Brand strategy · Brand design · Fractional creative direction
Most agencies brand on one person's taste. We treat branding as a communication engineering problem. We collect the right data first, so design stops being a matter of opinion and starts hitting the outcome it was built for.
Everything below runs on the same brand data, collected once at the start. Measured, and yours to keep. Take all four, or start wherever you are.
A real one, with real data.
What your leadership believes, what your buyers see, and exactly where the two disagree. That gap is the audit.
Built on the audit, not beside it.
Positioning, messaging and creative direction that trace back to a number, then loaded into an AI system trained on your brand data so every decision after this one starts from data your competitors don't have.
Data-driven, AI-enabled, built to enterprise standards.
Identity, websites, campaigns, video and social, built from the strategy by experienced professionals with the latest technology. The sites are engineered to pass an enterprise IT audit, because ours get audited.
A professor in the seat.
Joseph takes the creative director seat part-time and trains your team on the data and human best practices. You get more out of the people you have than a new hire would.
Every one began with the data and ended with something the client understood would work.
01Capital construction software
The company had outgrown its brand, so we rebuilt it the way their customers build: measure first, agree on the data, then construct. One direction, approved once, extended across web, social, video, print and a style guide that holds. Departments we never touched asked to be updated, down to the IT portal.
We didn’t keep revisiting the direction like you often do. DarkSquare gave us a clear starting point, and the whole team moved forward together.
DarkSquare brought a rare level of thoughtfulness to how our brand shows up across the business. The work is always of extremely high quality and cohesion without requiring a lot of input or direction.
02Scholarship nonprofit, Bay Area
A privately funded nonprofit paying partial tuition for low-income families needed an identity as diverse as the families it serves. One child illustration couldn’t do it, so we drew eight. The stationery was printed one child per set and shuffled. The website draws a different one on every page load.
I am a critic of creative firms and their approaches. They often reflect great creativity but not so great connection to the business and real world. DarkSquare is an exception.
It was important that our new brand honored the diversity of the families we work with. Their sensitivity and imaginative approach helped us do that in a powerful and sincere way we never would have thought of.
03Bioartist and futurist
Amy Karle’s work is shown in museums around the world and has been recognized by the Smithsonian and the United Nations. The site had to carry both the depth and the breadth of it without flattening either. We planned it as an extension of the brand, then built it to hold the immersive narrative her work creates.
As an artist and designer myself I have an extra critical eye, and DarkSquare surpassed my expectations.
04Automated decisioning
Twenty years in automated decisioning and two acquisitions had outgrown the old identity. Discovery workshops with leadership and interviews with their biggest national and international customers set the brand type and the positioning. Siloed sub-brands came together under one mark. Then we designed Alfie, the owl that fronts their AI assistant.
The outcome of InRule’s brand evolution initiative is a modern look and feel that reflects who we are and our vision for the future.
We were ultimately blown away by the final design of Alfie. He is everything we hoped for and perfectly embodies the spirit of our Generative AI offering.
I am a critic of creative firms and their approaches. I've seen quite a few and they often reflect great creativity but not so great connection to the business and real world. DarkSquare is an exception. The brand they created for us was very well done.
We didn't keep revisiting the direction like you often do. DarkSquare gave us a clear starting point, and the whole team moved forward together.
We really appreciated DarkSquare's efforts and guidance in helping us define our brand archetype. The outcome of InRule's brand evolution initiative is a modern look and feel that reflects who we are and our vision for the future.
DarkSquare's comprehensive approach to creating our security campaign was outstanding. They gathered surveys from cross-functional stakeholders and combined it with their own research, to present archetypes and recommended messaging and creative direction. Their expertise and innovative methods have made them an invaluable partner in achieving our campaign goals and have garnered praise from across our organization.
DarkSquare has helped us better understand who we are as a company and how to communicate the value we provide. They are a valuable partner to us in navigating how to talk about our offerings in the very technical and rapidly changing markets that we operate in.
DarkSquare brought a rare level of thoughtfulness to how our brand shows up across the business. That consistency and intentionality across different facets has been invaluable.
DarkSquare has a great process that helped us answer critical questions about how we represent ourselves through our brand. They helped us better understand our messaging and how to reach our audience. Our new brand is something we're really proud of.
As an experienced web developer who has worked with many creative agencies, I've been wholly impressed with DarkSquare's high quality of design, delivery and technical execution.
DarkSquare really understands our business. They're not a group of outsourced freelancers and they're not a one and done creative firm chasing after the next big project. They take the time to understand our objectives and work closely with us to achieve them.
We were ultimately blown away by the final design of Alfie. He is everything we hoped for and perfectly embodies the spirit of our Generative AI offering. DarkSquare's creativity and expertise helped us create a brand character that will truly resonate with our customers.
DarkSquare helped us create a brand that spoke clearly our values to the communities we serve, the donors who partner with us, our board of professionals, and our own internal team. It was important that our new brand honored the diversity of the families we work with and the area we operate in. Their sensitivity and imaginative approach helped us do that in a powerful and sincere way we never would have thought of.
DarkSquare has created a new brand and logo that are bold and stylish, and that recognizes the two company founders in a creative and meaningful way.
DarkSquare helped us imagine what our brand could be and walked us through a process to realize its full potential. Their understanding of the brand's position opportunities and how the brand should inform the user experience of the product was a tremendous help as we built our business. We really benefited from their applied theory approach and experience.
DarkSquare helped us tie our brand with the theme of the CCW event in a powerful way. Their design work and creative ideas made us a hit at the conference and the memorable take home ideas they helped us with will keep attendees thinking about us.
DarkSquare took the time to thoroughly understand the concepts and vision for my brand, and present it in a high-end contemporary website that a wide audience could understand. As an artist and designer myself I have an extra critical eye, and DarkSquare surpassed my expectations. The team has undeniably impressive talent and is a pleasure to work with.
Joseph knew Mike (Michael S. Heiser, PhD) personally and supported his website and public presence for more than ten years. He understood the importance of Mike’s work and approached this project with genuine care. DarkSquare helped us create a place where his scholarship can remain accessible, useful, and available to the people it continues to serve.
One call and we'll tell you if this is a fit. If it isn't, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.
