that lifts the mix toward 50/50, but only with the right private projects, the ones that set the tone and earn reputation, not the ones that just pay this quarter.
2. You're invited to bid, not invited as an expert. That's the brand gap. Keith said it on the call — you want to walk into pitches as the educational leader in the room, not as one of three competitors fighting on price. That's a thought-leadership play, and it lives at ASLA, AIA, and the rooms where projects start before they ever go out to RFP.
3. The 40th anniversary in 2028 is the deadline. Two years to build the brand, two practice areas, the content, the pitch system, and the press cadence. By the anniversary, CKD should be on every shortlist worth being on — public and private.
We've also reworked the original plan based on a key insight from our research: the top firms don't split their brands — they integrate public and private under one identity, with clear practice areas underneath. We'll explain why, and how we'd do it for CKD.
Sincerely,
Chris Salazar, Founder
Andy Seo, Head of Digital
Innovative Group
Public funding runs hot and cold, and it's in a cooler stretch now. Running a private lane alongside it keeps the pipeline steady through the swings, protecting the firm rather than chasing trends.
Closer balance between public and private. Not abandoning public — diversifying away from total dependence on bond cycles.
You want to be invited because you're the authority — not lined up against two other firms. That's an ASLA/AIA play.
Selective. Reputation-building first. The wrong private project costs more than the right one earns. We pick the lanes.
Keith's specific ask: a pitch-deck system where CKD walks in as the most-prepared, most-educational firm in the room. That's our home turf.
40th anniversary. Two years out. Everything compounds to that moment — brand, content, press, the new portfolio mix, the anniversary itself.
Every recommendation in this brief maps to one of three bets. We don't recommend tactics that don't ladder up. By the end of Year 1, you should see clear movement on all three.
38 years. Three generations. Woman-led. Public-grade rigor. A studio at an inflection point. None of this is on your website today — fixing it is the fastest, highest-leverage move. The 40th anniversary becomes the rallying flag.
ASLA. AIA. APA. ULI. SPUR. These are the rooms where firms become the obvious shortlist. Right now you're invited to bid; we want you invited to speak. Combine your K-12 expertise with peer-reviewed research and turn it into authority content.
The dollars. Build a deliberate, selective private-sector motion — private healthcare, multi-family housing, hospitality, mixed-use developers. The right 5 projects in 24 months matter more than the next 20. Lead with reputation, not chase.
The projects on your site — Page Mill, Alameda Acute Care, East County Hall of Justice, Fremont High, VA Palo Alto — would not look out of place at Andrea Cochran or Surfacedesign. That's the diagnosis. The work is already Tier-1. The brand isn't catching up. And the revenue mix is in one basket.
38 years. Award-winning. Schools, healthcare, civic, housing. Every certification (CHPS, LEED, ReScape, WELO). Woman-led. Three generations of continuity. Stable public-sector trust.
~70% K-12 and public-sector. Public funding runs in cycles and is cooling now, which puts pressure on a single-lane mix. The fix is a counter-cyclical private lane, but most firms get this wrong because they try to be all things to all clients. We'd be selective.
The site doesn't say woman-owned, doesn't say 38 years, has no clear private-sector section. Developers and private-sector clients can't shortlist you because they don't see you. Fixing this is 60 days of focused work.
Most firms have to invent a story. CKD just has to tell one — 38 years, three principals, hundreds of projects, a woman at the helm, and a young partner about to take it into its fifth decade.
The schools you've shaped. The healing courtyards. The civic plazas. The playgrounds where someone's kid took their first step. The courthouse that didn't feel like a courthouse.
You've done the work that earns recognition. We build the system that delivers it — and the second lane that protects the firm.
Every firm in the Bay Area has a narrative — what they say about themselves, what makes them distinct. To move CKD up, we need to know exactly what the rooms above you sound like, and find the space that's still open. Here's the honest map.
Research finding: Of the six Tier-1 firms above, three (Andrea Cochran, Surfacedesign, SWA) succeed by running ONE brand serving BOTH public and private. None split into separate sub-brands. SWA Group was literally founded on the integration. Our recommendation is to follow that pattern — one CKD brand, two clearly-named practice areas underneath.
Engage. Entice. Enrich. Your three words are still right. We're not replacing them — we're putting structure underneath them so the brand can finally do two jobs at once: protect the public-sector reputation you've earned, and open a credible front door for the private-sector clients you want.
It works for a school district. It works for a developer. It works for a hospital. One idea, three audiences. And the structure underneath it lets us tell the right story to the right one — without confusing any of them.
