Mike Cox, of the Blacksburg advertsing agency Modea, greeted the Collegiate Times wearing a white and black tuxedo.
There's been a mix-up, Cox said. Kent Square houses one of the two Modea offices. You'll find president and co-founder David Catalano in the University Gateway Center on Prices Fork Road.
"A lot of companies have 'casual Fridays,'" Catalano later explained in his office across town. "We have what's called 'not-so-casual Friday.'"
Modea employees usually follow a lax dress code - T-shirts are standard - but some choose to polish up before the weekend.
"The work is what defines you," Catalano said. "Your personal attire or hairstyle or anything like that makes no difference."
Modea's work exists in a progressive realm. The outfit pursues clientele whose dialogue with their customers is primarily through digital means. Fittingly, the name Modea fuses together the words "modern" and "ideas."
Catalano said traditional agencies responsible for mediums like print and broadcast advertising have historically driven companies' communication strategies.
"Web and digital and mobile is always an afterthought," he said.
Modea, though, aligns itself with companies shifting those secondary concerns to the forefront. For such groups, Modea develops and implements strategies to best engage their markets. This manifests products like Web sites, microsites, e-mail campaigns and iPhone applications.
The majority of Modea's clients are scattered across the nation, even the globe. Graco, a popular children's products company founded in Pennsylvania, hired Modea to engage its growing European venue. Modea built Graco what Catalano called "a global platform." In 2008, Modea launched a central Web site that powers 16 websites in 15 languages. With the success of that project, Modea has since done the same for Graco in Asia.
Despite its lengthy reach, Modea has completed work for notable Blacksburg establishments.
It crafted the Web site for Virginia Tech's 2009 Solar Decathlon entry, "Lumenhaus." Joe Wheeler, Lumenhaus lead project coordinator, said his team wanted to be competitive in the Solar Decathlon "communications" contest. The category entails clearly sharing technical and experiential aspects of the house to a vast audience.
"(In) the first meetings that we had with (Modea), there was talk of an interactive Web site," Wheeler said.
Modea shared with the Lumenhaus team its recent endeavor with Lenox, a tool company whose products are sold internationally. Modea conceived an online experience called "Cut Something," where customers activate simulated performances of various Lenox saw blades.
"We felt that was just right down the alley of what we were hoping for," Wheeler said.
Collaborating with Florida animation studio Spine 3-D, Modea made Lumenhaus accessible through a participatory online interface. Illustrated occupants of Lumenhaus walk online viewers throughout and around the structure, periodically pausing to invite mouse-holders to prompt different house elements. Each click shares an aspect of Lumenhaus' advanced design.
"It was a perfect fit for this house," Wheeler said, "because the house is responsive. It's responsive architecture."
The Lyric also has a Web site with a Modea signature.
Executive director Susan Mattingly said a theater committee had gathered to discuss the shortcomings of a previous Web site. Having formulated new online goals, the committee considered several local businesses for the redesign.
"Modea's history, their track record and their portfolio far exceeded what the other people had," Mattingly said.
As a not-for-profit organization, though, the Lyric didn't have the monetary capacity for a more fanciful product.
"What we needed," Mattingly said, "was something that they could set up, and then we could, at a fairly low level of expertise, maintain it and keep it up to date."
While Catalano is a proponent of the Lyric, he said the fit wasn't quite right.
"Modea is focused on national and global consumer-facing brands," Catalano said. "Nationally, the Lyric isn't a brand. It's a local brand in Blacksburg, absolutely."
With that in mind, Modea declined payment and executed the Lyric Web site pro bono. The Lumenhaus Web site is also a donation. Catalano refers to them as community service projects - Modea's social responsibility.
"When it comes to giving back, you can give your time, you can give your talent or your treasure," Catalano said. "What we like to do is really find opportunities where we can work with nonprofits to lend Modea's time and talent."
Catalano stressed the wide skill sets at Modea. From designers and strategists to backend database programmers, the youthful staff has a gamut of expertise. Modea tries to recruit quality employees from major metropolitan areas like Chicago, New York City and San Francisco.
But Modea also welcomes proficient regional applicants, including Virginia Tech students. After all, two of the three Modea co-founders are Tech alumni, including Catalano from the class of 2005.
Not even in its fourth year of operation, Modea has fashioned a respectable portfolio. Still, Catalano hesitates to declare it a success.
"Our aim is to be one of the best digital agencies in the world," he said. "I really feel like we're just getting started."