I distinctly remember the first time I saw our new logo. Our Creative Director, Marissa Fine Marcus, had sent me an unofficial sneak peek ahead of our first “official” review the next day. “Wow. That’s what I want us to be when we grow up.”
It was the exact same reaction I had seen several of our clients have. It's not exactly a gasp; it’s more of a delightful sigh that says “yes, that's it. That's us.” When a rebrand is done right, it isn’t a transformation. It's a realization. And at WITH, we’ve spent the last 10 years perfecting that process—a little something we call the Brand Unification Process.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. First, I want to tell you what it was like the day Jamie Sims, my Co-Founder, and I became our own clients.
Wow. That’s what I want us to be when we grow up.
When we brought Marissa in as our new Creative Director, one of the first assignments I gave her was to evaluate our brand. A lot of people asked me why we didn’t bring in an outside firm to do this work for us. For me, it was simple—the way we work is so unique and so relational that someone from the outside just could not deliver what I knew our own team could. Plus, although Marissa was an insider, she had a fresh perspective—one not influenced by the legacy of, what we affectionately call, “Old WITH.” She could reflect on the agency’s past and our historical DNA objectively. She could also ride alongside our Director of Brand Strategy, Madison Trayser, by applying our processes that Madison’s team had successfully used and optimized with our own clients. And as soon as I gave that first assignment, the team got to work. Here’s how it went.
Madison and Marissa interviewed every WITH employee and synthesized their findings. After the interviews, they began to notice a pattern—points of disconnect between how we were portraying ourselves and who we really are. It became evident that we needed a full Brand Unification. They made the recommendation, I agreed and then watched as they got to work.
The overarching guide of who we are and what we stand for. I was so used to being on the agency side of this conversation that sitting in the “client” seat and having this presented to me was surreal. I listened as they walked through our Purpose, Mission, Vision. At points, I was speechless. I remember sitting with the Manifest for a few days, studying it, reading deeper, and getting immersed in the truths it held. Though I made some notes and gave some initial feedback, I could already see the roots of the new WITH starting to take hold.
Do you know why this works? Because a brand is the people within it - the people who work there. And if the people aren’t enrolled, your brand will be void of one of its most important assets: CULTURE, The heart and soul of any organization. It's not the founders or the leadership team. It's bigger than that. It's all of us PLUS room for those who will join us some day. And when you see the inputs of the people who you work alongside every day equally reflected back in a clear and differentiating way, it just makes sense. It's a unification of all of us combined into one—which is why we call it a Brand Unification.
So, our design team, led by Marissa and our Senior Art Director, Réal Thompson, went heads down. They worked quietly and diligently. I respected the “no peeking” approach. This was too precious of an assignment to disrupt, even though my curiosity and anticipation was through the roof.
Finally, it was time for the first review of the new VIS. I remember when the calendar invite for “WITH Logo Concept R1: Leadership Review” hit my inbox and immediately I had butterflies in my stomach.
The night before, when Marissa sent that sneak peek, my reaction said it all: “That’s what I want us to be when we grow up.” But I realized we had grown up. We were ready for this. It was time. Our staff’s vision and insight into what we were building together revealed who we really were AND gave us the room we needed to soar into the future. It struck the careful balance of truth and aspiration. It felt magnetic.
Of course, there were revisions and tweaks, but if you compare round 1 of the logo to the final version you see today, it's not that different. At WITH, we often say, “Trust the Process”. Because, when you do, it always pays off. So that’s exactly what we did with our internal rebrand. Soon after the logo came a tagline, a color palette, typography, photography styles, and all the other accouterments of a new brand. When a brand is strategically sound because of the process behind it, all of the friction for those pieces disappears.
Now, after having gone through the process myself (but in the client seat), I know how our clients feel (even if it was a fraction of how I felt). It’s incredibly fulfilling to know that we give our clients that experience by unifying who they are into a fully realized brand. That’s what it's all about.
It struck the careful balance of truth and aspiration.
It felt magnetic.
Even though I’d seen the value and results our process brings to clients, the affirmation of proving how well it works by turning it inwards is, in short, incomparable. We listen first. We create with understanding. We earn trust and use it well. We joyfully embrace the process. Now that our brand is out in the world, we’re ready to keep bringing our process to YOUR brand. See ya out there.
WITH/the future in mind,
Blair Waugh Brady
CEO and Co-Founder
WITH/agency
