Creative Direction Case Studies

Threadless

Reintroducing a familiar startup to a highly loyal community that craved a wild and crazy journey

Creative Direction, Brand strategy, Brand story, Value Proposition, Copywriting

  • Threadless is an online community of designers from all over the world who submit designs in a contest-like format in order to get a cash reward and design cred.

    The Threadless brand had the feel of a favorite old tee: extremely special and comfortable...but perhaps it didn’t fit like it used to. The established customer base was loyal but and young artists and fans were entering in. The new crop of designers needed to find a clear way to participate with the brand and Threadless could no longer rely on what had worked in the past.

  • We transformed an inconsistent t-shirt site with no content owners to a fully developed brand that inspires the worldwide Threadless design community to this day. And in order to connect fully with the changing audience, we shifted advertising strategy from a sales focus to the core of the Threadless business: support of artists around the world.

  • • Grew member base to 4.2 million

    • Streamlined internal creative processes and workflows

    • Unified internal employees and external audience

  • • Evolved the previous tagline “Nude No More” to “Make Great Together,” providing a unifying rallying cry for the maker community of artists worldwide

    • Told the Make Great Together story in several different channels: website, social media, environmental displays at Threadless headquarters and retail store, packaging, emails, and print and digital ads

    • Overhauled the website, from content strategy and navigation to back-end programming to product photography, bringing a crowdsourcing pioneer into the modern e-commerce environment they were crucial in building

    • Tested and created new content for the bi-weekly email newsletter, with a subscriber base of roughly 900,000

Modest

Shaping the value of tech that doesn’t exist yet through a clear & consistent brand story

Brand strategy, Brand story, Creative Direction, Value Proposition, Copywriting, Pitch deck

  • A Chicago startup had a revolutionary checkout technology. Although much time had been spent developing the back end components, the company needed a way to package up the technology in an understandable way that would clearly outline value to potential investors and stand out in a crowded tech sector.

  • We created a brand from scratch, articulated its offer, and built a website for this revolutionary way to checkout online. All in less than two weeks.

    We needed a site that fully showcased the story of the brand while articulating its value clearly. This was a challenge as this particular checkout technology did not exist yet. Our work was to translate the technically heavy language of the development team and translate it into a friendly consumer-facing site.

  • • Cohesive brand story permeated entire Modest brand, from website to pitch deck to sales presentation

    • PayPal acquired Modest just months after our website launch

  • • Brand strategy and development for this emerging offer

    • Content strategy and planning for the website

    • Copywriting for the website

    • Development of and editing for tailored investor pitch deck

    • Intensive strategic and creative collaboration with Modest design and development teams

American Battlefield Trust

Guiding an organization through a name change and subsequent brand transformation

Brand strategy, Brand story, Creative Direction, Design Thinking, Research, Copywriting

  • A non-partisan, nonprofit land-saving organization was facing a drastic overhaul: they were changing their name from the Civil War Trust to the American Battlefield Trust. They had a unique challenge in that they needed to shed the negative connotations of the Civil War era while still retaining a close relationship with their loyal following.

  • To guide this brand shift, we worked from the inside out, starting with an internal mission-seeking workshop from the entire organization. The inputs from this guided the decision-making and laid the groundwork for the future.

    We guided the brand through a successful transition into the new era. In doing so, we pushed the organization forward by capitalizing on the strengths of the existing brand, defining expansion goals, and using both to bring the future brand story to life.

  • • Complete organizational buy in on the newly refreshed brand

    • Rallied the 55,000 member base around an entirely new organizational mission and vision

    • Successfully brought the organization into a new context of historical storytelling, using inclusive and unifying stories

  • • In-person human-centered design workshop guiding entire 70 person organization through brand considerations

    • Revised brand story direction, including personality, archetype, values, audience journey that fit the current and future desires of the organization

    • Retooled brand voice and tone to fit new brand story direction

    • Created successful print ads that exemplified the new brand direction in targeted publications

Posey Law Group

Giving a business owner a personal brand and online presence that reflects her true gifts

Brand strategy, Brand story, Creative Direction

  • An attorney was building a burgeoning law group. She was thriving — she had the expertise, skills, and clients to support her thriving business… but no online presence to speak of.

    It’s common for business owners to spend too much time working in their business and not on it. The Story Shoppe stepped in to give her a cohesive brand, story, and web copy. She was thrilled to finally have a site that sounded like her, and a showcase for the values that were true to her heart.

  • To guide the Posey Law Group, we began with deep insights work. Our journalistic approach delves into really getting to know our clients, because we know that in order to create an authentic brand, your outward brand has to truly reflect who you are on the inside.

    I was responsible for the strategy and creative direction, and one of my top writers expertly crafted the copy for Posey Law Group.

  • • The client has complete confidence in the direction of her business, and has experienced a marked increase in clients since site launch

    • “If I had a dollar for every time someone told me how much my website content sounds like me, I could stop practicing law altogether.”

    - Stephanie Posey, client

  • • In-depth stakeholder interviews

    • Custom personal brand archetypes based of my Ourtypes Storytelling framework that the client still uses as a strategic personal branding tool today

    • Spot on website copy