We are a black- and queer-owned branding studio dedicated to helping purpose-driven organizations make positive social change.
We craft charismatic brands that speak the language of feeling using an alchemist’s approach: science (strategy) + art (emotion). Empathy, purpose, and wonder guide everything we do.
Brand is a magic box:
Your brand is defined by your audiences’ perceptions, emotions, and memories of who you are: the sum of all its parts. Your brand is what they say are you, not what you say.
We can influence how your audiences experience your brand in a way that aligns with your purpose while fulfilling their needs and sense of self.
Crafting Your Brand
Aligning purpose with need:
Brand strategy helps to:
Distill your brand’s core purpose, resulting in a deep connection with your audience.
Purify your decision-making, resulting in effortless and aligned consistent growth.
Crystallize ideas and emotions, resulting in deliberate differentiation from others.
We’d love to help you manifest your new brand, evolve your existing brand to the next level, or develop a compelling marketing campaign.
This is our team:
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founder + director
David Spears is a design leader deeply rooted in strategy and empathy. He has experience mentoring design teams, crafting brand stories, leading creative direction, 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 design and design thinking stems from his undergraduate education at the University of Pittsburgh 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.
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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.”
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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.
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
2. SWOT analyses
3. competitive & cultural landscape scans
4. market future research
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)
3. personality grids & archetype classifications
4. personas
5. journey maps
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 voice
3. logo development
4. visual identity development
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. We are able to fine tune a theory we created in the previous stage by playing and experimenting with actual materials.
Deliverables include:
1. launch plans
2. product design & development
3. marketing materials
4. social media identities
5. brand experiences (digital & physical)
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 & refining
2. style sheets
3. style guides
4. brand guidelines
5. internal brand training
These are our gifts:
We can read your audience’s mind and craft strategies rooted in emotion using empathy and intuition.
We use foresight to develop sustainable strategies and plans the future of your brand.
We have the ability to shape your brand’s soul, personality, and appearance.
We manifest and bring your brand to life by crafting engaging materials.
We couldn’t manifest without being grounded in business development, operationalized processes, project management, purposeful strategy, and working efficiently with budgets.