Oklahoma City's Guernsey re-brands its engineering-architecture-consulting image

There's a new logo, a new website — www.guernsey.us — and a new motto: “Realize the Difference.”

It's just Guernsey now, the “C.H” dropped — and the company's leaders think founder Charles Harold Guernsey Sr. would understand. After all, he is remembered for fostering an environment where focusing on clients and taking care of employees made for an organization flexible enough to adapt to change.

C.H. Guernsey started the company in 1928 in Cherokee — and was beset with a huge challenge the next year: the Great Depression. Guernsey managed to grow anyway, designing storm drainage and sanitary sewer systems for towns in northwest Oklahoma.

Waves of change — electric waves — came in the late 1930s-1940s with rural electrification. It was in setting up rural electric cooperatives that Guernsey made its name. The company moved to Oklahoma City in 1942.

Every decade brought something new: power engineering growth in the 1950s, telecommunications in the 1960s, architecture and construction management in the 1970s, environmental and security services in the 1980s, defense contracting in the 1990s, petroleum and petrochemical work after the turn of the millennium, as well as community planning and landscape architecture.

“Over the last 84 years, Guernsey has continued to change and evolve, which is reflected in our new brand. However one thing has remained the same: Everything we do at Guernsey centers around our clients, including this rebranding effort,” CEO Michael Moore said. “While most firms would look at their clients as part of the rebranding rollout process, we looked at them as the place to begin.”

Moore said Guernsey, which has its headquarters at 5555 N Grand Blvd., surveyed clients to get their perceptions of the company's strengths and found that its reputation rested on its strong history and approach to business.