Why this — and not separate brands: Splitting CKD into two companies waters down the 38-year credential bank. Public clients pick CKD because the private work shows design ambition; private clients pick CKD because the public work proves CKD can manage budget and regulation. The brand architecture above is the structure top firms use. We're applying it deliberately, not by accident.
Every audience flows through the same three stages — get known, get shortlisted, get chosen. But the public path and the private path look completely different at each step. Public is regulated, RFP-driven, and reputation-cumulative. Private is referral-driven, visual, and decision-fast. We run both lanes in parallel.
Be the first firm that comes to mind.
When someone is researching, CKD shows up.
When the brief lands, CKD wins it.
Each campaign maps to one of the three bets and to either the public or private practice area. No tactic that doesn't ladder up. Each one uses work you've already done — we're documenting, not inventing.
From now to 2028, CKD publishes one project story per week — a photograph, a client voice, Amy or Keith's perspective. Each story doubles as a website case study, an Instagram carousel, a LinkedIn post. By the anniversary you have 100+ pieces of indexed content, a press-ready book, and two years of compounding momentum.
An annual research-and-photography report on biophilic K-12 design — five CKD projects woven with peer-reviewed research on outdoor learning, test scores, and student calmness. Mailed to every Bay Area superintendent. Becomes the ASLA 2026 LA submission. Becomes 12 months of Instagram content. Converts your 70% K-12 portfolio into your authority platform.
A reusable pitch deck system designed so CKD walks into every public-sector bid as the most educational firm in the room. Includes: educational-edge opening, project-relevant biophilic and CHPS data, value-engineering narrative, and a sector-specific case-study insert. Paired with the refreshed SOQ, WBE certification, and a 48-hour proposal-response template. Direct lift to bid win rate.
CKD's healthcare and wellness work — VA Palo Alto, Alameda Acute Care, Institute on Aging — consolidated into a named practice. A POV piece from Amy on healing landscapes. A pitch to Healthcare Design Magazine and an ASHE/HFM conference target. Crucially, this bridges public healthcare credentials into the private healthcare market (Kaiser, Sutter, private senior-living developers) where 5-to-20-year client relationships live.
An Instagram + LinkedIn-led campaign built around the outdoor rooms people share: multifamily courtyards, corporate and campus quads, healthcare healing gardens, and hospitality landscapes. Hero photography of CKD's strongest shared-space work plus 4 new case studies across these lanes. A "Designing Outdoor Rooms" content series aimed at developers, facilities and operations leaders, and the architects who serve them. Targeted LinkedIn outreach paired with an architect-referral program with 10 Bay Area partners. The goal: a steady inbound stream of selective, reputation-building private projects.
A structured presentation-submission engine — 4 conferences per year (ASLA, AIA, APA, plus rotating ULI/SPUR/CNU) — with one hero deck retooled across each. Pitches submitted on schedule. Sessions delivered with full PR push. Two university lectures per year as bonus (UC Berkeley / UC Davis — primarily for intern pipeline and brand). Compounds the brand and earns the right to be invited rather than to bid.
Anchored to your anniversary in October 2028. Year one is foundational — get the brand legible, file the WBE, launch the two practice areas, submit ASLA, build the pitch system. Year two amplifies and culminates in the anniversary moment. Each phase has a checkpoint. We don't escalate before signal.
Two ways to engage, depending on how fast you want to move. Good proves the model in 90 days, focused on the public lane first with a private soft-launch. Better runs the full plan across Year 1 to set up the anniversary moment. We'll scope the investment together after we've talked through budget, so the number reflects what you actually want to take on.
Notes: Any pass-through costs (LinkedIn ads, WBE filing) are billed at cost. Both tiers are month-to-month after the minimum. At the 6-month checkpoint we revisit scope to plan Year 2's anniversary push.
Keith's first-pass feedback is in and folded into this version — the tagline, the Public Place / Private Space split, and the market-focus order. From here: walk the full plan with Amy and Keith together, pick the tier, and kick off.
Keith reviewed the 2-minute summary and sent his notes — tagline, the Public Place / Private Space split, and the market-focus order. All three are reflected here.
This full version folds in Keith's input. Andy and Chris add the conference pitch-deck samples Keith is sharing from his ASLA review-committee work.
Full presentation to Amy + Keith. Walk both tiers, the practice-area architecture, the six campaigns. Pick the tier. Lock the sequencing.
First proof — WBE filed, ASLA in, pitch system v1, 12 stories live, dashboard up. We meet, read out, decide on Phase 2.
You have a portfolio most firms would borrow. A team that's stayed together across three generations. A woman at the helm and a young partner stepping in. The only thing missing is the system that turns it into two practice areas the Bay Area can't ignore. That's what we build with you.