Creative Director Archives

Looking to Design Better Brand Experiences? Consider the Potential of Experience Design

Posted on October 4, 2021October 11, 2024 by Saja Chodosh

Big Challenges in Branding

As a brand strategy and design agency, we’re deeply immersed with what’s happening in the brand world. Sometimes, we are so focused on building the best solutions for our clients that we have to remind ourselves to take a step back and assess the big-picture challenges facing brands today.

Emotive Brand, did just this and attended the Design Gurus Summit and the Digital Design & Web Innovation Summit in San Francisco. Four days, many talks, panels, and iPad notes later, here’s what David learned:

Nailing experience design is what may make or break a brand moving forward. Read what it is, why it matters, and how to get it right today.

Experience Design Defined for Today

It’s clear that experience design has evolved. Historically, experience design was all about building a single, compelling experience. It was focused and neat.

Now, experience design is evolving into a way of thinking. Using brand as a compass, experience design can identify and build experiences around differentiated value. This way of thinking considers how all products, services, solutions, and people play a role in delivering that value over time.

Every stage of the customer journey becomes an opportunity to provide further meaning to customers. Complementing innovation, this framework can help brands explore where to push beyond the traditional guardrails. Bringing in the challenge of time, it considers the implications and interdependencies of all touchpoints at all moments.

Why Experience Design Matters: Customers Taking the Driver’s Seat

Brands today are complex eco-systems. What we think of as the original customer journey (something linear, trackable, and controllable) is harder and harder to pin down. Customers are taking greater control of the brand experiences they want to drive and how and when they want to drive them. This means that brands that fail to deliver the ultimate experience at every point will be left by the wayside.

“From social ads to clothing labels to the welcome screen in your car, we are engaging with more brands than we can even keep track of,” notes David.

“But no matter where we choose to engage, we all want the same thing – a good experience. This changes the game for companies who must design for every moment, every scenario, every interaction, possibility, and new relevant channel to compete.”

So How Do You Nail Experience Design Today?

As that ultimate brand experience becomes more important to customers, so does nailing experience design for businesses looking to compete.

1. Join Forces with Brand Strategy

It’s critical that experience design be informed by brand. Having a clear, differentiated, relevant brand is what is going to bring every brand touchpoint together into one cohesive, emotive, and meaningful brand experience.

Without a clear idea of your positioning, how you want to make people feel, and what differentiated value you offer, you can’t begin to design the right overall experience for your customers. Leveraging your brand strategy to keep you on course can help your whole experience flex to customer’s needs while still staying true to the heart of what makes you different.

2. Organize Your Brand for the Experience You Want to Build

Often, companies aren’t structured to consider the whole experience and this is a problem. Design isn’t talking to marketing and marketing isn’t talking to HR and HR isn’t talking to customer service and sales isn’t brought to the strategy table…Everyone’s living within their silos, on their floors, and no one’s talking.

Businesses are structured like disparate pyramids while customers are operating like villages. It’s not neat or siloed. It’s messy, chaotic, and people are entering and exiting all over the place. Everything is in flux and organizations must be able to ebb and flow accordingly.

As new digital channels pop up and old channels shift, businesses will have to become more more agile, more flexible, and more able to see the big picture at play – breaking down walls and bringing everyone around one table to assert the question: what experience do we want to design? And how can we design it together?

Designed for Benefits

Reconsidering the importance of experience design today means reaping the benefits for your business. Higher loyalty, more meaningful engagement, greater relevance – that’s what positive experiences build.

“I think smart organizations might reconsider its power. I am,” says David.

“Businesses that nail experience design will be the ones that learn to navigate the most efficient course, keep their passengers the happiest, build engines faster, all while keeping the plane in the air. That’s the potential, and it’s big.”

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency.

A Deep Dive into Designing for Accessibility

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Robert Saywitz

Today’s blog is about our recent work with the Galt Foundation, an organization that provides, promotes, and expands employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. You can view our full case study here. The following post is available as both a text and audio experience.

Designing for Accessibility Is a Duty, Not an Option

As designers, we have the opportunity to create experiences that bring people together, but we also have a responsibility to create work which can be experienced by everyone, regardless of ability. That’s not to say that everyone will perceive or appreciate the work in the same way, but it remains our duty as designers to provide certain baseline aesthetics which allow for everyone to understand the information.

Most people agree with that sentiment, but perhaps it lives more in the hearts and minds of designers than in the actual finished products we see in the world. For instance, how many smart tablets or watches with braille have you seen or felt lately? The technology is there, but the widespread implementation is not.

Good design should resonate with the end-user on an intellectual and emotional level, and most importantly, it should champion inclusivity. Inside jokes have their place, but when it comes to communicating a brand promise or conveying important messaging, clarity and accessibility should reign supreme.

Can Design Be Accessible and Still Be Beautiful?

There is a misconception that, by nature, designing for optimal accessibility will result in work that is less sophisticated or visually engaging. If you’re like me, you’ve spent a good part of many commutes on the train silently critiquing the PSA poster designs.

Having recently created a new brand identity with strict accessibility parameters, I can attest to the fact that while it might be more challenging and require a deeper strategic approach, it is more than possible to embrace accessibility while still crafting beautiful and dynamic work.

When it comes to designing with disability in mind, architects and industrial designers have been ahead of the curve for decades. Buildings are outfitted with wheelchair access. Phones are designed for people with hearing impairments. In fact, SMS texting was originally developed for the deaf, but when texting dramatically saved telecom bandwidth, the world of cellular telecommunications changed.

The question with which I was concerned over the last year was how does this design mentality translate into designing an entire brand experience – from a logo and tactile stationery, to a digital experience on a website and mobile phone?

