American-German Institute

A New Name Carrying an Earned Reputation

Client: A think tank affiliated with Johns Hopkins University focused on the U.S.-Germany relationship based in Washington, DC. Active client since 2011

• Brand creation, management, and re-branding
• Annual fundraising event design,
• WordPress website & content restructuring
• Print collateral

Results: A 14-year (and continuing) partnership spanning two brand redesigns and an annual event designed continuously since 2011.

The Relationship

The partnership began in 2011 around a single recurring need: promoting the annual Global Leadership Award Dinner, which raises crucial financial support for, what was then AICGS’ mission. Designing a new theme for the event for over a decade gave openbox9 a continuous, first-hand view of the organization’s brand, audience, and priorities — context that grew into a much broader partnership.

That accumulated trust became especially valuable in 2023, when the Institute made the significant decision to rename itself from AICGS to AGI. Rather than treating it as a one-off rebrand project for a new vendor, openbox9 was brought in as the partner who understood a decade of brand equity well enough to expertly guide the transition.

Strategic Foundation

AGI’s brand strategy centers on the idea of exchange and partnership. It carries the visual identity for the relationship between two nations working together as global leaders, for mutual benefit. A circular logo motif represents the give-and-take between nations, with color choices incorporating Johns Hopkins University’s brand as AGI’s academic partner.

When AICGS became AGI in 2023, that strategic core stayed the point. openbox9 recommended a continuation of the existing visual brand system with modest refreshes rather than a full reset, protecting the brand recognition built over more than a decade. The result was deliberately positioned as “new… but not” — a new name that continues the same story the visual identity had already been telling since 2011, now clarified.

Website

openbox9 redesigned AGI’s website with a full overhaul of its content organization — a custom database architecture for an extensive content library spanning publications, op-eds, events, reports, videos, and podcasts. That back-end organization powers an intuitive front-end filtering system, letting users find all of AGI’s analysis on a given topic. The structure also provides AGI’s internal team an efficient long-term workflow: adding new content and promoting relevant material in a timely way, without needing design support for routine updates.

Annual Fundraising Event Design

Since 2011, openbox9 has designed AGI’s Global Leadership Award Dinner (GLAD) every year, aligning each year’s theme with the honoree being celebrated and their industry. The annual creative direction is applied consistently across invitations, sponsorship forms, event programs, email templates, website graphics, stage design, and digital presentations — a full design system rebuilt around a new theme each year, while remaining recognizably part of AGI’s ongoing event brand. This recurring cadence has continued for well over a decade, covering years including 2017 through 2024 and beyond and drawing financial support for AGI’s mission throughout the year.

Print & Reports

Wherever their audience encounters the AGI brand, the experience should be consistent. openbox9 solves for cohesiveness through brand application to recurring printed pieces including corporate brochures, cover design and layout for policy papers, and business cards, alongside a full suite of print materials tied to each year’s GLAD event — invitations, sponsorship forms, and event programs, each carrying that year’s specific event theme while staying visually consistent with AGI’s core brand.

How We Work Together

The engagement runs on two tracks simultaneously: a predictable annual cadence around an anchoring annual fundraising event, and periodic larger-scale initiatives — like the 2011 and 2023 brand redesigns and the website taxonomy rebuild — that surface as AGI’s strategic needs evolve. Because openbox9 has held continuous visibility into AGI’s brand for over a decade, the team is positioned to advise with institutional memory, recommending strategic restraint (evolving the identity rather than replacing it) instead of guessing at what a decade of brand equity was worth preserving.

Results Over Time

An initial request for event design, evolved into an institutional re-brand in 2011. On-going connection to the brand through fundraising event design for over a decade and counting postioned openbox9 to offer strategic leadership on a brand-equity-preserving redesign in 2023. A content organization project expanded to a website redesign, allowing AGI to expand its message and tell its story with confidence and clarity.

“You all at openbox9 have amazed us with your professionalism, speed, talent, and good humor. It has been a pleasure working on this project with you and we look forward to many more!”

Lynn Van Norstrand, Vice President for Finance, Development, and Administration at AGI