In 2023, the college town of Pullman, WA had a public relations nightmare on its hands. A long-term process to design and build a new streetscape and utility system in its downtown district encountered massive public resistance that culminated in protests and picketing.

Through a series of misunderstandings, the larger vision for the project went missing from the public conversation. Meanwhile, arguments about landscaping trees took center stage and dominated city council meetings, threatening to derail the four-year process mere months before groundbreaking.

Recraft stepped up with a ten-minute explainer video that put the construction project in the proper context and shifted the conversation toward rational decision-making. The results were a quick re-framing of the issue and a de-escalation of the conflict, allowing room for the community to buy into the project and for construction to proceed.

The Recraft team was then retained to produce public engagement content throughout the construction phase of the project, helping to inform the community and answer questions and concerns as they arose.