Our Brand Book

Dive into the world and brand of Nexom.

This company that you and I work for is special. On the surface, the world sees two brands, but inside our integrated company, we are a passionate, diverse group of people that cares about the world, cares about doing great work, and takes special care of one another. The point of the brands—and by extension, this guide—is to help outsiders understand what we already know: how special this group of people we collectively Nexom really is.

The best way to grow our business is to tell others what’s special about us in a clear and consistent manner,

and to help you, we’ve specifically designed some brand tools that are introduced in this guide.

WHEN PEOPLE ASK, “SO…”

“….what does Nexom do?”

WE GIVE THEM OUR BRAND STATEMENT:

“The wastewater industry has seen how nutrients and energy costs expose the limits of existing solutions. Nexom design-supports and supplies the next wave of proven technologies helping consulting engineers confidently exceed all municipal or industrial demands.”

 

This is OUR BRAND STORy.

When you get asked what your company does, what do you say?

The best brands tell a story about how their customer had a problem, and how you came alongside them to assist as they solved it. If there’s one thing you take away from this entire book, memorize the two sentences above. You are a brand ambassador, and that story is how we want to be remembered. Of course, there’s a long version of this using all the classic story elements, and it starts with our hero…

Our hero…

Municipalities are key, but consulting engineers most influence whether we get a project.

What do they want? Like most professionals, these engineers want to do a good job, avoid frustrations, and move up in the world.

Has a Problem…

If we want to provide a solution, we must understand all levels of their problem.

Their external problem: The engineer needs an aeration/ammonia/nutrient removal solution.
Their internal problem: They need to move the project forward to please the boss and client.
Their philosophical problem: They desire recognition and admiration as an excellent engineer

meets a guide who understands their fear…

We must show we care and are credible.
We have empathy: We get that projects can move frustratingly slo-o-owly.
We have authority: Testimonials from fellow engineers and our data from full-scale facilities shows we can be trusted.

and gives them a plan…

We lay out in simple steps a pleasant process of doing business with us, to make it easy for engineers to move forward confidently.

  1. Submit the RFP info.

  2. Receive final design-ready drawings.

  3. Never worry about nutrient limits again.

calling them to action…

Giving the hero a useful next step that moves the project forward.

Direct Call-to-Action: The “Submit your RFP” website button (or similar invitation in an ad) leads to tangible progress on a project without us having to do anything.

Indirect Calls-to-Action: Useful for those not ready to move forward, these can include offering valued content (in exchange for an email address for follow-up), inviting them to a presentation (either webinar or in-person), or the ol’ Contact Us button.

that leads to success!

We fulfil our promises of moving the project forward, the project is green-lit, the engineer has a great experience working with us, and we gain an evangelist while helping them to climb into a role with more influence.

that leads to failure.

The process falls apart, expectations aren’t met, and the consulting engineer moves on. Chances are we won’t get another shot with that engineer any time soon.

Who are

we?

Our Brand Story helps us explain where we fit—we are the guide!—and what we do as part of our everyday interactions.

But who we are at a deeper level speaks to our mission, vision and our core values.

WHAT’S OUR DREAM FOR THE WORLD THAT OUR COMPANY EXISTS TO REALIZE?

OUR VISION:

For every drop of wastewater to meet the highest nutrient standards at the lowest possible energy footprint.

What do we do to turn that dream into reality?

OUR MISSION:

We ensure all wastewater plant operators sleep easy at night through a relentless commitment to proven innovation, best-in-class employees and customer service.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT OUR COMPANY THAT MAKES US UNIQUELY CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING OUR MISSION?

OUR CORE VALUES

At EDI, Napier-Reid, and Nexom, we believe in

Doing what we say

What do a good jumpshot, perfect golf swing, and EDI and Nexom’s success have in common? It’s all about following through. This is about so much more than honesty. We’ve built a reputation for reliability and earned the trust of engineers, regulators, and operators by supplying technologies that do what they’re designed to, and by our people routinely overdelivering on our promises.

DAVID HUME

A Scottish philosopher who paved the way for the scientific method, Hume’s life shows the power of following through: overlooked for much of his career, others would have given up; Hume instead cheerfully re-examined his earlier work even as he blazed new trails, and at long last received the respect he was due.

At EDI, Napier-Reid, and Nexom, we believe in

Seeing through clients’ eyes

It’s important to keep things in perspective. But to us, it’s equally important to choose the right perspective. Many companies consider themselves “client-focused,” but that’s inherently a reactionary position. Instead, we proactively choose our actions based on our clients’ points of view. We anticipate what matters to them, communicate with clarity and listen well. We are here for our clients as a guide they trust.

