Branding as Storytelling

When I work on a branding project I’m there to learn, create, and tell a story.

There are 1,000 different ways to dissect a brand, and 10,000 agencies willing to pick up the scalpel. Personally, I almost bristle at the word “brand.” It’s a loaded, corporate-sounding thing that I carry very little affinity for in my own life. (Except for you Field Notes ❤️)

So IDEO was selective in which types of branding projects they staffed me on. I only worked on brands with stories at their center.

The two, public projects I’m most proud of are Orbia and Cities United.

Orbia is a conglomerate that used to be called Mexichem (exhaustive rebrand clearly necessary). On the heels of months worth of brand architecture work, we needed to create an identity that not only conveyed their transformation but held them accountable to it. The result is a living logo that changes every year based on how well the company lives up to its values. Pretty rad, right?

Cities United is a nonprofit that had far outgrown the brand it started with. They were always too focused on their work to rebrand. In 2020 IDEO launched a Racial Justice Impact Fund, building relationships with organizations like Cities United to deliver $2 million worth of design work. In this instance, our team wanted to accentuate the best of an already incredible organization and craft an identity that gave clarity, sharpness, and swagger to their incredible story. The result has to be one of the coolest non-profit brands out there. (San Francisco Design Week recognized this work with an award for communication design.)