I’ve had the opportunity to craft strategy for some amazing brands.
Ahead are a few of my favorites.
Uncovering the brand’s essence to drive expansion
Role
Strategist
Deliverables
Brand Platform
Brand Architecture
Visual Identity
Activation Plan
The Challenge
Elevate a brand without premium clout into higher tiers—while entering markets where it lacks recognition and permission
Despite holding a leadership position in the Smart TV and streaming market, Roku faced a critical perception gap—consumers didn't recognize them as the category leader they actually were, nor did they view the brand as innovative.
This misalignment became a strategic barrier as the company set ambitious expansion goals: broadening their footprint beyond Smart TVs into adjacent categories while simultaneously launching a premium product line.
The Insight
Roku’s true innovation is the rare ability to transform complicated processes into intuitive, joyful interactions
Through comprehensive discovery—including direct CEO interviews and cross-touchpoint research—I led the effort to rediscover what truly made this brand exceptional, an understanding that had been lost as the company pursued differentiation.
What emerged was a profound realization: the brand's authentic core was about enhancing customers' enjoyment of whatever they loved most through delightfully simple experiences—a mission that had been the brand's unspoken differentiator from day one yet had never been articulated as their strategic advantage.
The Solution
We developed a comprehensive brand platform centered around the values the brand wanted to embody. The cornerstone was a brand promise that authentically linked the brand's rich history with its ambitious expansion into new markets, providing the credibility needed to enter those territories.
We brought this strategic foundation to life through a unique archetype that blended two relatable characters, creating a composite identity that truly encapsulated who they were as a company. I then collaborated closely with our design team to translate this refined essence to a visual identity system that seamlessly aligned the strategy and the execution.
The Transformation
The brand architecture we constructed provided the structural foundation needed for continued expansion without diluting what made the brand truly special. Our strategic framework equipped their teams with a clear means to tell their story, enabling them to better articulate their value proposition to both existing and prospective customers.
The results validated our approach—their expansion into smart home products was met with positive reception across all audiences, while their core Smart TV business experienced renewed market enthusiasm, proving that authentic brand clarity drives growth across both new and established territories.
Reimagining the brand for what’s next
Role
Strategist
Deliverables
Brand Platform
Messaging
Product Positioning
Visual Identity
The Challenge
Transition the brand strategy from a defensive stance to a future-focused approach aligned with evolving audience expectations
After years of rebuilding trust, the brand had reached a critical inflection point—its foundation now stable, it was ready to think strategically about the future. Specifically, what a brand that could authentically connect with audiences of today and tomorrow might look like.
The Insight
Wells Fargo needs to acknowledge and build authentic connection with audiences that live non-linear lives
My discovery process revealed a fundamental misalignment: life is no longer linear, yet large institutions continue viewing customers through an outdated lens, assuming everyone follows the same path and hits identical milestones.
Compounding this disconnect, customers have lost trust in institutions, particularly larger banks, feeling these organizations work against their interests rather than for them.
The Solution
Looking back through the brand's history, we discovered they had always been a brand for pioneers—a heritage we leveraged to establish credibility for our new brand story. This narrative centered on seeing every customer as the individual they are and truly showing up for them in all the ways they might need.
To bring this to life, we developed extensive audience profiles that identified a direct target to consistently speak to, along with a specific brand personality with traits that deeply resonated with this audience. We codified all of this strategic work into comprehensive playbooks, ensuring that anyone speaking about the brand would always remain authentically on-brand.
The Transformation
I helped secure buy-in from leaders across the organization, and the work has now become the foundational blueprint for the company's future. The brand strategy now spans five lines of business, countless products, and over 200,000 employees, positioning it to shape how more than 70 million Americans interact with the Wells Fargo brand for the foreseeable future.
This transformation represents not just a rebranding effort, but a fundamental shift in how one of the nation's largest financial institutions connects with and serves its diverse customer base.
Aligning the portfolio architecture with long-term goals
Role
Strategist
Deliverables
Brand Architecture
The Challenge
Establish clear guidelines to streamline a portfolio of over one hundred products
Through decades of product proliferation, mergers and acquisitions, and industry-leading innovation, the company's portfolio of brands had become unwieldy and difficult to navigate. While the company's future strategy called for a much cleaner, more streamlined portfolio, there were no established guidelines for how to transition from the current complex structure to the desired future state.
The brand team tasked with orchestrating this transformation found themselves frustrated and largely misaligned with internal leadership, creating additional barriers to progress.
The Insight
The real priority wasn’t architecture, but aligning the people behind it
After a few conversations with the Autodesk brand team, I realized this project extended far beyond a traditional architecture exercise—we needed to help all teams align on defining the problem before attempting to create any solution.
Once we achieved alignment on the core problem, we could then establish the strategic logic that would form the foundation of the new future-facing portfolio.
The Solution
We developed a customized architecture approach that accounted for their unique organizational needs, ensuring each business unit was properly represented while allowing legacy products to maintain their rightful place in relation to the new flagship offerings.
This solution balanced respect for established equity with the strategic imperative of portfolio simplification, creating clear hierarchies and relationships that everyone could understand and support.
The Transformation
The new architecture now serves as the strategic foundation for the brand moving forward, providing the structural clarity needed as the company proceeds to define and own a new category.
This framework has eliminated internal confusion and misalignment, replacing frustration with a shared vision that guides decision-making across all business units and product lines.
Launching a B2B healthcare brand with B2C heart
Role
Strategist
Deliverables
Name
Brand Platform
Brand Architecture
Visual Identity
The Challenge
Create a b2b healthcare brand that is differentiated while still appealing to business decision makers rather than patients
While Baylor Scott & White Health was well known for their excellent healthcare service for patients in the Northern Texas area, they wanted to expand their proven model to other hospital systems and employers nationwide.
However, the space was relatively saturated and dominated by tech-forward VCs and massive brands like Optum, creating significant competitive barriers.
The Insight
Bring the humanity back to healthcare business solutions without sacrificing professional credibility
Through market analysis, I discovered that competitors in the space approached this purely as a business decision, messaging it with cold language and even colder visual identities that stripped away any human connection.
To stand out, we needed to look and feel like a brand built for people, while ensuring our messaging wasn't too warm as to alienate our primary B2B decision makers.
The Solution
We developed a comprehensive brand identity including name, positioning, and visual identity that distinctly stands out in the category, giving Baylor Scott & White Health the ability to start conversations with a clear understanding that they are fundamentally different.
The solution balanced human-centered design with business-appropriate messaging, allowing them to authentically communicate their patient-first philosophy while speaking the language of healthcare executives and employers.