Finding Opportunity in Constraints

“Can we make the type bigger?” Many designers have heard this feedback at one time or another. The last thing a designer wants is to compromise their artistic vision – especially if the request doesn’t stem from a strategic design point of view – but designing for inclusivity can actually force open new windows of creative opportunity. Accessible design doesn’t need to mean safe, boring, or pedestrian. In fact, it might just allow the design to develop into something even better. As with any client, everything begins with understanding the problems that need to be solved, both from a strategy and design perspective.

1. The Who, What, and Why?

The Galt Foundation is an Oregon-based non-profit professional staffing service that places people with disabilities in temporary government jobs. They had a successful business model but wanted to expand across the U.S. while launching entry into the private sector.

The challenge was to create a brand platform that would allow them to tell their story to both private and public sector clients, as well as prospective employees. They needed a visual identity that could resonate with employees of the Facebooks and Googles of the world, as well as government institutions. One that could sit alongside iconic, mission-driven brands like Planned Parenthood and Conservation International, yet still be fully inclusive of people with disabilities. In my mind, the common thread that bridged this gap was purposeful, well-crafted simplicity.

2. Design Criteria

First of all, we needed to clearly define what is and what is not “accessible” as it pertains to the project. Understanding the parameters of what was considered a disability in the context of this project helped set my team’s and client’s expectations, and allowed me to see how much we could push its design.

In the application of the brand, it was also important to know the differences between digital and non-digital accessibility. A key design deliverable for this project was redesigning the company website in compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) – a robust, continually evolving guideline of referenceable technical standards with testable success criteria. I quickly understood the limitations we faced with the online experience: strict rules for type-size minimums, visual cues for navigation, and essentially removing any motion effects, iconography, and a host of other potential graphic devices.

3. Know the Rules

When accessibility is a design criterion, you need to know how to evaluate your work properly, rather than designing in a vacuum. In the case of Galt, in order for me to create an accessible color palette, I needed to understand how the work would ultimately look to people with vision impairment. Specifically, varying types of color blindness, as color blindness affects approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women in the world.

There are many online tools for evaluating digital color. For example, Color Oracle applies a filter to your monitor to simulate how things look to someone with color blindness. Using it, you truly realize the implications of vision impairment within the context of “surfing the web.” It was clear that color could not be used as the only visual tool for conveying information, prompting a response/action, nor distinguishing a visual element.

4. Audit, Audit, Audit

A comprehensive audit and immersion help me to not only understand where the client currently is from a design perspective but also to understand the target audience and competitors. What are the best (and worst) practices out there? This information plays a crucial role in how I determine the specific areas of opportunity for the creative approach, and how design can help differentiate the client in their space.

Sometimes, as was the case with Galt, the insights gathered from the audit, combined with our accessibility criterion, actually created new design obstacles that needed to be overcome. For example, the necessity of a color blind-appropriate palette pushed us towards the blue spectrum, yet our audit of competitor brands revealed heavy use of blue. Ultimately, the totality of this information led us to strategically and empathically differentiate Galt with a proprietary green.

5. Get to Work

Exploration, ideation, rinse and repeat; that’s the usual routine for a designer. However, I found that in addition to the usual rigor of my creative process, empathy needed to take a front seat at our internal design reviews. At every step of the way, I asked a series of questions: would this be confusing to someone with a hearing or vision impairment? Can this be even clearer and more accessible? Is this language too esoteric? Are certain design elements here just for show, or do they add relevance to the story?

A key lesson I learned from this process was to remain perpetually open to questions about what is possible, rather than solely focusing on standard processes. New ideas will constantly present themselves, but you need to be listening. Design thinking and design aesthetics can, and should, live together. Ultimately, it’s a matter of shifting our mindset to employ more strategic, empathic, and inclusive design thinking without compromising our creativity and sophistication. When design can solve for accessibility and still maintain a level of elegance and beauty, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Can a Logo be Simple, Accessible, and Still Tell a Complex, Meaningful Story?

The answer is a resounding yes. Designing for accessibility first, then pushing design within those parameters is not the norm, but can result in ideas that are more unique and often better than the standard. Designing for accessibility only tightens the guardrails, forcing the designer to elevate the entire process to tell a compelling story. You’ll find that your creativity is challenged to use more grounded design thinking to solve a problem, rather than trying to throw visual tricks or effects at a problem.

Before starting a project, I always used to ask, “How can I best tell this story?” After working on Galt, I might rephrase that as, “How can I best tell this story for as many people as possible?” Remember, we aren’t designing for design’s sake – we are designing for everyone.

Click here to see the complete case study for Galt.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in San Francisco.

Branding in Motion: A Roundtable with the Emotive Brand Design Team

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Chris Ames

In 2019, everything is alive. We communicate in GIFs, message effects, and video chats. Billboards are digital, bus ads are responsive, push notifications are synchronized. Give a glossy magazine to any child under five and chances are they will try to “scroll down” the page with one index finger.

The most forward-thinking companies are using motion – whether through kinetic type, animation, or mixed reality like AR and VR – to broaden the emotional impact of their brand. I sat down with the creative team at Emotive Brand to discuss the link between motion and emotion, and how B2B brands should be thinking about enhancing their digital experiences.

First off, what’s your role and how do you think about motion in your work?

Tracy Lloyd, Founding Partner: At Emotive Brand, we’re constantly thinking about how a brand behaves in space – whether that space is their category, the online space in which they appear, or the space they are trying to hold in peoples’ hearts and minds. In the beginning, motion used to be considered something only the cool kids could implement. Today, on the user side, motion is absolutely expected – yet you still see some B2B brands that are hesitant to wield it. Our job is to show them how motion can be an incredible activation tool for a brand to stand out in a crowded digital environment. Anything that evokes stronger feelings will create a stronger connection between brands and the people that use them.

