Introducing A Fresh Look To The Helen + Gertrude Brand

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You know us as the team that brought a scientific approach to content creation. But, as we know, data is just one part of the human experience. While data tells one story, empathy gives us permission to put it into real scenarios that connect with your audiences. That’s where the real innovation begins. At Helen + Gertrude, we’ve spent countless hours and conversations about our culture — critiquing, celebrating, and fine-tuning it to be a better experience for those involved. Our success is not measured by campaign results alone but through the enthusiasm of our team and our customers. Not only do we recalibrate how we work together, but our own brand has also become an iterative process. So while sometimes an entire rebrand may be necessary for an organization, for us, we like to think of it as a refresh. Bringing our left and right brains together is still core to who we are, but it was time for the next evolution of what that means and how we are showing up today.

Venn diagram of 3 circles, "Empathy," "Creative Problem Solving," and "Business Needs" intersect to create a star in the center, representing Human-Centered Design
Human-Centered Design

Bringing Human-Centered Design Principles Front And Center

We are proud to infuse a human-centered design approach into every facet of our business. Solving your specific business needs — from the human perspective. Because, and I can’t say it enough, the user experience sucks for everyone. By user experience, I mean every facet of how our society operates sucks for someone out there. We’re not really nailing the inclusivity and accessibility game of life, are we? We believe the more every organization focuses on incremental changes to evolve how we live and work together, the better off we all collectively will be.

Colorful mood board including varying design elements that encapsulate H+G values
The Initial H+G Mood board

Finding Our Uncommon Denominator

What does that mean for our H+G brand refresh? Well, we “ate our own dog food.” Through our brand strategy work, we help clients discover their Soul Story by first pinpointing their uncommon denominator — what they uniquely bring to the table. We gathered our key stakeholders for the day, asked the tough questions, and left the workshop with aligned values, mission, and overall purpose; all through the lens of holding ourselves accountable to push the industry towards meaningful experiences across every touchpoint. Our uncommon denominator? Our people and how they interact with each other, our partners, our customers, and the world around them.

"Our Core Values: Impowering Growth, Celebrating Creativity, Adaptability, Compassion, Accountability" on a dark teal  background with light teal swirls
The Helen + Gertrude Core Values

Creating Purposeful Branding Elements

Picking apart our brand and determining what was still true and what no longer served us was a process that took nearly a year. In our case, the cobbler’s shoes experienced some shipping delays. 

  • We introduced our new tagline to ensure we never lost sight of the human on the other end of the data — Scientifically Creative. Purposefully Human.
  • We tweaked our color palette and put it through the wringer on how it shows up for all visual needs. 
  • We analyzed our typography set to understand what components affected legibility. 
  • We all got new headshots! This is not a natural experience for most people, so we sent surveys and got to know one another on how and when we feel our absolute best so we could craft each session specific to the person being photographed. It was a really special day.
  • New swag makes every brand announcement more exciting, and it was important to us to also be purposeful with each item. So we provided a gift that aligned with each of our core values. 
  • We debated and picked apart our word choices and what they meant, allowing us to refine our voice spectrum to find the perfect balance of our “Sage” and “Creator” archetypes.
  • Even our logo got a slight makeover making it more scalable and giving a nod to our love of numbers with our new “+.”

The letter "A" repeated on with multiple colors on multiple colored backgrounds to show visibility
Color Accessibility Tests
"d, b, q, p" tested in different fonts to show legibility. Updates show "Red Hat Display" and "Brygada 1918 Italics" replacing "Playfair Display" and "Proxima Nova"
Typography Analysis

What’s Next For Helen + Gertrude?

Over the coming months, you’ll see more updates coming to our website, digital channels, presentations, and especially our service offerings and implementation. From how we operate internally as a team and the strategies we provide our customers, to how we support our local community... each piece contributes to our role as a human-centered digital agency. We hope you’re ready to grow with us, and we're proud to continue to evolve with you to create work that means something.

"Scientifically Creative. Purposefully Human. Partnering with you to build human-centered brands" on dark teal background

Becca Post
Co-founder + CEO

With a background in New Media Design, Becca has spent her career building world-class creative teams developing content for the world's most well-known brands, including Walmart, Starbucks, American Express, GE, and Jose Cuervo. On her off hours, she can be found tackling a home project, getting her hands dirty in the garden, or convincing her husband to adopt another dog.

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