Branding the Brander:
How Feisty Type Studio Got Its Wink
A warts-and-all case study on the hardest client I've ever had — me.
Background
I've worked in design and production for almost 20 years, always keeping an eye out for new and interesting positions. Over time, I started to notice a massive shift in what employers are looking for. What defined a graphic designer had changed: titles such as videographer, web designer and social media manager have all been folded into the job description of "graphic designer", all in one salary.
Another shift I noticed is that larger companies are moving away from big design departments with teams of full-time staff, each with their own duties. Again, the graphic designer wasn't part of that conversation. I also noticed that hiring leads rarely make the connection between digital design and editorial design. It's built on the exact same principles. If anything, an editorial designer has a sharper eye. You get one shot with print; there's no second chance, and you're used to working at speed.
For years I freelanced under my own name, and honestly? It was fine, but ironically I felt, it lacked character. While I enjoyed freelancing, I was never really embedded in teams, which limited both my responsibility and my creative license. I'd do a shift, hand over the files, and be out the door. I knew I had more to offer, and freelancing at arm's length was quietly stifling my growth as a designer.
So I kept doing courses (web design, motion, UX, social media for business, and a bit of Blender for the craic), always working towards my goal: my own studio. A place where I could use every skill and all my passion for design. So I made a decision: stop waiting for the right role to exist, and build it myself.
The Challenge
Here's the uncomfortable truth every designer learns when they brand themselves: you are your own worst client. The brief, shifting goalposts, emotionally attached to everything, and the budget meetings are just you arguing with yourself, constant tweeting and changing your option.
My specific challenges, warts fully on show:
The niche problem. There are roughly a billion zillion brand designers out there. I genuinely struggled to narrow down what made me different, because the honest answer I can do a lot pf things. which is a pretty weak positioning. I knew I was moving away from editorial design towards motion. Since college I’ve had a love of type and working in editorial design for so long really reinforced that while helping me develop a love and understanding of story telling….. communications through design. After deleting into market research for a business plan I noticed the growth around motion/video and the thought struck me. Who do brands go to for design support when they need full creative guidance and production when they’ve out grown their brands but can’t justify a full-time lead designer.
The model problem. I knew I didn't want classic freelancing: a paid shift and out the door again. But "not freelancing" isn't an offer. I had to work out what embedded, ongoing, senior-level support actually looks like as a product a client can buy.
The taste problem. I spent an embarrassing amount of time auditioning expensive paid typefaces for my own identity, because surely a type nerd's brand needs a rare, beautiful licensed font? I fell involve with Polymath. but as a new studio I couldn’t foot the $499 price tag. (Spoiler: it didn't. More on that in Design.)
The confidence problem. Naming yourself "Feisty" sets a bar. The brand had to be cheeky, warm and playful without undermining two decades of professional, editorial-grade discipline. That's a narrow tightrope, and early drafts fell off it on both sides: too corporate to be feisty, too jokey to be trusted. that why the mascot felt right, it provide a digital feel as it’s app shaped a-presence feel like its a convince at your finger tips…. “creative direction on call” It also affords me tones of space to animate and play with it;s facial expression.
in fact, the more I look at the more it feels right. It also scales amazingly and its high contrast aparces makes it quite recognisable. I was worried lit might look a bit too much like a lego head but I think I;ve managed to avoid that. I also this the mascot allows me space to be more playful,
Strategy
The turning point was realising I'd been positioning against the wrong crowd. I was trying to out-brand a billion brand designers. But very few of them specialise in the thing I'd been doing building my skill set for years: taking static brands and making them live on digital platforms.
That reframe unlocked everything:
Specialise in the gap, not the discipline. Plenty of designers make beautiful static identities. Plenty of motion designers animate whatever they're handed. Almost nobody owns the handover — taking a brand from a rough idea (or a dusty print-era logo) to a full, digital-ready system with assets that move, transition and tell a story over time. That's my jam! I’ve worked with typography, template production, branding not I offer it as a full set.
Sell embeddedness, not hours. The offer became fractional creative support: a senior, embedded design expert for companies that need reliable, ongoing help with digital design and marketing assets — but don't need (or can't justify) a senior designer every single day. I manage the work like an in-house lead, not a hired pair of hands.
Let typography carry the story. My love of type comes from years in editorial and print design — the art of communication at its most disciplined. The strategy was to bring that editorial craft across into digital, and to make it the visible signature of the studio. Hence the name: Feisty Type.
Brand Pillars & Positioning
Positioning statement:
Feisty Type Studio is a fractional design partner that takes brands from static to digital — embedded senior creative support for companies that need a design lead, just not every day.
The four pillars:
1. Show up, sorted. I turn up when I'm needed, start with a smile, and get the job done professionally without breaking a sweat. No drama, no hand-holding required, no "out the door at 5pm" freelancer energy. Reliable is a feature and something I pride myself on.
2. Type does the talking. Editorial-grade typography sits at the heart of everything. Years of print discipline mean every layout, logo and asset communicates first and decorates second. Craft with a job to do.
3. Built to move. Brands shouldn't just look good — they should behave well. I design identities and systems that are digital-ready from day one: logos that animate, layouts, templates that transition, assets that tell a story over time.
4. Feisty, not flippant. Cheeky, fun and warm on the surface; rigorous and senior underneath. The wink comes with the work ethic, never instead of it.
Design
The typeface — my favourite wart. After weeks auditioning gorgeous paid fonts, I chose Work Sans. Free. Open source. Available on every digital platform. At first that felt like admitting defeat — the type nerd picks the free font?! But it was actually the strategy proving itself: a studio built on "digital-ready everywhere" needs a workhorse that renders beautifully on every platform without licensing friction. Work Sans is warm, sturdy and a little characterful — it fits me. Practicality is the craft. (The clue was in the name all along.)
The palette. Two primaries doing the heavy lifting: a confident yellow (#EBC743) and a rich off-black (#191919) — high contrast, editorial, unmissable in a feed. Blue and magenta play support as secondary accents [hex codes to follow], bringing the digital energy without diluting the core.
The logo. I went against the grain of minimal wordmarks and chose a mascot-plus-type lockup, and every decision in it is doing a job:
The app-ish shape. The rounded, icon-like face of the feisty mascot makes the studio feel like something you can just accesswhen you need it — which is literally the fractional offer, drawn.
The wink. A winky face suits a brand called Feisty. It's the pillar-four tightrope, solved in one glyph: playful, clam but knowing.
Born to animate. A mascot gives me an expressive character to bring to life — blinks, reactions, transitions. My logo is its own proof of concept for "static to motion."
Outcome
Here's where most case studies would throw glossy numbers at you. Feisty Type Studio launched in [month, 2026], so I'm not going to pretend otherwise. That would rather undermine the "warts and all" premise.
What I can tell you honestly:
Early signals. In the first [X] weeks: [X] LinkedIn profile views, [X] post impressions, [X] new followers, [X] website visits, and (the number that actually matters) [X] genuine enquiries and [X] discovery calls booked.
The brand in daily use. The real test of an identity is whether it holds up on a wet Tuesday. So far, it does: the system makes content creation faster, the voice makes outreach easier to write, and leading with the wink has started conversations that a beige portfolio never would.
What's still unfinished. The motion identity is rolling out in phases. The mascot's full animation set is in progress, and the secondary palette is still earning its place. A brand built on "static to motion" should never really be finished, and I'm fine with that.
Check back at day 90. I'll update this page with real numbers: the good, the flat, and the surprising. That's the deal with a warts-and-all case study: the warts stay on show.
LET’S GET STARTED