Challenge
Extend a legacy without rewriting it
California Casualty is a family-owned insurance business with a 100-year history of supporting public service professionals across the United States.
Their commitment to firefighters, nurses, teachers, peace officers, and others in high-risk roles goes well beyond policies and premiums. It’s about protection with purpose, and relationships that last for decades.
In preparation for their centennial, California Casualty approached Echo with a clear request: extend the company’s 75th anniversary book to include the most recent 25 years, updating the story while honouring the original writing, tone, and structure.
We were not to revise the older material.
Instead, we were tasked with carrying the company’s story forward, adding new milestones, leadership transitions, client stories, and brand evolution while preserving the continuity of what had come before.
That required not just editorial discipline, but cultural sensitivity.
This wasn’t just a business history. It was a record of legacy, belonging, and deeply personal service to communities across the country.
Solution
Trust earned through story
We began with a deep dive into California Casualty’s recent history, gathering interviews, archival material, and media from the past quarter-century.
The company had navigated rapid technological change, shifting demographics, a competitive insurance landscape, and growing awareness of the value of public service professionals.
Throughout, its mission had stayed the same.
We designed a structure that allowed readers to follow the evolving company without losing the thread of its foundational story. That meant carrying forward key visual and tonal cues from the 75th anniversary book, while freshening the layout with a new colour palette, updated typography, and an intuitive navigation system for the expanded timeline.
Along the way, something interesting happened.
As we shared early drafts and sample layouts, the California Casualty team saw how carefully we were treating the legacy material and how thoughtfully we were extending it.
They were especially struck — as we were — by the power of one particular story about the devastating 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm. In the aftermath of the disaster, CEO Tom Brown travelled to the fire zone to hand-deliver cheques to clients who’d lost their homes.
It was such a real story. So powerful. And it captured the company’s values better than any mission statement.
Demonstrating the value of reframing the past to include the powerful motivators behind the history, we earned the trust to do something we hadn’t expected: permission to lightly revise the older content, not just to improve clarity or tone, but to enrich stories with newly surfaced insights.
Because of the trust we’d earned, we were given the larger brief of connecting the past to the present in a way that felt authentic, emotional, and deeply respectful.
Result
A centennial story built to last
The final book, 100 Years of Service, blends continuity with evolution.
It honours California Casualty’s past while documenting its journey into the future, from paper policies to digital infrastructure, from regional growth to a national presence.
The visual identity balances historical pride with contemporary polish. Employee stories, customer testimonials, and family milestones add warmth and texture. The company’s unique position — family-owned, privately held, mission-driven — comes through on every page.
For internal teams, the book is a source of connection and pride. For external audiences, it’s a powerful proof point: this is a company that shows up, adapts, and stays the course.
And for the leadership team, the process itself created space for reflection, recognition, and shared values at a pivotal moment in the company’s timeline.
One more cool thing ...
“This is our story”
The CEO’s primary goal was to create a book that would give employees and partners that feeling of recognition and pride:
This is the CalCas we know and love.
After the books were distributed at the centennial gala, Tom sent us the rave reviews he received from employees across the country, many of whom described how they sat down expecting to quickly flip through the book then set it aside, but found themselves still engrossed in the story hours later.
That’s history with purpose.
Looking to commemorate a century of service?
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