Thomas Hutchings, Creative Director: Motion is adding another dimension, another layer, a new way of seeing. It’s activating another part of the senses, and when it comes to creating a brand, why would you deny that? Anything that has motion triggers a new sense or emotion in your mind. When things are static, they can lack empathy. Even a subtle amount can add so much. I almost think of it as another crayon in the box – maybe even the white crayon. It’s the one that B2B clients might not specifically request, but once it gets layered it, the end result is more rich and complex.

Keyoni Scott, Designer: I think of motion as a way to enhance any experience. In college, I studied film and media production, and I tend to approach design from the perspective of a filmmaker. Films are all about evoking emotion. Whatever movie you see, you at least want to walk away having felt something. Learning the ins and outs of how directors use motion for storytelling and to spark emotion was very influential for me, and it’s something I try to apply to design.

Alberto Carvajal, Senior Product Designer: For me, motion gives meaning. From a UX perspective, you think of all the different ways in which motion can create interactions or open new doors for users. It activates and brings to life otherwise flat objects – whether it’s from full-blown animation or a simple playfulness using parallax perspective. From apps and pages to the way we communicate with our team, motion opens, activates, and gives meaning.

In our work, we often partner with B2B brands that don’t have as much creative freedom as their B2C counterparts. If they use motion, it is usually relegated to an explainer video. How would you approach incorporating motion in a more holistic way to enhance their digital brand?

TL: I think the creative difference between B2B and B2C is a false limitation that brands put upon themselves. Whether you’re selling to businesses or to customers, people make decisions based off of emotion, creativity, and experience. There is a massive opportunity here for those B2B brands that are willing to invest and investigate better ways of telling their story to their target audience.

TH: Limiting your creative approach, in the beginning, is like eliminating a muscle before you even try using it. If you’re a brand today, think of how difficult it is to be unique and differentiated in this market. Everything has been created already, but it’s through layers and execution that you get at truly unique combinations. Motion is another way of getting at the unique layer of a brand. To B2B brands, I say this: don’t limit your brand on the basis of tradition. Brands shouldn’t have any limits for where they can go in vehicles of delivery. They should be able to flex in any space. Why would you ever want to limit the strength of a brand?

What are some gorgeous examples of motion that you love?

AC: In terms of a studio I look up to, DIA is doing amazing work bringing motion and kinetic systems to the branding world. They were the ones behind the latest Squarespace identity. The way they convey meaning through motion is amazing.

TH: DIA took a higher-level concept of space and did it very simply, without too many bells and whistles. It’s literally a square in space, but the velocity of it adds so many levels. When I think about a fully immersive experience, I can’t help but think of teamLab. There’s such a high level of curiosity, wondering exactly what will react with you and what you can inform.

AC: OMSE is another studio exploring motion through different layers, apps, and experimental open spaces. Agenda 2020 was an exhibition exploring the graphic possibilities enabled by emerging technology, from variable fonts to augmented reality.

TH: With every technological jump, all we’re doing is finding new ways to make emotions even more powerful. I can’t even imagine what brands will look like in ten years’ time, or the innovative ways they will implement to spark feeling. All I know is that the brands that will stick around in your mind will be the ones willing to take risks.

To learn more about how your brand can use motion to elevate emotion, contact Founding Partner Tracy Lloyd at [email protected].

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in San Francisco.

Image credit: David Urbinati
Video credit: Sascha Lobe, DIA, OMSE

Making the Case for a Rebrand

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Chris Ames

Rebrands are for Firebrands

Not everything in the branding world is relatable. For the average person, chatting about go-to-market strategies or employer brands isn’t exactly scintillating dinner party conversation. But there is one thing that ignites fiery debate and criticism, even from those without any skin in the game, and that is the curious case of the rebrand.

I’ve had multiple conversations with people who, though they have never expressed an interest in any other aspect of branding before, suddenly discuss the latest logo change, mission rewrite, or app redesign with a passion normally reversed for movies or sports.

And I think that’s because there’s something inherently emotional and human at the heart of a rebrand. It’s a vulnerable desire to reinvent yourself, shed what’s holding you back, and reenter the world with a clean slate. Who doesn’t want that? Plus, for better or worse, people wrap their own identities into the brands they love. When a brand changes without your consent in a strange direction, it can feel like a personal attack.

Standing Still Is Not an Option

For a business, this heightened emotional state can be a blessing or a curse. People are either going to cheer on your transformation, or feel offended, cheated, manipulated, or worst of all, bored. And like all things, executing a successful rebrand takes a considerable amount of time and money. So, why would a brand roll the dice on a high-risk, high-investment bet? Because in life and business, the only thing worse than a misstep is standing perfectly still.

Too often, rebrands are only discussed when a business is trying to disassociate itself from a negative image. And with the ubiquity of Wells Fargo’s apology tour, we don’t blame you. But the truth is, even well behaving, top performing brands constantly have to ask themselves questions, like: Is our story still relevant? Do we need to streamline our services under one cohesive identity? Are we still attracting top talent? If not, it’s time to make the case for a rebrand.

Telling the Whole Story, Example: WeWork

WeWork, the co-working startup that launched in 2010, is known for renting out office space on flexible terms, but co-founders Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann clearly have ambitions far beyond the co-working craze. In 2018 alone, they opened a private school called WeGrow and a physical store called WeMrkt. Neumann has even expressed a desire to one day have entire WeWork Communities, where everything from your apartment to the school your children attend is brought to you by WeWork.

