conscious-tech startup

Starchive

For two decades, Starchive has been working with the archival teams of some of entertainment's biggest icons, like Bob Dylan, The Property Brothers, & Essence Magazine. In 2020, they revamped their platform to be accessible to all creators and contracted me to help them bring their brand to the masses.

OVERVIEW

Create a modern, trend-forward brand that will resonate with creatives and integrate a new NFT offering with traditional digital asset management services.

CHALLENGE

Create & present an identity that takes an innovative brand from standard SaaS company to memorable creator brand.

BRIEF

I presented an overview of brands operating in a similar position: targeting the creator economy, truly innovative product, and trend-forward identity. From this, we launched a quick website upgrade and drip campaign, in only about six weeks, and then started working on the strategy to revamp the entire brand.

MARSHA, a font by Tré Seals, of Vocal Type, was inspired by the vertical sign that once hung outside of Stonewall, and named after Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha was an African-American, transgender woman from New Jersey, whose activism in the 1960's and 70's made her one of the most prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969.Tré's work is focused on bringing greater diversity to typography, and using this font was a step towards Starchive presenting as a leader in increasing diversity in the creator economy.

We wanted a easy-to-read font for paragraphs, that would not detract from the power of the title font and would feel familiar to people.

The team didn't want to redo their logo because they have been around for so long. So I did a quick "upgrade" to it, bringing it forward to match their brand.

consulting that equalizes

Rosa Sabater

Rosa had long been running the consulting firm, Martellus, and over the years, had started adding additional services for womxn in CEO positions and young professional womxn just coming into the corporate world. Everything she does is focused on how to get womxn the pay they deserve and the support they need to succeed in the corporate world.

OVERVIEW

Create an umbrella brand that brings together all of her various endeavors and creates a place for her to grow as a thought leader.

CHALLENGE

To create an umbrella brand that represented a diversity of womxn at various stages of their careers.

BRIEF

By focusing on the struggles Rosa knows womxn bring to her various endeavors, we created copy, opt-in resources, and a membership program that would speak to what womxn really need to succeed. We were careful to use a diverse set of stock photos that represented a diversity of womxn, in size, age, and race or cultural identity.

The goal with typography was to balance professionalism with friendliness and accessibility. So I went with a more professional serif font for headings and a common san serif for paragraphs.

Rosa wanted to stay friendly and accessible, so we decided not to create a logo, but to use a hand-written font and her name.

connection through play

The Adventure Project

Amy Angelilli is an improviser who has run improv schools and used improv to connect groups for two decades. She contracted me to help her relaunch her brand as one that works with schools, companies, and events, focusing less without losing her playful spirit and still highlighting her performance options and work.

OVERVIEW

Create a brand identity that incorporates the more playful elements of Amy's work but presents professional enough to attract larger organizations and schools.

CHALLENGE

To create an updated website without doing a rebrand.

BRIEF

I approached every element of this from the perspective of playfulness, from the template we started with to the images used to the copy.

Amy was set on using her existing logo, which was created for a previous website, focused on "summer camp for adults." This limited what we could do with the website. So I used a photoshop filter to make the logo pop more and found a new font to use for the business name.

modern activist community

Climate Designers

Climate Designers launched in 2020, as a free membership community for designers - in every industry - to come together and use their work to create climate change. They contracted with me that fall to be the Program & Communications lead for their upcoming virtual conference.

OVERVIEW

Oversee program strategy and be responsible for all communications.

CHALLENGE

To create a program schedule for a global brand and to create marketing collateral to reach possible participants, sponsors, and speakers.

BRIEF

As part of a small team who was organizing the conference, my first step was to present a program strategy to the rest of the team. From there, we were off and running!I edited almost every piece of communications that we put out, and I worked with the speakers on their bios.I also created a sponsorship deck.

writing portfolio

I have interviewed and featured close to 100 founders and creatives over the past few years.

• View My Portfolio

feature opportunity

I have recently launched a substack publication, in collaboration with Starchive. We are on a mission to feature the work of as many creatives as we can.Check it out here and apply to be featured here.

01.

I'll send you some strategy questions to help us both get clear on your vision for your business.

02.

I'll set up a Squarespace website, complete with free stock photos, section headings, & a unique color palette.

03.

We'll have a 90 minute meeting to go over all of the choices I made, and discuss the remaining content.

04.

You'll fill in the remaining content, and I'll do an edit for voice and clarity.

featured client

"I was struggling with getting my message and business clearly organized and articulated on my website and wasn't sure I could get the quality I wanted within my budget. Not only was LaKay within my budget, she spoke my language and understood exactly what I was looking for. As for my new brand look and website, it is fresh, well-expressed, clean, organized and beautiful."- Heather, Pura Vida Holistic Health

simple pricing

$1,200

50% is paid to book your project and 50% is paid after the 90 minute session (midway point).Email me with any questions or to get started!