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The Lighthouse Method

Four steps, each one built on the last.

We find what makes your business worth choosing, then build your brand on it, from how you look and sound to your website and the way your team tells it.

Every project we take on follows this order, whatever its size, and how far we go in each step depends on what you need. It’s hard to design a look for something nobody has put into words yet.

Step 01

Identity

We find who you already are.

We start by listening. We sit down with you and the people who’ll run this with you, and ask about the work you turned down, the customers you let go, and the corners you wouldn’t cut, because those answers show what the company already stands for. We study your customers and your market the same way, and most of that work is on our side.

Then we write it back to you: who you are, who you serve best, and what your customers already count on you for. You read it before anything else happens, and if it doesn’t sound like you, we fix it before we move on.

From “We’re better than we come across” to “We can say what makes us worth choosing, in our own words.”

You leave with

What makes you worth choosing, in writing, for your sign-off

Step 02

Strategy

We put it into words you’d use.

Next we walk the path your customers take, from the first time someone mentions you to the reason they come back, and look for every place where who you are isn’t showing up yet. Maybe it comes through once someone’s on the phone with you but gets lost before they ever call, or you tell it one way and your team tells it three others.

Then, together, we make the decisions everything else follows: which customers to go after, what you promise them, the few words you want people to use about you, and what gets built first. We turn the promise into one question your team can ask of any decision, in words you already use, so the call doesn’t have to wait for you.

From “We know who we are” to “We know what we’re promising, and we can check any decision against it.”

You leave with

Your brand strategy in writing, with a one-line test for every decision

Step 03

Expression

We make it look and sound like you.

Magic Brush Painting

Now it gets a voice and a look. We write the story you tell, how you sound, and what you say to each kind of customer, and we design the logo, type, color and imagery alongside it. Those few words get spread across the pieces, so if two of them are “precise” and “warm,” the type might carry one and the photography the other, and no single piece has to say everything.

Before anything is final, we ask the same question of every piece: can your team keep this up after we leave? A brand that needs its designer for every new page tends to get set aside, so when something won’t hold up, we’ll tell you.

From “We know what we stand for” to “It looks and sounds like us, and our team knows how to use it.”

You leave with

Your logo, look and messaging, in a style guide your team can use

Step 04

Build

We build it and stay until it’s live.

The Happy Crew Coffee House homepage: ‘Come on by.’

Your team gets it first, with training on what it means and how to use it, because they carry it into every conversation you’re not in. Then we write, design and launch what we agreed to build, like the website and emails.

We also plan for the moments that test it: the ones you can see coming, like a new client’s first week, and the ones you can’t, like a missed deadline, because how a company makes something right says more about it than anything on its website. Nothing launches until you look at it and say, “yes, this is us.”

From “It’s all on paper” to “It’s live, and the whole team tells it the same way.”

You leave with

Your website, emails and team training, built and live

After the build

The Brand Partnership

Once the brand is live, we can keep working on it with you each month, or alongside your team, on new campaigns and launches and the strategy behind them, so everything new still sounds like the company you decided to be. It starts after the build, and only if you want it.

Smaller projects

Something smaller in mind?

Some projects need only part of this: a website, a new logo, or the first three steps without the build. They still go in the same order, at a smaller scale, because even a logo needs someone to have said who it’s for. Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll tell you how we’d do it.

Let’s talk →

Everything we do →

The Lighthouse Method in practice

What we found first

The Creative Box Company

Randy has sold paper for forty years, and from the outside his Colorado print shop looked like one more box maker, even though he was already working like a partner, helping brands think their packaging through. We built the positioning and the website around that, and the leads that come in now are custom jobs from people looking for that kind of help.

View Project →

Deep & Beyond

An adaptive snorkeling nonprofit whose site led with schedules, when a first-timer mostly wanted to know whether they could do it at all. We rebuilt it to show people in the water before a word of text and cut sign-up from three clicks to one, and the CRM we connected saves the team five-plus hours a week.

View Project →

Questions

What does it cost?

The first three steps start at $10,000. The build, or a single piece like a website or a logo, is priced once we know what it needs, and you’ll have the number before anything starts.

What does it cost?

The first three steps start at $10,000. The build, or a single piece like a website or a logo, is priced once we know what it needs, and you’ll have the number before anything starts.

How much of our team’s time does it take?

A fair amount for all four steps. The research is on us. From your side, we need a few questionnaires and short exercises early on, at a pace you pick at the start. You and the people who’ll run this with you join the first conversations, the big decisions and each sign⁠-⁠off, and your wider team joins a training session before launch. We ask for that time because a brand your team helped make is the one they’ll use, and you’ll know what we need from whom before anything starts.

How much of our team’s time does it take?

Who does the work?

Cole leads every project, from the first conversation to launch. The logo and the look come from our designer, who also made Neuma’s own mark, working from the strategy you signed off on.

Who does the work?

Cole leads every project, from the first conversation to launch. The logo and the look come from our designer, who also made Neuma’s own mark, working from the strategy you signed off on.

What do we own at the end?

All of it. The website and its logins, the logo and the editable design files, the style guide, the strategy and every word we write for you are yours.

What do we own at the end?

All of it. The website and its logins, the logo and the editable design files, the style guide, the strategy and every word we write for you are yours.

Start with thirty minutes.

It’s a call with Cole, our founder, with no pitch and no deck. Tell us what you’ve built and where it’s going, and we’ll tell you where we’d start. If it’s useful, we keep talking.

Let’s talk