As their service offerings change over time and their brand story becomes larger and more meaningful, they have rebranded to match. The “We” in “WeWork” has become a parent brand of sorts, encapsulating all of their different products – and what a perfectly fitting container. For years, they have been driven by the power of community. As stated on their mission page, they are a place where “you join as an individual ‘me,’ but where you become part of a greater ‘we.’” Now, that “We” is a flexible support structure to hold all of the new product developments they will drive in 2019 and beyond.

Reaching a New Target Audience, Example: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Politicians tend to be in touch with graphic design and branding about as well as they are with how most Americans actually live their lives. Considering how blunt, clunky, and meme-driven the political discourse has become, it’s easy to forget that each politician is essentially a unique brand under the larger umbrella of their party.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory over Rep. Joseph Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District was stunning for a variety of reasons. For one, her campaign’s radically designed posters and buttons were actually stunning, designed by Maria Arenas of Tandem NYC.

Ocasio-Cortez, representing the 192-year-old Democratic Party, faced a challenge that many legacy brands must deal with: how do you deal with a rapidly changing target demographic? Her grassroots campaign sought to speak to a different voter base and audience – and that required a different visual language. One that embraced visual text-framing devices styled as speech bubbles, symbolizing a vocal, pluralistic approach to politics. It immediately conveyed a more diverse racial, cultural, generational, and ideological representation in the face of career politicians.

Keeping Up in a Brutal Landscape, Example: Toys “R” Us

After 70 years in business, Toys “R” Us stores across the U.S. shut down last June. For many, it was an oddly heartbreaking moment when the last vestiges of childhood went officially bankrupt. And while you can certainly blame Amazon, Walmart, and all the other one-click delivery monoliths, the guiltiest party of all was us. For one reason or another, we fell out of love with the brand and lost the magic that we kindled as children.

Toys “R” Us is a particularly interesting case study because we actually have a glimpse of where the brand was heading before they closed. In the liminal space between bankruptcy and liquidation, Toys “R” Us CMO Carla Hasson and Creative Director Lee Walker enlisted the branding and design firm Lippincott to reestablish their relevance for a new audience: parennials, or millennial parents, that grew up in the aisles of Toys “R” Us. Along with a series of delightful animated videos, the firm honed in on the backward “R” as the piece of the brand with the most equity and nostalgic affinity.

The work is fascinating because you can actively see the firm working to solve the problems of a legacy brand that waited too long to make a change. Questions of retaining brand equity, maintaining relevance, and creating a memorable impression that will stick with your customers are all being tested. The work is a cautionary tale and a reminder of the power of rebranding.

Rebranding Is Problem Solving

As Aiden Cole, Cofounder of NTuitive.social, says, “Rebranding for the sake of rebranding is a waste of time and energy. Understand what problem you are trying to solve and figure out if rebranding will fix it. If your customer base has changed, new customers are coming back and you are altering your entire business, then yes, rebrand. But if you are simply having a slightly off year, don’t spend the time.”

Rebranding is no slight thing. But if you’re looking to revamp your products, focus, or reputation, it just might be the answer. To learn more, contact Founding Partner Tracy Lloyd at [email protected].

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design firm in San Francisco.

Great Design Shifts Perception

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Chris Ames

One of my favorite quotes about identity comes from American architect, author, and designer, Buckminster Fuller. “Ninety-nine percent of you who are,” he says, “is invisible and untouchable.” No matter how much we think we understand, there is always something unseen and overlooked humming beneath the surface.

Great design can function in a similar way. A logo or a car engine each has a tip-of-the-iceberg function that appears obvious. But behind every glyph and gear, there is an invisible force that has the power to fundamentally shift how we think about and move through the world. Great design can empower, provoke, and transform public perception – even if we don’t realize it’s happening.

Today, we’re speaking with Emotive Brand’s Creative Director Thomas Hutchings. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Thomas has made his career challenging preconceived notions of design by crafting original and innovative ideas. He is the Founder of Studio January, which focuses on creating experimental graphic art pieces, as well as the former Creative Director over at Landor.

The basic definition of perception is “the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.” How do you view the relationship between design and perception?

Perception is all about understanding. One challenge is that 90% of people don’t really understand what design is. The other challenge is that the world is saturated with bad design. For many people, public or modern art is their first introduction to design. They’ll see a stool in the middle of an art gallery and think, “I don’t get it” or “I could do that.” What art and design share is that both are attempting to make people think deeper. Design is a key tool for making someone stop, think, and challenge their own preconceived notions of what something is or how it should work.

When you think about just how just many brands we interact with each day, there is so much noise. We filter out way more than we take in. As a result, some people think the only way to stand out is by shouting louder than the rest – but that just creates more noise. It’s much more about disruption. Designers need to work harder than ever to make their ideas and applications stand out by disrupting our expectations.

Regardless of what the creative brief says, shifting perception is the number one goal of design. I always tell my clients, “Don’t underestimate the power of intrigue.” Design activates intrigue. It’s the thing that keeps our heart beating and our brains ticking. It can’t be something that merely washes over us.

What examples have you seen of design transforming public opinion?

In my own work, I think about the brand Accenture. We helped transform them from a legacy B2B brand to an innovation brand. Before, they weren’t in the conversation with Apple and Google, and now they are. We really wanted to challenge the B2B space and blow the whole thing up as if they were a consumer brand with a load of color and expression. Within their brand, they had the greater-than sign tucked away in a small corner. We isolated that sign and said, “That’s your call to action.” By bringing it front and center, it instilled that boldness of being greater-than and turned their platform into a call to action for anything.

Out in the world, I think about what Tesla has done for the perception of electronic vehicles. Before them, EVs were thought to be slow or uncool when compared to gas. In addition to the obvious technological advances, their design completely shifted this perception. It’s everything from the sleekness of their design to their naming model. I mean, they have something called “Ludicrous Mode,” which could only have come from the mind of Elon Musk.

