Early January, 2023
A message from an old boss flashed on LinkedIn. Susan, someone I hadn't heard from in nearly a decade had written a long message requesting help with a Creative project. Susan and I had worked together in a previous life at Whole Foods Market—long before I knew what Brand Design was, and long before Amazon changed what once was a thriving culture into a seemingly robotic operation. At the time and fresh out of Art School, I was cutting my teeth as a Sign Painter in the Bay Area. Susan led a successful team of Artists that helped the NorCal region become the most profitable group of stores in the country (we're talking $1m/week/store).
I laughed out loud when I read Susan's LinkedIn message regarding a Brand Refresh. I had not spoken to Susan in nearly a decade. Post Whole Foods—we both went our separate ways; she went back to school to acquire her Masters in Depth Psychology, and I had since moved from the Bay Area to pursue a career of Design and Illustration in Boulder, CO.
I was walking to work today and thinking about my need for some creative work for brand development for some of my projects at Commonweal. I was going through all of the people I know and I suddenly remembered you.
Her LinkedIn messages resulted in a series of emails, video chats, and phone calls. As we spoke, she admitted that she had had a true vision walking to work, thinking who would take on this next Creative project. I would later understand that this vision was indeed cosmic. Another post for another day; tackling the Mystery and Vision of Commonweal (a note to self to later link to this post).
Proposal 01: The Omega Resilience Awards
Initially, Susan requested a proposal for a slightly smaller Brand within the parent organization of Commonweal, called ORA. ORA, or the Omega Resilience Awards is a catalyst grant fund who provides support to fellows who operate within new models of thinking, leadership, and communication across the polycrisis.
Despite submitting a very buttoned up proposal; this proposal wasn't accepted. Not because it was bad or incorrect, or because it didn't address the RFP or the needs of a changing ORA—rather, what was contained in the proposal was the radical thinking Susan was after to catalyze change in Commonweal, the parent organization.
The Distributed* Model: Brandon Roth
Before I get to deep into this post—I must express my extreme gratitude for my good friend and Distributed* Model colleague, Brandon Roth. Brandon and I have worked together on multiple projects and had dreamed of finding a larger project to sink our teeth into. Over the pandemic, Brandon became an ally. We spent years social distancing from others, sitting outside while meeting up at bars across town to discuss and swap stories about life, work, and our visions of the future.
I have always appreciated and valued Brandon's calm energy and reserved power within the projects we have tackled in the past. He is both an accomplished Brand Designer and Product Owner (among many other talents from CGI to becoming a successful multi-company Founder). Brandon often works at the intersectionality of competing pathways; yielding high-volume, value-centric work for clients ranging from Lyft to Popsockets, Saint John's Hospital, and possibly, most notably for his own companies like Radar Relay, ManyUses®, and Skry x CR3 Labs.
Brandon's attitude towards Design Methodology is admirable. He has always been an independent thinker and is covered in tattoos, adorned in a big bushy beard and kind eyes. Over the pandemic we shared several road trips together... to Crypto conferences in Wyoming and out east to pick up an Astrovan that he would later convert in a badass Mad Max vehicle. Turns out he's a pretty amazing mechanic as well.
This is the beauty of Brandon, he's incredibly utility-focused. He has a natural ability to scope work that leads to true change within the organization and team the work is intended for. His unique ability to get to the core of the problem is like nothing I have seen before. Most times he leaves me in the dust. This is why I wanted Brandon to join the Commonweal project. The best colleagues are better than us*. They truly push us, the work, and our understanding of Who* We Are within each build. Brandon is far-beyond any Designer/Developer I've ever met. And he's humble AF.
Proposal 02: Commonweal, The Resource Directory
The life of a Brand Designer is one marked by the risks we take. Half of our lives are spent waiting for proposal acceptance, while the other half is spent fulfilling and building towards the risks we've signed ourselves up for. With Commonweal, this approach of taking risks was no different. The more we engaged with Commonweal, the more we* stripped away what wouldn't work within the RFP process. To outsiders, this part of the process is often shrouded in mystery... and often not spoken about as the tactics taken within proposal acceptance often contain very distinct and very legal ramifications; the qualities that make an agency an agency. At the time, this RFP was between IDEO and us (who was brought up several times during, and after our build). And let me clearly state this, for the record— that March of 2023, we began thinking and saying that
Design Thinking is dead.
For Brandon and I, our approach to landing Commonweal as a Brand and Product Partner* started out fairly standard. As the client ironed out the true problem they wanted to solve, we worked in parallel to submit several, written proposals. And, although the energy was vibing, Brandon and I just couldn't land the project. We tried for months. We were truly out of ideas... Then one of those out-of-the-movies nights, as we sat at in the dark mahogany light at Bitter Bar in downtown Boulder— Brandon said "we just need to show them what we're talking about."
A week later, we* scheduled a call with the Executive Director of Commonweal, Oren Slozberg, accompanied by Susan Yusem-Grelock, Director of Narrative to show them what we meant when our proposal spoke to a new risk proposed; The Resource Directory.
Client Transparency: Confidently Showing Trust
Being in the business of visuals, and by Brandon saying "we just need to show them what we're talking about," this was the catalyst that sold the project. Thanks, Brandon. His ultra-simplified, utility-focused character struck again. The next day, the project proposal was accepted by Oren. We had cracked the case! Later, Oren would sell this project proposal to The Commonweal Board (an incredible group of people from diverse backgrounds, demographics, and skillsets, who we would come to know quite personally) and we would later launch into a 6 month highly scoped, intensive Brand and Web-build process.