HARRIET TUBMAN

Once she escaped the horrors of slavery, Harriet Tubman should never have had to look back. But feeling the pain of the enslaved, she repeatedly risked her life as a part of the Underground Railroad and a Union scout during the U.S. Civil War, with her actions directly leading to the freedom of hundreds.

At EDI, Napier-Reid, and Nexom, we believe in

Relentlessly doing little things right

Details are like surgery. The only minor ones are the ones that don’t affect us. If we were forecasting weather, we could afford to be wrong 30% of the time; instead, clients need us to be 100% right. Since even big jobs and corporate decisions are just collections of tiny details, we win by tirelessly getting each one right.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was so detailed that, even doing work he didn’t like (painting), his results (the Sistine Chapel ceiling) are seen as the best of their kind. Scholars call his sculptures “a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh.”

At EDI, Napier-Reid and Nexom, we believe in

No egos.

No silos.

They may not have WHMIS labels, but we’ve banned these toxic substances. Nothing chokes personal growth like egos or workplaces like silos. Both isolating impulses stem from a fear of being overlooked and a desire to be needed. We embrace humility and collaboration to become better people and grow Nexom so we can all be seen and valued.

CONFUCIUS

“I am not bothered by the fact that I am unknown, I am bothered when I do not know others.” The Chinese philosopher tried early in his career to convince local rulers to remove literal walls to allow cooperation. “I don’t worry about not having a good position,” he said, “I worry about the means I use to gain position.”

At EDI, Napier-Reid, and Nexom, we believe in

Family

We care about each other at work and our families at home, whether that includes ten kids, one goldfish, or neither. What does it mean for us to be family? It’s not to replace our home lives; quite the opposite! Rather, we legitimately care about our coworkers and our families (as varied as our situations away from work can be!). And we all take responsibility for keeping each other safe and healthy, and making this place a source of happiness, growth and fulfillment, because that’s what families do!

MARY SEACOLE

At the outbreak of the Crimean War, Jamaican nursing pioneer Mary Seacole applied to go care for the wounded. The government said no, but she felt she had to help and went anyway. The renown she earned for fearlessly caring for soldiers on both sides led to her being later named the greatest black Briton.

Where the “Nexom” name comes from

THE TRUTH

In 2015, Tom Pokorsky (who would become our first CEO, but was then just an Executive-in-Residence with XPV Water Partners) was traveling through Greece when he came across a strange temple on a the Aliakmonas Potamos river south of Thessaloniki. Exploring among the temple’s columns, he came upon a large pool of water, in the center of which was a stone throne upon which sat a fierce-looking woman in an intensely-green dress but otherwise dressed for an ancient battle.

Tom thought his wife or his guides were pranking him—until the lady spoke.

“Hello, Tom. I am Nexom, the Goddess of Nutrients, born of the unholy union of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, and Poseidon, God of the Sea. I have for you a great quest. Every day, nutrients spill out of your continent’s wastewater plants to destroy waterways, lakes, and oceans. Heroic engineers are striving to stem this flow, but they need a guide to equip them for this Herculean task.”

She rose. Her raised sword crackled with energy. “Summon an army in my name,” she ordered. “Build tools to defeat nutrients, and I’ll see to your success.”

In a flash, she was gone, but Tom knew what he had to do. He grabbed his phone and dialled his assistant: “Georgiann, make an appointment with my doctor to review my dosages. But hang on; get me XPV first. We’ve got to get a team together.”

 

Where the “Nexom” name comes from

WHAT WE TELL PEOPLE SO THEY DON’T THINK WE’RE CRAZY

Nexom proper noun | nex·um | \’nex- m\

  1. A made-up name derived from the term “nexus” which suggests the “centre” or “focus,” as well as a “connected series or group,” much in the same way Nexom’s technologies are the focus of a connected series.
  2. A word that conveniently includes the initials of “Nelson Environmental” (the company’s prior name) and the first initial of “XPV” (the water-focused private equity group that acquired Nelson Environmental and suggested the re-brand).

WHAT’S THE RIGHT WAY TO PRONOUNCE “NEXOM”?

NECK-sum

nex-SAWM

nex-OHM

There is no “Da Vinci Code” hidden in the artwork, but the

NEXOM LOGO

is designed to reflect our story, evoking specific feelings and ideas. It also comes in a limited number of forms to suit a variety of purposes.

