Oomph is a strategic marketing and business development consultancy working exclusively with architecture, engineering, construction, and related design practices.
We partner with firm leaders to strengthen competitive position, clarify direction, and build the systems, visibility, and momentum required to grow in increasingly complex markets. Our work spans brand strategy and positioning, marketing and BD planning, sector and geographic expansion, internal systems, and communications programs designed to support both immediate pursuits and long-term value.
What distinguishes Oomph is the depth and rigor of our positioning and strategy work — grounded equally in senior in-house experience within global AEC firms and in mass-market consumer brand environments. Our leadership has held senior marketing and business development roles inside some of the world’s leading architecture and engineering practices, building firm-wide marketing systems, supporting international market expansion, and working directly with partners and executive teams on growth strategy.
Earlier experience in global consumer branding — developed alongside leading international advertising agencies — adds a second, critical dimension to our work. This includes rigorous brand positioning, market penetration strategy, and competitive differentiation developed in highly contested markets.
Over the past several years, we have adapted these disciplines to the realities of licensed professional practices — combining internal insight with market and competitive research to produce positioning that is defensible, differentiated, and difficult to replicate.
We work with firms of all sizes — from specialist studios to multi-sector practices — often at moments of change, growth, or transition. With experience across Canada, the United States, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, our recommendations are grounded in real market conditions, not abstract theory.
Across every engagement, our focus is simple: helping firms understand their story, make deliberate choices about where they compete, and support those choices with strategy and execution that actually moves the practice forward.
Johanna Hoffmann
Johanna Hoffmann is a strategic marketing, brand positioning, and business development advisor who works with architecture, engineering, and design firm leaders navigating growth, change, and increasing competitive pressure.
As Founder and CEO of Oomph Group Inc., Johanna partners with principals and leadership teams to clarify who they are, where they are going, and how they compete — translating strategy into practical systems, communications, and ongoing execution. Her work spans brand positioning, practice growth strategy, marketing and BD planning, market entry, leadership transitions, and mergers and acquisitions communications.
Johanna brings over two decades of experience across architecture, engineering, interior design, planning, and related professional services, with project work across Canada and extensive experience in the United States, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Prior to founding Oomph, she held senior marketing and business development leadership roles at global design firms including B+H Architects, Forrec Inc., and Stantec Inc., where she built firm-wide marketing and BD infrastructures, supported international expansion, and worked closely with executive leadership on long-term growth strategy.
Earlier in her career, Johanna led Buzz Marketing & Public Relations, delivering brand, communications, and public relations programs for both design firms and global consumer brands. This background shaped her approach to positioning — rooted in the competitive, evidence-based discipline of mass-market branding and adapted to the realities of licensed professional practices.
In addition to client work, Johanna is an active thought leader in the AEC industry and is regularly invited to speak, write, and advise on marketing, business development, and practice strategy. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees in the arts and nonprofit sectors and brings a strong understanding of governance, leadership dynamics, and organizational culture to her work with professional firms.
David Lasker
David’s extensive media relations and expertise in writing and photography help ensure effective PR campaigns and strong results for clients in the A&D community, whose work he has placed in over 100 periodicals, from Architectural Digest to Zoomer. He has held key roles at major design publications in Canada and the United States, including The Globe and Mail’s founding Fashion and Design Editor, Editor‐in‐Chief of Canadian Interiors, design columnist for The Los Angeles Times, Canadian correspondent for Interior Design and OfficeInsight, and as a member of Canadian House and Home’s editorial board.
Before starting David Lasker Communications, David was Vice President at MarketLink Communications, where his clients included Artemide, HBF, HOK, IBI Group, Nienkamper, Teknion, Sylvania, and Global Group, Canada’s largest manufacturer of office and healthcare furniture. As an architectural photographer, he has worked for high-profile firms including Johnson Chou Design, Kasian, and The Ventin Group Architects (+VG).
Gordon Grice, B.ARCH, OAA, FRAIC
Gordon is an architectural communications strategist, with a professional background that includes architectural practice, editing, writing, illustration, art direction and creative direction. Over the past 25 years, he has published over two-dozen books, 90 issues of architectural quarterlies, monographs, building profiles, editorial pieces and essays for various books and periodicals.
Gordon is a consultant to the Ontario Association of Architects insurance program, a senior advisor to the American Society of Architectural Illustrators, a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and a member of the Massey College Quadrangle Society. For distinguished service to the architectural profession, he has been awarded the OAA medal of the Order of Da Vinci, and for his contribution to architectural illustration, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators.
Federico Rodriguez Morice
With branding and communication so significantly influenced by what you ‘see’, Federico has honed the ability to create extraordinary, powerful visual communications that speaks even before one reads any copy.
As creative director, art director and designer, Federico wields shaman-like power over pixels, fonts, hues, and space that magnify his strategic and conceptual ‘formidable’. And it all adds up to work… that works hard.
A seasoned industrial engineer and graphic designer, Federico possesses a unique fusion of technical expertise and creative flair and is renowned for seamlessly integrating technical expertise with artistic innovation, breathing new life into established brands and creating compelling identities for emerging ones. With over a decade of experience, he has specialized in visual communication solutions and left a mark across diverse platforms, including brand identity, print, packaging, environmental, and digital media. His journey exemplifies the power of synergy between design and functionality, showcasing the transformative impact of an artistic approach in the ever-evolving landscape of brands.