01.

Jetblack was currently in stealth and engaged in a brand build project with an agency prior to when I was hired. The agency-built brand read too playful for what it charged, and after I was onboarded, I felt that something wasn’t hitting the mark.

02.

My CEO (who co-founded Rent The Runway) saw the brand as good enough already. My instinct said otherwise, and the listening tour I embarked on did as well. Proof had to come first, because permission was never going to come without it.

03.

I had loose discovery conversations with colleagues in the office who fit our target demographic and was inquisitive about how they felt about the initial brand. Showing up with curiosity helped me establish a deeper relationship while also understanding where people stood. I ran a few strategy sessions with leadership to understand more about the audience and the archetype that Jetblack needed to show up as. Ultimately we had to answer the question: is this for mom, or is it for mom’s kids? Without formal approval, I built the new direction, ran a comparative A/B survey between the old brand and the new one, and tested both with alpha customers and internal employees. The results were unambiguous, and my CEO was in full support once she saw the data. The full launch followed: identity, guidelines, website, packaging, member onboarding, internal tools, all at once. I ran it as a one-person team directing a freelancer network, with a creative operations system built in Trello to hold the whole thing together.