Nexom-Logo-Components

VARIATIONS

Our logo comes in many forms, distinguished by variables like the ones below. Ask Marketing for the version you should use.

 

Color

On white (or light solid colors):

On Nexom Blue*:
On dark or patterned colors:

Curves

When adding the logo to the corner of a picture on social media, PowerPoint slide, advertisement, or any number of media that might have a complex background, it is useful to have the logo on a solid-colored background. EDI and Nexom use the same curve in complementary fashion—EDI the concave, Nexom the convex—to exemplify our brand’s distinctions amid our organization’s cleanly integrated nature.

Note: All curves also available in white, but represented here in blue because it just shows up better against the default white background of this webpage.

Nexom curve for the top left of a page:
Nexom curve for bottom right of a page:

Media

On screens, we use widely-supported formats like JPEG or PNG that are pixel-based which, magnified, looks like:

Raster-Magnified

In print, we use specialized files like EPS that use geometry to define outlines so the logo is sharp at high resolutions:

It is all of our jobs to responsibly use and—when called upon—protect our family crest.

LOGO USAGE GUIDELINES

CLEAR SPACE REQUIREMENT
To avoid crowding our logo, keep it an Nexom “m”-width clear of any other elements.

Epic Logo Fails

Logo-Fail-Level
Keep it on the level:

Rotating the logo is a no-no.

Effects-free:

Don’t let effects (shadows, bevels, glows, etc.) be added to our logo.

Logo-Fail-Squish
Even if they think it fits better:

Always ensure the logo is proportionate..

De-logo that photo:

Make sure the logo is always on solid-colored background.

Recolor no logo:

Sorry if it doesn’t match your favorite team’s colors.

Don’t let them recreate it:

There’s no substitute for the real thing.

Don’t change the text:

Unless it’s “N-E-X-O-M” or “E-D-I” it’s not “O-K” with us.

Logo-Fail-Wallpaper
Repetition is not key:

The logo should not be a repeating pattern or wallpaper.

® every time:

The ® symbol protects the logo, so we protect the ® symbol.

Our Brand Names

Nexom Biological Processes

BioPorts™ Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor

optAER® Fine-Bubble Lagoon Aeration

SAGR® Cold-Water Post-Lagoon Nitrification

IDEAL™ Intermittently Decanted Aerated Lagoon

Nexom Filtration Process

Blue PRO® Reactive Filtration
for Phosphorus & Metals

Blue Nite®
Biological Denitrification

MITA™ Cloth Disk Filter

Aftermarket

SiteWorks™ Service and Maintenance

It’s easy to properly represent Nexom and EDI in documents and presentations.
Just trust our

TEMPLATES

Microsoft Word® Letterhead

Microsoft PowerPoint® Presentations

Where should I save the templates? You should drop them into your Documents\Custom Office Templates folder.

How do I access them in Word/PowerPoint? In either program, hit File>New, and you should find our templates under the Personal tab of the templates that come up.

Our Word Letterhead Template, Explained

First page

Template-Letterhead-Nexom1
  1. First Page Top Margin: 1.82” from the top edge (or 0.5” plus 4 lines with 12 pt spacing) because we protect the elbow room of our logo.
  2. Address Dot: Position the top-left corner of the address here so it fits in the window of our envelopes.
  3. Fold Line: Fold the letterhead at this point (and the rest behind it) so the address fits in the window of our envelopes (and so the whole document fits in the envelope, period).
  4. Styles: Our Word letterhead templates have Styles & Formatting built in for headers, body text, etc. to draw attention to key points and maintain consistency.
  5. Margins: 1.15” left and right, and 1.65” from the bottom.

Subsequent page

  1. Subsequent Page Top Margin: 15″ from the top edge. (Other margins are identical to the first page.)
  2. Footer: Enter your document’s title and author to remind readers (and help reassemble documents that get mixed up).
  3. Automatic Page Numbers: No need to enter anything here!

FAQ

Q. The letterhead is splitting my content onto more pages. Can I adjust the margins, paragraph spacing, or font sizing of the letterhead a little?

A. No, and it’s not just because we want things to look good.

It’s about being easy to understand and simple to work with, a reputation built slowly that can be ruined quickly.

Think about Apple. They have a reputation for simplicity. White backgrounds with a few words of black text. A phone with one button. Or Google: a whole webpage with one search field and two buttons. It would just take one incomprehensible ad or product to lose that reputation.

Even if they don’t know it, the person receiving your document cares about formatting, because it makes reading easier. And we care because it helps communicate that we value simplicity, that we are the easiest to work with.