Dyson challenged everything in vacuum design and even how they talk about it. They baffle people with science to stand out and gain the head-nodding credibility. Their work completely challenged the idea of a basic commodity from the ground up.

Patagonia, as well. They implemented radical transparency and a no bullshit, honest approach and look to make people think harder about their choices in life. They also use digital designed experiences in an amazing way to take people on compelling journeys. They have some of the best digital experiences I have ever seen, and it’s proof that you don’t just have to be brash in design to stand out and shift. You can be intelligent, witty, or just down to earth courteous.

In our work with brands, we deal with startups that are often trying to get people to trust in a process that is new or potentially uncomfortable. Whether it’s cryptocurrency, data privacy, or tackling mental health in the workplace, how can design help bridge the gap?

For me, that comes down to tonality. Startups have a way of grabbing the headlines, but people want to know, “Is this legitimate? Is this going to disappear next week?” For the last five years, almost every client tells me, “We need to appear credible and trustworthy.” It’s table stakes.

The interesting thing for me is in how you establish that credibility. What’s the tone? Who are you? Are you childish, colorful, ridiculous? Are you serious, professional, safe? The tone doesn’t always correlate in the way you’d think, and a perfect example is the difference between Lyft and Uber. Lyft has this fun and community-driven aspect to its design, whereas Uber went more clinical. Yet at the end of the day, Uber is the one suffering a greater brand discrepancy. There’s a balance you need to strike. You don’t need to be boring to gain credibility. And really, it comes down to how much you invest in the raw talent of your design team. Design is so closely tied to your brand’s reputation. There’s no room for error.

What category or vertical do you think could benefit most from a design-led perception shift?

Marijuana is a very confused space at the moment. Perhaps because of how contentious it is, all of these different brands have no idea who they are. Some look like real chemical companies. Others, upscale apothecaries. There’s no defined role in that space and no one is leading the charge. When you think about the automotive space, you have an understanding of the design parameters. People know you need an emblem on the front and the name on the back. Marijuana has no common understanding of the space. You go from 70s-style psychedelics to something that looks like a tech startup. It’s lacking a point of view, and that’s where design can come in. It can offer that pathway or bridge for understanding something’s place in the world.

To discover how great design can shift perception for your brand, contact Founding Partner Tracy Lloyd at [email protected].

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design firm in San Francisco.

How to Bring in a Branding Agency (And Still Thrive as a Creative Director)

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Chris Ames

Agency or Enemy?

If you’re a Creative Director, chances are you’re some lovely mix of imagination, diplomacy, market knowledge, and damn good design sense. You bring focus to every project. You know how to communicate across disciplines and departments. After all, that’s why you were hired. So why in God’s name would you ever need to bring in an outside branding agency? And if by some cruel twist of fate you’re forced into this position, how do you avoid effectively hiring your replacement?

If You’re Reading This Creative Brief, We’re Already Behind Schedule

Here’s a common scenario. You’re the Creative Director of a small design team. You’ve been tasked with a top-to-bottom rebrand with aggressive deadlines and even more aggressive stakeholders. There’s so much day-to-day client work that your team is stretched super thin.

It’s normally here, somewhere in-between the third revision and the second missed deadline that a decision maker mandates we need fresh eyes. The team is apprehensive to bring in outsiders and start from square one, but no one has any real bandwidth to argue against it. By the time the outside agency is brought in, everyone is exhausted, the work is stalled, the printer is out of ink, and someone keeps stealing your phone charger. Who’s ready for a design kickoff?

An Extension, Not a Replacement

When it works well, an outside branding agency is a natural extension of your design team, not a replacement.

“Ideally, you get an external agency that’s smarter than you are,” says Robert Saywitz, Senior Designer at Emotive Brand. “You’re looking for a true collaborator and extension of the team. No one wants to be manhandled, and no one wants to hear just tell us what to do. They should have an informed perspective and deliver creative ideas beyond the obvious solutions. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you just hire some freelancers?”

So, how do you set yourself up for success? It’s all about education.

The Outside Branding Agency Checklist

Rally as an internal team. First things first, by the time you hire an outside branding agency, chances are you’re battle worn. Take a breath, rally the troops, and view this as an opportunity to get back on track. We’re all on the same team and we’re fighting for the same thing.
Educate the agency. No one knows the intricacies, politics, obstacles, personalities, and past iterations better than you. The more you embed and educate your agency, the faster, better, and more invaluable they’ll become. No one will benefit from keeping them in the dark.
Educate the decision makers. Get your decision makers aligned, informed, and available. Nothing is more frustrating than uncollated, contradictory feedback. Everyone needs to have a say, but at the end of the day, there should be one voice making the final call.
Set expectations early. If you’re going to set design guardrails, do so in the very beginning. Everyone must have clear delineations of what to keep, what to kill, and what can be reimagined.
Realistic deadlines. This one speaks for itself, but unless you want your external team to get sucked into the same whirlwind of chaos, they need time to operate and produce amazing work. If the rebrand was due two weeks before the agency was even hired, it’s time to rethink the schedule.
Turn the Creative Director into the missing link. No one is better suited to the needs of the internal company than the Creative Director. They can work as a bridge between designers, marketing, and the C-suite.

“When you’re the link, you’re the best way to facilitate what’s happening,” continues Rob Saywitz. “You speak the same language, you know the process. You know where the silos are and have the best chance at breaking them down. No one wants to enter a room excited to pitch new ideas only to discover the direction was already decided in a private meeting.”

