Field Notes

Wide black-and-white point-and-shoot photograph of a busy independent coffee shop interior in 2009, showing staff and customers at a laminate counter and scattered tables, with a coiled power cable near the espresso machine marked in a translucent hot-magenta wash, the only color in the frame.
Branding Local business

Brand is a Vibe, Repeated

July 19, 2026

Wide black-and-white snapshot of a busy frame shop interior in 2001, shot from the doorway. Four people at different depths — a waiting customer near the camera leafing through a fan of moulding samples tinted acid green, a staff member mid-conversation with a customer at the counter, and an employee bent over the mat cutter at the back wall.
Pricing Local business

Every Price Must Do Three Jobs

July 15, 2026

A young woman in an ink-stained apron studies a rough logo sketch in a cluttered print shop, with a bold acid green door visible in the background and the words STRATEGY FIRST stamped across the bottom in heavy type.
Brand strategy Local business

Do Brand Strategy Before Design

July 14, 2026

Black-and-white point-and-shoot photograph from 1995 of a young woman pulling a squeegee across a silk-screen frame in a cluttered custom t-shirt shop; the squeegee handle glows with a translucent acid green wash while everything else stays monochrome.
Branding Local business

Build Your Brand On Three Circles

July 14, 2026

Black-and-white point-and-shoot photograph from 1998: a young woman in a flannel shirt over a faded tee presses a rubber stamp block against a proof sheet at a cluttered letterpress bench, a segmented ink-pad tray in the foreground highlighted in acid green
Branding Local business

Your Brand Is Not Your Logo

July 14, 2026

Wide black-and-white point-and-shoot photograph inside a craft brewery taproom in 2014: a tattooed bartender pours a pint at a wooden bar while a woman on a barstool holds her glass and two customers talk at a high-top table in the middle ground; a blurred figure moves near two large fermentation tanks in the background, which glow with a translucent hot-magenta wash.
Case study Local business

HOW LOCAL BUSINESSES MAKE YOUR TOWN MORE VALUABLE

June 25, 2026