Design Bigger

You’ve got a strong portfolio 💼, a clear area of expertise 🎯, and a steady stream of clients 💸. But what if you want out of the category you’re known for?

Maybe you’re the go-to studio for tech brands 💻, but you dream of branding restaurants 🍽️. Or you’ve done a ton of CPG work 🧴, but want to land a hotel project 🏨. Pivoting into a new industry is something every agency faces at some point — and it’s absolutely doable.

In t...

In this episode, I cover six mistakes I see all the time—in independent studios, freelancers, even junior strategists inside agencies. They’re subtle. But they scream to clients: “This person’s not thinking strategically.”

These are small things—like skipping intro slides or over-describing your design—but they quietly undermine your authority. Luckily, they’re easy to fix.

You’ll learn:

• Why skipping “intro slides” is the big...

Feeling like an impostor when it comes to presenting brand strategy? You’re not alone. This episode is your pep talk, history lesson, and practical guide all rolled into one.

• Why strategy was originally part of the designer’s job — before it got siloed into a separate role in big agencies.

• Two powerful facts that will make brand strategy (and strategists) less scary.

• Two simple hacks you can use right n...

🎙️ In this episode of Design Frameworks, I unpack the rise, fall—and unexpected evolution—of brand purpose in modern marketing, brand strategy and design.

If you're building brands from the ground up, leading positioning work for clients, or rethinking your own agency’s approach to storytelling, this episode gives you the context and tools to decide how (and if) brand purpose fits into your strategy today.

What You’ll Learn:

💸 Ho...

In this episode, I offer a surprising reframe on the idea of “dream clients.”🦄 Those beautiful case studies you see on The Dieline, The Brand Identity, or the Pentawards? Most of them didn’t start with a sexy brief. They began with ordinary clients—generic names, undifferentiated products, and uninspiring brand worlds. The difference? The agency made them dream clients 🌈.

I share real examples of turning underwhelming briefs into...

In this episode, we talk about how to position strategy in a way that even clients who don’t know what strategy is are eager to buy it. Based on my Free Guide Stop Giving Away Your Strategy: Write Proposals That Get You Paid, this episode offers practical advice on how to position and price strategy—plus how long things usually take.

You’ll learn 🚀:

- Why even small clients and brands are willing to invest when strategy is framed ...

In this episode, we dive into the hot topic that’s been shaking up the design industry—last week's release of ChatGPT-4o’s advanced image generation and what it means for designers, copywriters, photographers, and strategists.

I break down the hard and soft reasons why AI won’t replace human creativity, how to position yourself beyond what AI can do, and the strategic thinking skills that will set you apart. Plus, I share practical...

In this episode, we dive into the ethical blind spots in the brand design process (in particular, packaging and visual identity design). While design has the power to shape perceptions and influence consumer decisions, it can also mislead and deceive if not approached thoughtfully. We talk about the fine line between creativity and manipulation, showing how designers, without a strategic framework, can unknowingly contribute to une...

In this episode of Design Frameworks, I’m breaking down why classic Color Theory doesn't help your design thinking. While it tells how colors influence emotions, it ignores cultural and commercial context, ie. category codes—which are what really matter when choosing colors for a brand. You’ll learn: ✅ Why Color Theory is outdated for branding ✅ How to audit Category Codes to make smarter color choices ✅ The real questions to ask w...

If you’ve ever felt like strategy is an intimidating world reserved for 'genius' strategists, this episode will break that myth. I share my personal story of faking it till I made it in the creative industry and debunk the idea that strategic thinking is something you have to be born with. I reveal everything — from how I used to Google every single word on the briefs I received to how access to old decks on the agency's strategy s...

In this episode, we kick off the Design Frameworks series, diving into brand strategy tools and whether they actually work for independent designers and studios. Today’s focus: Brand Archetypes—the classic framework introduced in 2001 by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson, inspired by Carl Jung’s 12 archetypes (like the Hero, Lover, and Jester).

We explore:

- Why big brands used archetypes—to differentiate portfolios (think Dove as th...

In this debut episode, I dive into a hot topic I discuss with my design clients all the time: why big agency brand strategy often fails when applied to smaller studios. Big agencies—think Wieden+Kennedy, Interbrand, or Pentagram—craft strategies for Fortune 500 giants, where every move impacts global markets and investment portfolios. Their method is rigorous, data-heavy, and slow-moving by design. But when this same approach is re...