Hello! We're SUM Agency

SUM is a branding and creative communications agency who partners with like-minded companies and organizations to help turn their businesses into brands and create simple ideas that become remarkable.

We offer professional services in the following areas:

• Logo Development and Brand Management
• Design, Marketing and Advertising
• Websites

Most creative shops are different but we’re different than most. We're a small team with big award-winning ideas. We have an office in Albuquerque, New Mexico (which, contrary to most mis-guided marketing campaigns, does not grow saguaro cacti) and Madison, Wisconsin, aka, America's Dairyland! We offer a fresh new approach to communication methods, ideas, and creative execution. We love what we do and we're quite good at it. Just ask our clients.

Strategy + Creativity

It doesn't matter if you have the best strategy behind your message, if it's not delivered in a smart creative execution that stands out, nobody will see it. Likewise, you can have the best looking design, but if it's not developed with the right strategy that speaks directly to your audience, then it's not advertising, it's art. Basically, for a creative idea to work, it has to be guided by reason—period.

What we do at SUM is develop every touchpoint of our clients' communication efforts with the right balance of strategy and creativity. It all begins with research. Research is the primary source of information and information is where insights begin. Essentially, we first have to know who you're talking to in order to determine how to communicate with them. It's a pragmatic process that works. It's not rocket science... but sort of.

Once the research is done, the insight is unearthed, and the strategy is developed, we put our right brains to work on smart creative ideas and executions that are clever, simple and to the point.

That, in a nutshell, is how we do it.

Guiding Principles

Wow! You've made it this far down the "About" page. We're flattered. If you have the time to learn more about us, keep on reading. The following are our Guiding Principals. They're what we stand for, what we believe in, and what guide our business on a day-to-day.

• STRATEGY
  We think this one's been covered pretty well.
• CREATIVITY
  We believe the power of a creative idea has the ability to drive a business forward. And it is the strength of our ideas that separate us from our competitors and ultimately what separates our clients from theirs.
• COLLABORATION
  We don’t presume to know more about our clients’ business than they do. We value their industry experience and insight. And we believe that great and effective work can only result from strong collaboration with our clients.
• INTEGRITY
  Call us old fashioned, but we believe integrity is the foundation to true success. This means we don’t avoid responsibility, lie, make excuses or make promises we don’t intend to keep. Our clients put a great deal of trust in us and we take that very seriously.
• EXCELLENCE
  We work hard, with excellence, with purpose, and we work until the job is done right.
• SERVICE
  We could talk about how we refer to our clients as “partners” until we’re blue in the face. And even though it’s true (we love our clients), the reality is, at the end of the day we need to have something to show for our hours spent. We’re here to provide a service. Our clients are our number one priority.

Still haven't had enough? Find out more about what we do, here »