Andi Kovel and Justin Parker are the award-winning duo behind Esque, one of Portland's most distinctive glass studios -- making objects of striking, functional beauty from their fire-filled studio in Northeast Portland. Andi is also one of my oldest friends in the city, a ski buddy, and an outright superstar who has since gone on to compete on Netflix's acclaimed glass-blowing competition series Blown Away. When she and Justin needed help unifying their brand, I was thrilled to help.

The Work

The goal was a living brand identity -- physical, experiential, and digital all working as one coherent system. That meant a new website and online store, product photography, social video content, print marketing materials, and an overarching brand strategy connecting it all together. The most satisfying piece of the whole effort was a custom fabricated steel branding iron -- a packaging efficiency solution that used Esque's already-roaring glass ovens to sear their logo onto outgoing shipping crates, product binders, and anything else that had previously required a wasteful, expensive, never-ending supply of printed packaging materials. As a creative solution it was practical and elegant, but the symbolism was the cherry on top -- fire and heat rendering both beauty and scars is exactly the story Esque has always told. I also researched and wrote Andi's Wikipedia page, because when your friend is genuinely notable, you gotta make sure the internet knows it.

Takeaway

This project required thinking across every layer simultaneously: digital, physical, experiential, packaging, content, e-commerce, and figuring out how each piece mapped to the next. The branding iron is a good example of how that systems thinking works in practice: a packaging problem solved with a piece of steel and an already-burning oven, that also happened to perfectly embody everything the brand stands for. ✓✓