Partners in Crime

Outside branding agencies can be a phenomenal tool to bring in fresh perspectives, accelerate projects, and spot the glaring inefficiencies that you’re too close to see. But without a champion on the inside, there’s a very real possibility that their best intentions will be mistranslated, misheard, and only add to the cacophony. Agencies don’t replace Creative Directors — they are a vibrant new dictionary for the Creative Director to read, take inspiration from, and translate to the internal team.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency based in Oakland.

On Design, Branding, and Where the “Brand Magic” Happens: Interview with Emotive Brand Creative Director

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Saja Chodosh

Interview with Jane Brown, Creative Director

Jane joins Emotive Brand with over 20 years of experience developing corporate and brand identities ranging from global corporations to startups – bringing both agency and client-side, as well as print and digital media expertise to the table. Jane has built a reputation around delivering high-level thinking and design systems that enable new brands to compete in crowded marketplaces and venerable brands to deepen their relevance.

In this interview, Jane shares her point of view on branding challenges, client-agency relationships, collaboration, and what gives brands that extra “magic.”

What drew you to Emotive Brand?

There are a lot of different understandings of the term “brand.” I’ve been following the agency for a long time and I think the way Emotive Brand defines brand is so smart – and completely aligned with my thinking.

Emotive Brand gets it. Brand isn’t just about customers, it’s also about employees. It’s built from the inside out. It isn’t just about a logo, it’s about the people who work within the company. That’s where it all starts – getting to the heart of what the company stands for and why it matters.

I admire the attention Emotive Brand puts on process. The agency has created a very smooth, buttoned-up, articulate, and clear methodology. And they’ve worked hard to build a culture of collaboration with the client where this methodology works.

What excites you most about your role here?

To assist EB’s understanding of our brand and our place of differentiation. I’m excited to build upon what’s already been created.

What inspires me the most about my job is the utilization of design to explain transformative ideas. My goal is always to leverage this power, and I’m excited to do that with Emotive Brand.

What do you bring to the table that is unique?

I bring an understanding that can fill the gap between agency and client. I can pivot. I understand the pain points and cultures on both sides, and I know how to negotiate the two so that Emotive Brand, as an agency, delivers what is going to make our clients most successful.

Speaking of your in-house experience, how does that inform your agency-side work today?

In a lot of ways, in-house and agency-side are often contradictory worlds. There’s a lot of pressure that internal teams face daily to get work done – now. On an in-house team you’re valued for your collaboration, cooperation, positive attitude, and ability to get things done.

In contrast, in the agency world, we tend to be valued more for our skills and aesthetic. Agencies create the highest aesthetic standard.

There’s a sweet spot. I’m known for delivering delight to clients, and everything I do is always implementable. My in-house experience has taught me that you have to create tools that clients can actually use.

So what do you believe successful design systems should enable for clients?

Transformation – for the employees and the business. The brand must support and align with business goals.

For employees – to live that brand. For customers – to truly understand who the brand is. And that the brand can live up to the standards we’ve defined at every brand interaction.

Visually and verbally, the brand must ring true. It must be authentic. Authenticity is super important to me when measuring success.

What are the biggest challenges you see brands facing today?

The web created a lot of possibilities, but also, a lot of challenges. I see the danger when you look at the heap of templates available online. As a result of this mass availability, everything is starting to look and behave the same. Developing a unique and proprietary brand is a lot more challenging now and more important.

Is that where the value of bringing in an external agency comes in?

As an outside agency you are paid to be critical. It’s easier to diagnose and solve problems because you aren’t living them every day – internal teams can be too close to potential issues.

What does collaboration mean to you?

Shift from me to we-centric. Collaboration means we are all on the same team. You just want to create the best work – together. And on the agency side, this is all about creating the best solutions for the client. It has to be what’s right for the client.

What do you believe defines great, meaningful brands today? Where does the “magic” happen?

How does the brand make you feel? The magic has always been there. Emotive Brand was founded on the idea that feeling is transformative for brands. And I’m right there with them.

When teams pivot from logic to feeling and begin to reimagine and visualize what is possible, that is where the magic happens and where I get super excited.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency.

How Client-Side Experience Informs Agency-Side Strategy: Interview with Emotive Brand Creative Director

Posted on June 15, 2017November 22, 2024 by Saja Chodosh

Interview with Skott Bennett, Creative Director

As Creative Director of Emotive Brand, Skott puts his client-side experience to work. An expert at creating meaningful solutions that meet the unique needs of both our customers and clients, Skott offers thoughts on how his years inside companies much like many of our clients inform his work agency-side today.

What drew you to agency work?

I always tried to bring an agency approach to my client-side experiences. And where I found this approach really worked was with brand-related projects. Identifying and defining the true purpose behind an organization, and then developing and implementing those solutions across the organization – that’s where I was most fulfilled. And I’m thrilled that it’s now my focus – helping brands better articulate what makes them special and unique.

How do you think working on in-house creative teams prepared you for your current role?

Working on the inside of technology brands – like many of Emotive Brand’s clients – made me fully aware of the challenges these kind of organizations face. These companies are founded and fueled by smart, determined people who come from high-performance engineering cultures. They have incredible vision, but oftentimes something breaks down when they try to present that vision to the outside world.

Articulating a brand’s purpose isn’t easy. You spend years building complex technology that solves tough problems and then you take it to market by making it simple? I have nothing but empathy for founders or leaders who get stuck on that. It’s a contradiction, but ultimately “look how hard this was to do!” isn’t the story that’s going to delight a customer or grow a business.

That’s why there’s so much value in ensuring that key stakeholders – those people who labored over their solutions and products – play a part in the creative/idea process. Even at the early stages, it’s critical. It has to be a team effort.

Having experienced the frustrations inside many companies today first-hand, what do you think some agencies are missing about what their clients really need?