Our Powerpoint Template, Explained

First slide

Template-PowerPoint-Nexom1
  1. Background Color: We’ve gone with the blue gradient, reminiescent of the effect a projectors’ bulb has on a screen..​
  2. Title: You really only have three lines, which is intentional to force us to devise a concise, simple title.
  3. Subtitle: Here is where you can include an addendum to your title, the presenter name, and the date.
  4. 60-40 Split: To emphasize what we want people to recall, we allocate disproportionate space to key points.

Subsequent slide

  1. Slide Title: Limited to two lines, this is the key piece of information on the slide.
  2. Body Content: Use brief phrases that focus listeners on what you are saying. Full sentences are distracting, and if you read them they become redundant.
  3. Defend the Logo: The white curve-backed EDI logo is on every slide. Ensure that neither text nor images overlap the curve. Ask Marketing to learn more.
  4. The logo bar: Intended to introduce our customers and audiences to the range of solution providers to which they have access through Axius Water. As a best practice, keep text off the logo bar

FAQ

Q. The template text is too large. Can I adjust it?

A. Oof, the marketing team just cringed. For the reasons discussed in the letterhead FAQ above, but also more, please resist the urge!

Sitting sixteen inches from your computer screen, it’s exceedingly easy to read fonts as small as 10 points. But when you’re delivering a presentation in a massive hall with a decades-old projector on its last legs shining onto a screen much too small for the room (if you’re lucky enough to get a screen), you’ll wish the standard template text was twice as big.

Rule of thumb: People who win at presentations never have to apologize to the back of the room because they can’t read what’s on the slide. (This is also why we discourage putting tables of data on slides.)

Q. Do we have to create our slides from scratch?

A. Good news! Over the course of more than five years, Nexom and EDI have been refining its presentations and the Marketing team has retained the slides that work best. 

If you need to deliver a presentation about Nexom or EDI, check out NEX Global Staff\Marketing\Presentations (PowerPoints, Masters), or let Marketing know, and chances are they’ll have the slides already to meet your specific PowerPoint needs.

Our Business cards, Explained

Nexom

Front side
Template-BusinessCard1
Back side
Template-BusinessCard2
  1. Logo(s): One of the two most important (and thus largest) pieces of information on the card is who we represent.
  2. Name: Along with our logos, by far the biggest thing on the card because, if people remember that, they can look up your phone number if they need it and pretty easily figure out your email address as well.
  3. Designation & Title: Graduate degrees and/or designations relevant to the position appear here, with the individuals official title listed after.
  4. Email & Phone Number: Our most direct, relevant contact information takes precedence.
  5. URLs: The preferred way for many to learn about us is online, and here we provide quick access to finding us there.
  6. Curve: They evoke our brands more broadly, the flow of water, and the curvature of the earth reflecting our global impact.
  7. Logo bar: Illustrating the full breadth of our platform’s various solutions and operating companies.
  8. Recycled Material: As our emphasis on sustainability grows company-wide, we emphasize this here by pointing out we utilize 100% post-recycled stock for our business cards.

Sales

Front side
Back side

FAQ

Q. I’ve run out of business cards! Help!

Q. My information has changed. How do I get new business cards?

Q. I started six months ago. Can I have business cards?

A. Because every EDI and Nexom employee can be called upon to represent the company at a moment’s notice, we feel it important that every employee have access to up-to-date business cards. If you don’t have them, contact Marketing!

Our Email SIgnatures, Explained

Full signature

Nexom
Template-BusinessCard1
  1. Logo(s): Clearly identifying the brand(s) for which we work.
  2. Name: Uses the email signature-sized equivalent of our heading font.
  3. Designation, Title, Email, and Phone Number: As on the business card, graduate degrees and relevant designations are next to the title, and the contact information keeps the focus on the ways people want to contact us anyway.
  4. Logo bar: Highlights the broad, growing platform of which we are a part.
  5. Announcement bar: When we have something special to share, you’ll find that news show up here!
Sales

Subsequent signature

Nexom
Template-BusinessCard2
  1. Logo(s) oriented to save space: A reply signature is built to be more compact, so the logo(s) in it accommodate that.
  2. Name: Remains the same size, since this is literally the point of the signature.
  3. Designation, Title and Phone Number: Email drops off, since we know they are seeing it in the “from” field.
  4. Announcement bar: Won’t always be there, but when it is, there’s a reason for it.
Sales

FAQ

Q. Why are there separate Full and Reply signatures?

A. By popular demand, Nexom’s provided our team with both, because we recognize that, although we’ve worked hard to represent our brand in a compact space, the Full Signature still takes up a few lines. When you’re emailing back and forth internally, or sending a response to someone externally who knows us well, scrolling past the full signature becomes tiresome (and can eat up an extra page when printed).

