Why Substance151
We deliver company-wide brand clarity, confidence, purpose, alignment and results.
Transform the Value of Your Brand
We increase your company’s brand equity, building its reputation, differentiating it from competitors and communicating its value to each audience.
Transform the Marketing Function
We give your company marketing clarity. You will know what to say and how to say it, streamlining communications and easing the process of content creation – a significant burden for most professional services firms.
Transform Internal Culture and the Client and Employee Experience
We give you the foundation for an intentional, brand-driven culture. One that drives internal alignment, improves business development, creates a cohesive client experience and improves your employee recruitment process and employee retention.
Our Purpose and Values
Only contribute that which raises the bar
Strategic Mindset
Strategy first, always. Translating information into insight, understanding the big picture and thinking ahead leads to smarter solutions and sharper creative.
Higher Standard
Top performers only. We are uncompromising about quality outcomes, setting the bar of excellence ever higher.
Promises Kept
We deliver on our promises, take responsibility and act with integrity. Always doing what’s right over what’s convenient.
Advancing Others
We parse new ideas and practices to make them relevant and actionable – facilitating transformation, elevating our profession and turning clients into industry leaders.
Ease of Experience
We are obsessively empathetic, driven by the relentless pursuit of creating the ultimate ease-of-use. The result is a seamless experience of working with us.
We Give Our All
We are invested. We bring passion, enthusiasm and dynamic energy that makes the journey fun for everyone involved.
Ida Cheinman
Principal and Creative Director
Ida Cheinman
Principal and Creative Director
“The details are not the details. They make the design.” – Charles Eames
Ida uses her 25+ years of experience as a brand strategist, designer, marketer, and educator to help business leaders and marketing professionals make sense of trends, tools, and best practices in order to position their firms to win in the 21st century’s fast-changing and extremely competitive marketplace.
She leads Substance151’s multi-disciplined team in all steps of the branding process – from strategy through design, across print and digital, and covering all aspects of marketing communications. Her work has earned numerous awards and industry recognition and has been published nationally and internationally.
When founding Substance151, Ida made a commitment to advance sustainable values through the firm’s design practice, education and community involvement. For her leadership in advocating for environmentally and socially responsible business practices, Ida has been named one of Baltimore’s green masterminds and an Eco CEO by SmartCEO.
Ida is the past president of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Maryland and Board Member Emeritus of Open Architecture Collaborative (formerly Architects for Humanity). She has served on a number of nonprofit and industry boards, including USGBC Maryland, NAWBO Baltimore, Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA), Social Enterprise Alliance Maryland and ULI Baltimore Executive Committee.
Ida is a sought-after speaker who is knowledgeable, energetic and excels at making complex information accessible and immediately applicable. She presents nationally on the topics of branding, marketing, design and technology and is a frequent contributor to industry webinars, blogs, podcasts and publications.
Rick Salzman
Principal and Design Director
Rick Salzman
Principal and Design Director
Rick has over 20 years of diverse industry experience covering all aspects of the design discipline. Well versed in the communications needs of large organizations and fledgling brands alike, Rick brings energy and a fresh conceptual approach to every client engagement.
Rick’s partial client list includes National Institute for Humanities, Duron, Rail City Brewery, Baltimore Ravens, Music Contact International, Alliance to Save Energy, PopPolitics.com, Whiteface/Lake Placid Ski Resort, State University of New York and numerous technology and professional services firms.
His previous experience ranges from being a tenured professor at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, to founding and managing a design boutique where he was responsible for the conceptual design development of corporate communications for both profit and nonprofit organizations.
After leaving academia, Rick has worked for several nationally renowned creative agencies, where his responsibilities ranged from creative problem solving to managing multidisciplinary design teams. Rick’s work has earned numerous awards for design excellence.
Rick holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a BA from Florida State University.
Recognition
In over two decades of ongoing commitment to creative excellence and collaboration with our clients, our team has earned an impressive number of industry awards, and our work has been recognized both nationally and worldwide.
We continue to share our knowledge and expertise through teaching, lecturing, and committee and jury work, setting the standards of excellence for our industry.