The best agencies don’t just help you come up with a brand strategy or throw a visual identity at you. They actually educate you and help you sell that strategy inside the brand – from top to bottom. Most agencies will get hyper-focused and worried about selling to the person who’s always at the table. But there’s a lot more people who need to get on board for the roll-out to be successful. The agencies who stand out to me are the ones that have helped craft the plan and sell the plan throughout the entire organization.

Working client-side, you also realize how hard internal change really is. You can’t throw people into a new planet without a spacesuit. You have to bring them on the journey. And that’s where the value of having an outside perspective really kicks in.

Can you speak more to the value of bringing an outside perspective in?

What happens a lot inside a company is that people figure out how to get things done inside the building. “I know how to get Sales to agree to X. I know how to get Product to sign off on Y.” Just focused on the inside, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important people: your customers. The audience isn’t just your department head or your CEO, but it’s easy to get stuck in an echo chamber where those people become the only people who matter. And outside perspectives – the really good ones that are based on sound strategy – can smash these type of echo chambers.

Does your in-house experience allow you to build more trust with clients?

The best thing about in-house creative teams – something that even the best agencies can forget – is that no one is going to know the brand as well as them. That’s why you have to make them part of the process. When an in-house team feels like they’re being dictated to and not partnered with, trust is impossible. And no one’s happy.

Respect is key. In-house creative teams must be brought to the table. Maybe they’ve already tried to solve the problem the agency is trying to solve. Maybe no one thought to ask them and they’re sitting on a great idea. Ignoring them is a big mistake. Their talent, insights, and knowledge are integral to getting to the best solution possible.

We talk a lot these days about agile strategy. What’s the importance of agility for clients today?

Tech companies move fast. We all know that. And in-house creative teams move even faster. It’s a go, go, go mentality. Creative brief? Please. Like that ever happens. You have to go straight from idea to execution in most cases. Working on the agency side, you get the chance to take a deeper dive and really explore solutions and methods. But you also have to be agile. Companies are trusting your ability to both deep dive and also to stay quick-footed, flex, and move in pace with their business. As a result, I make it my operating principal to combine the deeper dive into strategy and research with the insane speed of a high-performing in-house team. That’s what clients today need.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco strategy and design agency.

Minimalism: Not a Passing Trend

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Paulina McFarland

Trendy Business

Design can be a trendy business. It’s easy to fall into the trap of following what others deem exciting – moving with the grain rather than against it. However, there’s a problem with trendy design: it gets old.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of simple geometric forms in branding: simple color blocks of type in packaging, white book covers, and clear lines. And it may seem like this minimalist way of designing is a new-ish trend, popularized via Behance or famous design blogs, when it actually is just a reach back into a real movement etched in art history books.

So What is Minimalism?

Rather than the newest flavor of the month, Minimalism is a skillful technique rooted in classic typography and a simple composition style. The concept of Minimalism is embodied in the principle the architect, Mies van der Rohe, coined: Less is More. Minimalism, as a design style, embraces a generous use of negative space, sparse typography, limited color, and a strong sense of hierarchy. In essence, it is all about stripping down the design to its most essential elements. Again, less is more.

Minimalism: Steeped in History

It’s important to understand that Minimalism isn’t a new concept. It’s a historical technique that has come back into view. You can easily find elements of minimalism in design, art, and architecture in almost any Modernist time period: the geometric abstractions of Bauhaus, the De Stijl art movement (1917-1931), Russian Constructivism (1940’s), American Minimalism in art (1950), or even traditional Japanese design.

Artists of these eras – Theo Van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Buckminster Fuller, Dieter Rams, among others — advocated for the return to the most basic elements of design (form and color), reduced design to its most fundamental components (lines, primary colors, black and white, positive and negative space), and embraced unobstructed open space, marking their designs with extreme clarity and simplicity.

Simple or Complex?

One of the most common misconceptions about Minimalism is the idea that because it is so sparse, it must be simple to execute. But nothing can be further from the truth. An impactful minimalist design not only conveys the most essential elements, but strikes a perfect balance between them. Because there are so few elements, the designer has to make calculated choices in composition, color, line thickness, and font size. And sometimes the incremental differences can make or break the design.

As a result, Minimalism requires that in order to avoid being boring, the artist be particularly innovative, clever, and creative. The simpler the design, the bigger the opportunity to infuse it with an unexpected twist. To attract attention and energize the look, a minimalist logo may rely on turning letters upside down, spelling a word backwards, or surprising the viewer with a visual pun.

That’s why designing on a grid is one of the fundamental techniques of a successful minimalist composition. The grid allows for a logical and harmonious arrangement of text and image, so that the final piece is balanced and functional. This goes tenfold for web design. Simple user-interface is essential for websites heavy on information and complex in structure.

Why is Minimalism Relevant Now?

With the advent of smartphones and the high-speed digitalization of the world, there is a growing need to organize the enormous flow of information people encounter every day. The human brain can only absorb a certain amount of visual overload before it shuts down. And often, this overload can cause anxiety for viewers. That is why it is more important than ever for businesses to learn how to cut through the chaos with clean fonts and design that calms instead of adds anxiety.

With the majority of people viewing pages on a smaller smartphone device, users need faster loading times and easy to navigate interfaces. Most smartphone users are too impatient and or unwilling to read or scroll endlessly just to complete a simple task. That’s why streamlined functionality is so key.

Minimalist Brands Are Outperforming

From fashion to technology, some of the most successful brands are driven by minimalist design. The most obvious example is Apple. Under Jonathan Ive, Apple has created a slick minimalist cult-universe, stronger than any brand before it.

According to the information leaked by the Apple University, aspiring design trainees study Picasso’s famous 11 bull lithographs – lithographs that one by one strip down the drawing of the bull to only its bare outlines. This method is at the core of Apple’s brand design.

