Designing for growth

We're seeing signs that spring is here in the midwest: bright blue scilla popping up and that earthy smell in the air. Spring reminds us that small changes can feel quite big. This month, we’re giving you a peek into how we begin all brand projects (with real client examples!) and an easy way to add interest and delight in your website. Ready to grow?

– Charlee + Leah

Design

How we begin every brand

Building a brand isn’t about picking colors or sketching logos right away—it starts with getting to the heart of your story. We take time to understand not just how a brand looks, but how it feels—and who it’s speaking to.

🔍 Discovery – Ahead of our kickoff, we send your team a questionnaire to get background on your existing brand, audience and goals. Then during kickoff, we dive deeper into your responses with thoughtful questions to learn what makes your brand unique. We’ll uncover your goals, vision, values, audience, differentiators, brand personality and visual tone. The goal? To gather all the insights we need to become a mini expert on you.

🎨 Moodboard – After our kickoff call, we begin gathering hundreds of visuals from all corners of the internet (and real life!) We curate this collection and refine further to express the early look and feel of your brand. It’s not just about aesthetics—it’s a strategic tool that helps guide every design decision that follows.

Moodboards

• Set the visual direction – We explore color, typography, imagery, and texture to define your brand’s tone and style.
• Pressure-tests the palette – We test how colors and type interact with photography, layout, and styling to make sure everything feels cohesive.
• Align the team – It’s a visual checkpoint that ensures everyone—client and design team—is on the same page before moving into the full design.
• Inform future design – The moodboard becomes a creative compass we can return to throughout the project to stay focused and inspired.

📍Verbal Identity – We define your audience, brand’s voice and what sets you apart. Our goal is to ensure your verbal identity is actually useful to your team. We use checklists, tone examples and real actionable copy. We want your verbal identity to be as easy to implement as possible.

Verbal identity

• Provides internal alignment and clarity
• Serves as a guide for consistent communication
• Ensures your market-facing language reflects reality
• Shapes how your target audience sees, understands, and believes in your brand

This foundation makes every design decision intentional, helping your brand resonate with the right people—and stand out from the rest—from day one.​​

In today's digital landscape, the bar for exceptional web experiences has been raised. We like to tell our clients that practically anything is possible, and take this approach when bringing your brand to life.

Much like the thoughtfulness you put into your product or service to make sure your customers are satisfied, your website design deserves the same thoughtful consideration.

Building your website specifically for your target audience is our speciality. Even the smallest details—like button interactions transform routine clicks into moments of delight.

These seemingly minor touch points often represent key pathways to engagement with you.

That's why our Webflow development process emphasizes these brand-defining micro-interactions specific to you and your audience, while ensuring they're built on a foundation of clean, scalable, and maintainable components.

Links

Get your links

🤘 Cool history of that iconic Bob Dylan poster

📵 Gen Z is turning off auto-capitalization for all letters

🎙️What happens when your internal and external brand language don't match

🍓 PSA Google meet has strawberry face filter mode, a very useful feature

Currently

🤩 Leah • Watching movies exclusively with Jennifer Coolidge and Parker Posey (this week was For your Consideration and Riff Raff)

🌪️ Charlee • Survived multiple tornados last week (one hopped right over our neighborhood!)

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