Brandon had spent a few hours wire framing a basic understanding of how Commonweal.org, The Resource Directory could look and operate prior to our meeting. Showing a wireframe prior to signing a contract is a big risk. However, we both agreed that by bringing Commonweal into our Design process and platform of choice (Figma), we could break down any barriers of confusion by showing our capabilities, in real time. Both Brandon and I stem from backgrounds of building Brands in our environments. Our careers started long before the pandemic forced Brand-building into purely digital environments. We've both learned that by bringing clients into our build process, we can create a known sense of trust because they can see what we are talking about and they can interact with us to make changes in realtime (this shows confidence of skill). Therefore, we both felt very comfortable showing this form of conversational trust (this would later become a cornerstone approach to our entire process); an apt approach for Oren who has helped ignite VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) as a contemporary visual model issued across education and visual therapeutic practices like Art Therapy. Noteably, VTS operates as a Program at Commonweal.
Reflecting on The RFP: A Porous Vessel
The RFP for the Commonweal Brand Refresh and CMS (Content Management System) Website overhaul was something I'll never forget. Susan, Director of Narrative at Commonweal—deeply understands the importance of words, word smithing, and the impact of copy as strategy. In particular, 3 words jumped out from the RFP:
A porous vessel
A porous vessel became a central theme within how the updated Commonweal Brand and Website operated, and how we thought of our organic interaction with Commonweal, the organization. The use of these 3 words was a real mind-bender. How on Earth will we* create a Brand and Website, two seemingly non-organic structures, that will operate like a living, breathing, porous vessel? However, it was these 3 words that helped Brandon and I better understand how we could place the same transparency (bringing clients into our Design process and platform) into a physical manifestation of the Commonweal Brand and Website into a porous expression.
Reflecting on Early-Stage Processes: What Makes Great Builds
The more I grow into a practiced Brand Designer and business owner, the more I fall in love with early-stage processes. The processes that are often swept under the rug, whereas the Design work and the pipelines that make up great Brand builds, Creative, and/or Marketing Department architectures often become the heroes of any given build—increasingly I find greater joy in these early-stage processes when they are handled with the same love and care as the Creative build itself.
As Local* Dot Agency grows, the early-stage processes become of greater focus. Each next build is an opportunity to become slight better at early-stage processes like communication, proposals, SOW's (Statements of Work), and contracts. Initially, when operating as a Freelancer or Contractor— communication within landing Brand projects can be clunky, ill-effective, and downright of poor form. Personally, I was often so focused on landing the work, itself, that I paid little-to-no attention when it came time to slowing the processes down for proper communication and early-stage problem solving.
Over the years, taking these early-stage processes very seriously has become mission critical for Local* Dot Agency, and a core differentiator behind How we* Operate. The Distributed* (now The Distributed* Hub) Model, stems from these mission-critical, early-stage processes.
For young Designers, I implore that they take the time (often years— this expression has taken me a decade of "doing the work") to better refine Who You* Are within your Design process. Increasingly, I see early-stage processes as osmotic bookends, rich with the opportunity to study and understand communication patterns of Who* our clients are within Local* processes like The Theory of Intent. The communication surrounding great builds can either be a barrier for entry, or an osmotic membrane; one that encourages positive, value-based working relationships with clients, partners, departments, colleagues, and team* members.
The porous aspect of the Commonweal RFP were that much more enticing; knowing that these osmotic membranes would be upheld and possibly even furthered was exciting.
The Distributed* Model: Horizontal Hierarchy
Great Brands are made by great teams. Great people. What makes us great is relative to Who* We Are within the work we produce. Using The Distributed* Model to hire*, The Commonweal Build has proven that The Distributed* Model held many strengths and several key areas of growth. So much so, that the model has been advanced into 2024 to operate as The Distributed* Hub Model (and even further, yet, as I continue to explore new theories like Stable-State Value).
The overarching goal of The Distributed* Model has always been to provide those who are hired to receive fair and equal opportunity and value within any given Local* project. Over the last 4 years of testing this model in active project builds and across various forms of operation and methodology, I've found that when budgets are split equally there's no need for vertical hierarchy. No boss is needed. Rather, The Distributed* Model explores horizontal hierarchy; placing trust and confidence directly back into the team*. This trust and confidence is radiated outwards, from the center of Who We* Are, throughout our work, team*, and client interactions, encouraging each team* member to manage themselves, submit their own contracts, ways of working, and to create their own working relationships with our* clients.
The ability to manage ourselves, directly, speaks to many things. For one, this is a critical observation made when working remotely within a distributed team*. Clients require hybrid interactions—both onsite visits, workshops, and relationship building techniques equal to operating, seamlessly within digital ecosystems. The key differentiator of this approach to managing ourselves is that this form of leadership leads to stronger, and greater interdependent client-relations with all members of the team—and the ability for clients to hire contractors, small businesses, and agencies independently; furthering what I have gone onto define as Stable-State Value. The opportunity to project and receive fair and equal value within Creative builds.
Bringing The Distributed* Model into The Commonweal Build was critical. Since launch, Brandon has been working with Commonweal, independently. Post-launch, there is no need for my interaction at this stage. This shows the power of A Porous Vessel, The Resource Directory, and hiring processes like The Distributed* Model.
I'm deeply proud of the work that we* have created and am looking to unpacking this Case Study, each week within The Latest, Volume 001. Focusing on early-stage processes is helping me understand where I need to place focus; what needs unpacking. What leads to greater structures within the next build, and how we* can improve our processes for each next build.
Thanks for coming along for Commonweal, A Case Study... I'll see yah next post!
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Commonweal, A Case Study: The Distributed* Model
An ongoing series on the processes, methods, Named Systems, IP, and tools we* used to build Commonweal.