Everything about the Apple experience is intuitive and stripped of all complexity. The design feels natural, from the weight of the iPhone to the feel of the mouse, all is human-centered as if the technology was a natural extension of the user.

Google has also found enormous success by reducing the users’ anxiety by placing only a logo and a search box front and center. When other competitor search engines were using the “kitchen-sink” method, Google’s decision to embrace Minimalism positioned them automatically ahead.

Minimalism and Strategy-Driven Design

Dieter Rams, an icon of minimalist industrial design, followed der Rohe’s, “Less is more,” with, “Less but better.” This became another famous statement of Minimalism. And a mantra that many brand strategists are taking to heart these days as well.

If a brand strategy is well researched and focused in on the right market, if it possesses the right message and speaks in the right tone – that’s the goal. And strategists can learn something from the clarity and timeless simplicity of minimalistic design and art.

For instance, we’ve seen short and precise taglines thrive in the last decade. Think of Apple’s “Think Different”, Nike’s “Just Do It”, or L’Oréal “Because You’re Worth It.” These simple and effective slogans help these brands stand out, create meaning for their audiences, and keep them memorable for years. It’s all about communicating the essential – what will have the most value to the specific people a brand wants to reach.

Striving for the clarity that comes with Minimalism can help your brand forge stronger and more emotional connections with the people you want to reach. It can help a brand resonate faster with people, present itself as more approachable, and better engage with its audiences. There’s a lot to learn from the history of Minimalism, and simple, clear, essential design will never get old.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency.

Creativity: The New Competitive Advantage for Businesses Today

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Catrina Morbidelli

The Rising Demand for Creativity at Top Businesses Today

Over the last couple of years, top companies have shifted their mindset about creativity and its value. It’s now clear that creativity drives business success today, and brands who want to stay ahead, foster innovation, and stand out in a competitive marketplace need creativity to fuel their business forward.

As a result, creative people are more in demand than ever before. However, what it means to be creative is hard to define. It’s a wide spectrum. People stay creative and approach creativity in unique ways. And being consistently creative is no easy task – even for the most creatively inclined people in any industry.

We believe part of staying creative — staying imaginative, asking questions, taking risks, having vision, saying something new — is staying inspired. However, finding daily inspiration is difficult.

As a fine artist working in a branding agency, relying on daily inspiration is a necessity — both at work and in my personal projects. Starting a new painting or creative undertaking takes a certain type of mindset, and staying committed to a creative lifestyle allows my work to keep evolving. Here’s how.

Conquering Fear

Many artists spend a lot of time feeling afraid that they won’t find the inspiration they need. This often makes the act of creating feel daunting. I believe there is a balance to how much fear is the right amount. Personally, I need fear to push me forward and drive my energy, but I’ve found too much fear can also limit my creativity. It’s scary to stare at a blank page or an empty canvas. The immensity of the white space feels like it might just suck you in sometimes. It makes you question: are you adequate? No matter how intimidating these natural feelings of fear can be, it’s important that we accept them as a natural reaction to creating something new. We can’t negate fear, but instead need to accept it and use it to fuel our creative energy. That’s where courage comes in.

Practicing Courage

You have to be brave if you want to produce something new. Ideas won’t transform into realities without courage. Part of being an artist is striving to create something different – something that doesn’t yet exist, something you can claim as your own — while also creating something that is accessible to the people you want to relate to your art.

This simply isn’t possible without the willingness to escape our comfort zones and take a risk on ourselves. Inspiration and true creativity stem from experimentation, imagination, exploration, and questioning. Being experimental and questioning established norms and the way you see things or do things isn’t always easy, but it is always rewarding. When we really take risks, we can move forward.

Commit to Perseverance

To keep moving forward and continue to cultivate creativity, perseverance and commitment are key. It’s one thing to have ideas – it’s another to see them through. Creating is an entirely involved process. You can’t be half in, half out. It requires full commitment if you want your ideas to come to life. And though the outcome won’t always be what you envisioned, the process is always valuable.

So commit to living a life that is less routine and more curiosity-driven. Understand that by observing, cataloguing, and pulling from your personal experiences, your inspiration will flourish. I believe the notion that inspiration will “just arrive” holds people back from their greatest achievements. Picasso once said, “When the muse finds you, let her find you working.” Don’t get caught up in the romanticism of creativity. Instead, work hard and act on ideas.

Bring Some Faith

While you constantly work at it, you also have to have faith in the creative process. Trust that through practice new realities can be born. Stay informed about the world and the happenings surrounding us. Pay attention to everything that heightens your senses. News stories, poetry, art, books, movies, sounds, scents, and the patterns of people are great sources of inspiration. We must act on the ideas that appear in order to take them past imagination and into creation. And don’t take things so seriously. If an idea hits a wall, step back and work on something else. Come back to the project only after giving yourself the chance to look on it with a fresh set of eyes and thoughts.

Anyone is Creative

The notion that only certain people have what it takes to be creative needs to be squashed. If we allow ourselves to be open to the inspirational process, so many new and exciting things can happen. And this doesn’t only apply to art. Every industry, business, and calling requires creativity.

Businesses today are worried more than ever about how to stand out and say something different. Industries are crowded with competition. People are constantly trying to find new approaches to learned practices. Talent is never secured. More work, innovation, creativity, curiosity, and inspiration is being demanded in every realm. Fostering creativity – in whatever sphere – will open new doors, create unique possibilities, and unlock hidden capacities as long as you are willing to take risks, be open to suggestions, and are ready to be courageous. Creativity will give your business the competitive advantage it needs in 2017.

Keep posted to hear more from of our team about what keeps us inspired and driven.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency.