BankBlackUSA and Stagwell's (STGW) Instrument Honored in Three Categories in the 2022 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fast Company's annual Innovation by Design Awards, which honors businesses solving the most critical problems of today and designing for the future, has honored BankBlackUSA and Instrument for their partnership across three key categories: Finance, Graphic Design and Impact.

Instrument, a leading digital agency within the Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) network, partnered with BankBlackUSA to help design the future of their organization—redesigning their website, modernizing their brand and creating an extensible platform that supports the brand's movement through impactful storytelling. BankBlackUSA—which recently celebrated its 6th anniversary—is an independent, grassroots organization with a mission to promote financial advocacy in Black communities and build upon the work of past generations to close the racial wealth gap.

"Working with Instrument has been game changing. It has been a transformational experience for us at both an organizational level and a personal level. Instrument has helped us lay the foundation for the next five years and beyond, putting a cherry on top of BankBlackUSA's journey so far," said Stephone Coward, Co-Founder, BankBlackUSA.

"When you're in the trenches, you rarely get the opportunity to stand back and take in all you've accomplished. Instrument gave us that chance," added Robert Herring III, Co-Founder, BankBlackUSA. "They served as a prism of sorts—a conduit for casting our work, its opportunities, and our potential as an organization. They forced us to dialogue with all we've done and unearth possibilities that were previously unforeseen. We're now sharper and more focused as we traverse forward, and we have Instrument to thank for that."

Instrument first began working with BankBlackUSA as part of its Build. Grow. Serve. program, an ongoing $3 million agency commitment to support and empower Black and systemically excluded communities. The program includes three tenets: Build, a pro bono program that has seen Instrument donate 5,000 hours of design, strategy and development work to nonprofit organizations; Grow, Instrument's donation matching initiative, which to date has contributed over $175,000 to organizations advancing equity; and Serve, a volunteer time-off benefit, affording each Instrument employee 16 hours of paid time off per year to volunteer with nonprofits of their choosing.

"Partnering with the BankBlackUSA team on this project was such a labor of love. The energy was palpable from day one, and our collaborative moments with the BankBlackUSA team left us inspired each and every time," said Danny Chang, Senior Producer, Instrument. "It was an honor to work on a project with such incredible human beings and we hope that the result of our engagement together acts as an added contributor to their already impactful work to promote financial advocacy in Black communities."

Instrument will open applications for its next pro bono partner in early 2022.

This is the second accolade Fast Company Instrument has received recently; in July 2022, Instrument was recognized as a 2022 Best Workplace for Innovators, Standout for Women.

About Instrument 

Instrument is a digital agency with offices in Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, New York. We are a dynamic group of creative technologists and storytellers that use the power of design and technology to co-create groundbreaking work with our clients. We connect brands like never before—helping organizations reimagine the most valuable pieces of their digital ecosystem. With deep talent in the areas of Strategy, Design, Development and Content Creation, we build modern experiences for ambitious brands.

About Stagwell

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Press contact: 

Sarah Arvizo
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SOURCE Stagwell Inc.