We are a black- and queer-owned branding studio dedicated to helping purpose-driven organizations make positive social change. Empathy, purpose, and wonder guide everything we do.

We craft charismatic brands that speak the language of feeling using an alchemist’s approach: science (strategy) + art (emotion).

Brand is a magic box:

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Your brand is defined by your audiences’ perceptions, emotions, and memories: the sum of all parts. It’s what they say are you, not what you say.

Let’s channel your brand’s why to illicit your audience’s emotions, align with their needs, shape their perceptions, and engender loyalty.

Channel your why:

Diagram illustrating the components of the limbic brain, including gut feelings, emotions, trust, and loyalty, and the neocortex, including reasoning, logic, and language, connected to the question of what, how, and why.

Align purpose with need:

Diagram of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, showing five levels: physiological needs at the bottom (breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep, sex), safety and security (health, employment, property, family, social ability), love and belonging (friendship, family, intimacy, connection), self-esteem (confidence, freedom, respect, recognition), and self-actualization (full potential).

Brand Strategy

  • Vision

    long-term aspirations and goals

  • Promise

    the contract that you keep

  • Differentiation

    sets you apart from competitors

  • Values

    core principles guiding all actions

  • Story

    narrative of who you are

  • Emotions & Needs

    how you make people feel

  • Experiences

    the memorable experiences

  • Reputation

    what people say about you

  • Communication

    how you sound, look, and behave

  • Culture

    how you treat people

Chart displaying different types of spirits with bars indicating their popularity or production, titled 'Distill', with one prominent gold-colored horizontal bar.

Brand strategy helps to:

Distill your brand’s core essence, resulting in a deep connection with your audience.

Diagram explaining how to purify water, with steps including boiling, filtering, and chemical treatment, alongside an illustration of a water wave.

Purify your decision-making, resulting in effortless and aligned consistent growth.

Diagram showing how light waves are concentrated into a laser beam through a process called crystallization, with waves on the left and a gold-colored laser symbol on the right.

Crystallize your ideas and infuse emotion, resulting in deliberate differentiation from competitors.

We’d love to help you manifest your new brand, evolve your existing brand to the next level, or develop a compelling marketing campaign.

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This is our team:

  • founder + director

    David Spears is a design leader deeply rooted in strategy and empathy. He has extensive experience crafting brand stories, leading creative direction, mentoring design teams, managing projects and budgets, and contributing to business development.

    David holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University. His thesis project aimed to infuse text messages with nonverbal cues to bring you closer to the ones you love. After graduation, David was an adjunct professor at the Academy of Art University and taught courses on typography, branding, and thesis development. In 2021, David completed an artist residency on Building Brands with Type at the School of Visual Arts where he learned typeface design. In addition, he sat on the board of directors of AIGA DC as Salon Chair in 2022. 

    His approach to branding is founded on his undergraduate education at the with a BA in Studio Arts and BS in Psychology. With a unique blend of disciplines, David brings a conceptual understanding of semiotics, empathy for audiences, and curiosity and play to visual communication.

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  • researcher + strategist

    An experienced creative director and strategist, Lilia LaGesse is the founder and lead strategist at Heard Creative Co. She is passionate about advancing the social good through bold and exciting designs and strategies that not only educate but inspire.

    Lilia learned how to build things by drawing on the family stories of generations of creators, entrepreneurs, and trailblazers. She has built her own story with years of focus on helping others through excellence in storytelling.

    She’s curious. She’s methodical. She’s the kind of person people ask for directions because they can tell she wants to help. Above all, Lilia is focused on you and your ambitions because she wants to make them a reality.

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  • experience brand designer

    Courtney is a multi-disciplinary designer, educator and creative from PG County Maryland. She is the founder of CC Creative Studio, where she practices her love of art and design. With more than five years of experience, Courtney is a skilled designer who has worked with a variety of clients from small businesses, local government agencies, as well as mega-brands like Google, Meta/Facebook and Amazon.

    As a proud graduate of MICA in Baltimore, Maryland, Courtney now teaches design courses at the college. She also keeps busy with Odd Charm, an online boutique for lovers of handmade jewelry and vintage goods.

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  • digital brand designer

    Paul specializes in creating visually compelling designs that communicate ideas and inspire action. His journey began with a passion for art and technology, leading him to earn a degree in Graphic Design & Marketing from American University.

    Paul has collaborated with diverse clients, from startups to established brands, crafting everything from logos and branding materials to digital marketing assets and user interfaces. His design philosophy centers on the belief that every element must serve a purpose, enhancing the overall message while maintaining aesthetic appeal.

