Strategy & creative direction
Strategy is that sentence. Let me walk you through how we write it together, from the first hello to handover. Tools and people included.
You tell me what you're building and what's quietly keeping you up about it. I tell you honestly whether I'm the right hands, and if I'm not, who is. It's just the two of us on this call.
If we're a fit, I write a short brief, we agree the scope in plain language, and we book the kickoff. No forty-page document nobody reads.
Before I have opinions, I get facts. I go through your world: customers, competitors, the category's tired cliches, and the exact words people use when they talk about you.
If I can, I interview a handful of your customers, because they say the things your team has stopped being able to hear. For heavy desk research, I bring in a researcher.
Now the good part. Where can you stand that's true, defensible, and not already crowded? We map the territory, cross out the positions everyone else owns, and find the one you can plant a flag on.
This is brand strategy in practice: your audience, your promise, your personality, and the story that makes someone choose you over the cheaper option.
We're not hunting for a space that's empty. We want the one that's yours.
A strategy nobody remembers is just a document. So we compress it into a single idea: simple enough to repeat at a dinner party, strong enough to survive a few years and a couple of CMOs.
if it needs a paragraph to explain, it isn't the idea yet
If a name is on the table, this is where it happens. Sayable, ownable, and clear of legal landmines. I run the shortlist through a trademark and domain check, with an IP lawyer on the clearance, before you fall for one that's already taken.
Strategy earns its keep the moment it touches real work. I set the visual and verbal direction, brief whoever is making it, and keep every piece honest to the idea, from first sketch to final export.
It's one person directing a specialised crew, designers, photographer, motion, copy and dev, so nothing gets lost in translation.
You get a direction anyone on your team can pick up and reach the same answer: the positioning, the idea, the guidelines, and me on call while it lands in the real world.
Before you ask
Brand strategy decides what to say and why. Creative direction decides how it looks, sounds and feels. I do both, so the thinking and the making never pull in different directions.
Pick parts. Some clients want the full walk from discovery to art direction; others just need positioning, or a name, or someone to direct work already in motion. We scope to exactly where you are.
A focused positioning and concept sprint is usually two to four weeks. A name can be quicker; a full direction with art direction runs longer. You get a real timeline right after the first call.