AK

AK Building Services started in 1973 as Action Kleen Systems, two people emptying trash cans. It now runs 500 employees across more than 400 buildings in Florida. The brand had not been touched in 25 years and could no longer carry the company into rooms where six-figure contracts get decided.

The problem

Commercial cleaning gets bought on trust and lost on paperwork. AK had the trust, built over five decades of family ownership, and a brand that made them look smaller than they are.

The line

Helping you shine. It covers the floors and the people standing on them, which is the actual pitch: a building that looks cared for changes how everyone inside it behaves.

Identity

We kept the 25-year-old AK stamp and rebuilt everything around it. The circle echoes a buffer head, and it doubles as a window: the green-to-blue gradient wipes away inside it, and photographs of real staff and patrons drop in. Montserrat replaced the old type, structured enough for a proposal and warm enough for a uniform.

The RFP library

We built a proposal system with Vice President Shari Cedar: diversity and ethics documentation, quality control protocols, conflict resolution, hiring standards, staffing technology. That library shortened the bid process and helped AK win Cleveland Clinic and Broward Health.

Photography

James Jackman shot the people who do the work, on site, mid-shift. Business owners, medical staff, office managers. Nobody is holding a mop and grinning at the camera.

What else we made

Website, apparel, vehicle and building signage, social, promotional assets, and an ongoing retainer for strategy and design.

Where it landed

AK came through a year of pandemic disinfection work and kept scaling. The system holds at 400 buildings and will hold at 800.

Client: AK Building Services

Sector: Commercial cleaning

Disciplines: Brand identity, web, apparel, photography, print, UX

Team: Mark Cedar, Shari Cedar, James Jackman, Nitreeca Jean-Noel, Michael Luis Diaz