The reply signature is more compact, less intrusive, and still gives the key information for quick access to those who might need it.

FONTS & TYPEFACES

We do our brand a big favour when we stay consistent with the words we write, including in terms of how the words look. Those both inside and outside our organization can instantly recognize our documents by not just the medium they’re printed on, but also our distinctive Titillium typeface, displayed in large green letters as a title or in rich blue letters as headings.
Title 

TITLE

Heading 1

Heading 2

Body Text
Typeface  Titillium Web Bold.  Titillium Web Bold.  Titillium Web Light.  Roboto Condensed (if available; otherwise Arial). 
Color  Nexom Green.  Nexom Blue (or white on Nexom Blue).  Nexom Blue (or white on Nexom Blue).  New gray (or white on dark colors). 
Size  48 pts.  26 pts.  20 pts.  11 pts. 
Case  All caps Normal Normal Normal
Tracking  -65 thousandths of an em. -65 thousandths of an em. Normal Normal
Paragraph Spacing  30 pts before; 12 pts after.  18 pts before; 12 pts after.  12 pts before; 12 pts after.  12 pts before; 12 pts after. 
Leading  75% of size.  85% of size.  85% of size.  115% of size. 

COLORS

Color Swatch Legend

  1. Color Representation: How it shows up on your screen may vary, but this is the best we can do to show you what it looks like.

  2. Color Name: We’ve started off on a pair of pretty self-explanatory categories.

  3. Pantone Coated: A color defined as a ratio of inks that professional printers mix, for use on paper that is coated so ink sits on the surface.

  4. Pantone Uncoated: Another ratio of inks, optimized to replicate the color on uncoated paper that absorbs ink.

  5. RGB: For screens like TVs, computers and phones. Colors are additive light, meaning you start at zero with no light (black) and add amounts (on a scale of 0 to 255) of Red, Green, and Blue colored light to create colors, to a maximum of white.

  6. CMYK: For home and office printers. Colors are subtractive, meaning you presumably start at zero with white paper and add a volume (on a scale of 0% to 100%) of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and “Ketone” (Black) ink or toner to create colors.

  7. HTML: Hexadecimal code for recreating the color online.

Primary Color Palette

These are the colors we want to make famous. They’re the colors in our logo, they’re the ones we want people to see and think “Nexom.”

Nexom Blue

534C / 295U
R:31 G:53 B:94
C85-M68-Y34-K17
HTML #1f355e

Nexom Green

377C / 390U
R:121 G:154 B:0
C58-M22-Y100-K4
HTML #799a00

New Gray

426C / Black 6U
R:53 G:55 B:57
C5-M0-Y0-K93
HTML #353739

White

R:255 G:255 B:255
C0-M0-Y0-K0
HTML #FFFFFF

SECONDARY COLOR PALETTE

Sometimes you need more than four colors. While we prioritize the above primary palette, this secondary palette has been chosen to complement our primary colors and give us a defined range of options to use that look intentional and professional. (You might recognize a few of them as being associated with some of our Core Values.)

Dark

Ferric Red

7618C / 173U
R:225 G:100 B:75
C17-M72-Y75-K4
HTML #E1644B

Tubbs Hill Turquoise

5477C / 330U
R:75 G:100 B:100
C72-M48-Y53-K23
HTML #4B6464

Idaho Mountain Purple

7662C / 2612U
R:125 G:75 B:125
C57-M81-Y24-K6
HTML #7D4B7D

Mid

High-Vis Orange

715C / 130U
R:250 G:135 B:0
C0-M57-Y100-K0
HTML #FA8700

EDI Legacy Blue 

2172C / 300U
R:27 G:117 B:187
C85-M50-Y0-K0
HTML #1B75BB

Manitoba Clay Gray

Cool Gray 9C / 425U
R:125 G:125 B:125
C0-M0-Y0-K63
HTML #7D7D7D

Light

Tiger Gold 

124C / 7406U
R:241 G:184 B:45
C0-M31-Y98-K0
HTML #F1B82D

Blumenort Green

7486C / 365U
R:200 G:225 B:150
C24-M0-Y52-K0
HTML #C8E196

Pokorsky Silver

420C / Cool Gray 2U
R:200 G:200 B:200
C0-M0-Y0-K25
HTML #C8C8C8