A young man with a short hairstyle, beard, and earring, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, sitting against a black background.

  • brand designer

    While working as a graphic designer he continued pursuing his degree at the Academy of Art University of San Francisco and completed his program in 2020. Although already successful in his field, Cesar believes that being an “eternal student” and continuing to hone his craft and skill is what allows him to produce his best work. With a heart for understanding the ethos of the brands he works with, Cesar builds the design around each client and their values.  He believes in discovering the deeper meaning and conveying that through graphic design, making the overall impression more impactful. Rather than working within one niche of graphic design, Cesar prefers to work with clients he believes he can bring the most value to, including non-profits. His capabilities are versatile, allowing him to work with many different brands.

    Cesar’s open-minded and creative approach expands beyond just his work. Having lived in 3 countries already and explored 16 others, he’s always in pursuit of the next adventure. “I’ve seen many cultures and backgrounds and I love to use those different perspectives of life to draw from when considering thinking creatively.” Cesar says of his passion for travel. Through travel he is able to provide his clients with an even broader perspective and draw from design inspiration around the globe. As Cesar himself puts it, “Creativity is at the core of everything I do.”

A woman with short dark hair, blue eyes, and light skin, smiling, wearing a patterned button-up shirt, earrings, and shot against a plain black background.

  • foresight strategist

    Julienne is a design futures researcher and educator. Her approach blends experiential foresight and design-led research to equip interdisciplinary clients with strategies that cultivate positive, lasting change. She is a part-time professor at Parsons where she teaches undergraduate students and adult learners in courses spanning design, AI, and foresight. 

Circular diagram with the words 'STAGE A' at the top and 'ASK' in the center, black background, gold text.

This is our process:

In this first stage, we ask a multitude of questions to uncover why your brand exists, what it stands for, and for whom. We’ll explore how you think about your brand, beliefs and behaviors of your target audience, similar brands in your space, cultural trends and perspectives, and the future of your industry.

Deliverables include:
1. surveys + interviews + assessments
2. brand audits + SWOT analyses
3. competitive analyses
4. cultural landscape scans
5. market future research

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After gathering an abundant amount of information from various sources, we will develop a strategy that defines the core of your brand. In this second stage, your brand will become deeply rooted in emotion and connect with need.

Deliverables include:
1. brand platforms + campaign approaches
2. manifestos (or elevator pitches) + origin stories
3. personality grids + archetype classifications
4. personas
5. journey maps

A black background with a white geometric circle design featuring the words 'CREATE' in the center and 'STAGE C' at the top.

In this third stage, we will create your brand’s logo, voice, and visual identity using your strategy as the North Star to guide creative explorations and decisions. This is where your brand will start to take shape.

Deliverables include:
1. naming + taglines
2. brand architecture
3. brand voice
4. logo development
5. visual identity development

A circular diagram with geometric lines on a black background. The words 'STAGE D' are at the top, and the word 'DEVELOP' is centered.

With a brand voice and visual identity in place, the fourth stage is where we bring your brand to life by developing assets, collateral, and materials. Creating actual materials will allow us to fine tune your visual identity through experimentation.

Deliverables include:
1. marketing materials
2. product design (digital & physical)
3. social media identities
4. brand experiences (digital & physical)
5. launch plans

A black background with a geometric white design and the words 'STAGE E' at the top and 'ENGAGE' in the center.

In this final stage, we launch your brand to engage with your audiences. We also create materials and training to empower your team to easily understand and work with your new brand.

Deliverables include:
1. testing
2. style sheets
3. style guides
4. brand guidelines
5. internal brand training

These are our gifts:

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We can read your audience’s mind and craft strategies rooted in emotion using empathy and intuition.

Black background with white line drawing of two hands holding a crystal ball, with gold accents and the word 'FORESIGHT' above.

We use foresight to develop sustainable strategies and plans the future of your brand.

Line art illustration of a hand holding a perched owl, with the word 'SHAPESHIFTING' curved above.

We have the ability to shape your brand’s soul, personality, and appearance.

Illustration of a hand pressing a button labeled 'Manifestation' on a black background.

We manifest and bring your brand to life by crafting engaging materials.

Line drawing of a hand holding a pair of eyeglasses with the text 'Business Acumen' above.

We couldn’t manifest without being grounded in business development, operationalized processes, project management, purposeful strategy, and working efficiently with budgets.