Winter is doing its thing over here.

The flu took Leah out last week (10/10 do not recommend), so we’re deep in lemon ginger tea and easing back into work. The silver lining? We’re both counting down to upcoming travel: Leah’s heading to France and Charlee to Florida for sunshine very soon!

This month, we’re kicking off a new series where we walk you through exactly how our brand process works, step by step.

We’re using a real client to bring it to life: Ivy Hospitality!

In this issue:

• What actually happens in a brand kickoff (and why it matters more than jumping into design)
• And what's included in our SEO & AI search foundation (and what's not!)

If you’ve ever wondered how brands really get built, this one’s for you.

– Charlee + Leah

Design

Behind the Scenes: The Kickoff

We’re kicking off a new series where we walk you through exactly how our brand process works.

We’ll be featuring a real client: Ivy Hospitality. They’re an owner-centric, tech-forward hotel management organization who came to us a major turning point with some major business goals.

The Kickoff.

This is where we mix your internal knowledge with our external research. Before we ever open any design tools, we’re:

• Running competitor analysis
• Doing deep visual research
• Researching your audience (yes, sometimes that means braving subreddits)

In Ivy’s case, we spent some time deep in hospitality subreddits to understand how owners, operators, and talent actually talk, think, and complain. That insight shaped everything that followed.

Before the kickoff meeting, clients fill out an in-depth questionnaire. This important step helps us hit the ground running and get up to speed on your business and industry.

In the kickoff meeting, we dig in even deeper.

• Asking more questions about anything that was unclear
• Diving into even more details of your services, your typical customer journey and how you got your last 3 clients
• Your lived experience
• Your customer insights
• Our vision for where the business is going with everything we’ve learned on our end

Next: the moodboard meeting

Early in the process, we have a dedicated moodboard meeting. This meeting is designed to get us aligned quickly. Seeing visuals early matters.

This isn’t about getting it “right” immediately. It’s about understanding.

• Strategy starts to take visual shape​
• Language and visuals connect
• Honest, collaborative conversations happen early (not at the end)

We’re not offended if you love or hate something. We’re more curious about the story behind your reaction. That insight is gold and helps us make smarter, more intentional decisions later.

“Couldn’t AI just do this?”

Totally fair question. And one we hear a lot.

AI can generate a brand fast. But humans build brands that actually resonate and can scale effectively. Honestly even more importantly we can listen and read between the lines of what you're thinking and translate it into visuals.

Communication and trust are so important to a successful brand. That’s why our process is intentionally slower. And that's why we have many AI companies who've come to us (two human designers!) for brand support.

We’ll be upfront: this does require effort from clients, too.

The best work happens when:

• You’re ready to collaborate
• You bring your expertise to the table
• You want to get it right, not just fast

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TLDR: Our brand process

• 1-2 months total
• 4-5 meetings
• Built-in feedback time (client have 2 days to sit with each round and reflect)

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Next up in this series: how Ivy’s goals directly shaped their brand verbal & visual system.

SEO Isn’t Magic. It’s a Foundation.​
​We talk to a lot of teams who want to:

• Rank on page one
• Show up in AI search results
• See results immediately

We want that for you too, but here’s the truth: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization, aka AI-powered search) is built on many small, intentional decisions, not one silver bullet.

That’s why we focus heavily on foundational SEO/AEO during a website build.

Included in our standard SEO set-up

• Copy optimization
• Proper heading structure (H1–H3 based on meaning, not size)
• Title tags, meta descriptions & page schema markup
• Image alt text
• Sitemap submission
• Google Analytics & Search Console setup
• FAQs that support real search behavior
• ADA-conscious structure
• Site speed optimization (including animations + video that don’t tank performance)

This is the stuff that quietly does the heavy lifting.

We partnered with Daydream MD, a San Diego-based ketamine and therapy clinic, who needed a new brand and website without risking their top Google ranking.

We collaborated closely with their SEO strategist to create a transition plan that preserved rankings and supported a major brand upgrade. Read the full Daydream MD story​

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Where we draw the line (on purpose)

SEO and AEO are long games. While we build a rock-solid foundation, we’re honest about where our expertise ends.

If you want:

• Ongoing keyword strategy
• Editorial calendars
• Blog production
• Link building
• Advanced performance analysis

We’ll happily recommend (or collaborate with) SEO strategists and growth specialists who live and breathe that work.

Think of it this way:​
Your website is the foundation.
SEO success comes from nurturing what’s built on top of it.

If the foundation is shaky, no amount of content will save it.

Links

Get your links

✈️ Would you go on a surprise trip? This startup plans a full trip for you, just show up to the airport

☁️ Great read on Pantone's 2026 color of year

🔭 Cool idea and even cooler website (highly rec hovering over those buttons)

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Currently

🍵 Leah • Hitting lemon ginger tea HARD!​
💐 Charlee • Brightening up the winter grey blahs with some flowers and got to flex my floral arranging skills (Leah: both of us took a floral arranging elective course in college together, honestly a highlight!)

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