What is brand strategy?

Brand strategy is the foundation that defines how a company positions itself, communicates its value, and differentiates in the market.

Why is brand strategy important?

It ensures consistency across marketing efforts, improves performance, and builds long-term customer trust.

How does brand strategy impact revenue?

Clear and consistent branding improves conversion rates, reduces acquisition costs, and increases customer lifetime value.

What happens without a brand strategy?

Marketing becomes inconsistent, less effective, and more expensive to scale.

How do I know if my brand strategy is working?

You’ll see clearer messaging, stronger engagement, improved conversion rates, and more efficient marketing performance.

Brand Strategy & Creative Direction · Everywhere

Story is the strategy.

We build brands that make people feel something and buy something. Strategy-led, story-first, built for the long game.

Start a Project ↗

Creative Direction · Brand Identity · Content

Built for brands that
mean something

Editorial portrait, Reform series by Franco Dupuy

Studio interior with natural light, Daniel Faró

Please Do Not Disturb series by Fanette Guilloud

Please Do Not Disturb editorial, Fanette Guilloud

10⁺

Years in Brand
Strategy & Design

50⁺

Brands Built
Across Industries

3^×

Average ROI on
Brand Investment

$47M⁺

Revenue Scaled
During Em's CMO Tenure

We're not a full-service agency.
We're a sharp one.

Herwood Creative is a strategy-led creative studio founded by June Atkins and Em Atkins. We build brand identities, digital experiences, and content systems for clients who want work that lasts, not work that looks good in a deck and disappears six months later.

"The thoughtfulness and comfort of a Four Seasons through the lens of Woodstock-era mindfulness."

Forbes · AFAR · Michelin Guide · Yahoo Life

Brand Refresh · Herwood Creative

Your brand,
elevated.
Two weeks flat.

Most brands don't need to be rebuilt. They need a creative director who can see what's already working and make it impossible to ignore. That's what this is.

Logo revamp. Refined, versatile, ownable.

Full brand system. Type, color, voice, assets.

One real-world brand application

All source files, full ownership

Optional: brand content kit with directed shoot and stock library

Start my refresh →

Starting at $3,000 · $1,500 deposit

What does a brand system actually include?

Color system

Baby Blue

#A8C4E0

Brick Red

#B83A2A

Night

#0E1820

Porcelain

#F2F4F7

Warm off-white

#E8E0D0

Pale Blue

#D6E4F0

Typography

Display / editorial

Story is the
strategy.

Cormorant Garamond · headlines

UI and body copy

Brand strategy, built to last.

DM Sans · body and UI

Brand mark

HERWOOD

Abril Fatface · logo only

Photo direction

Environment and space photography direction, Herwood Creative

Brand voice

Direct

Specific

Confident

Warm

Dry

Herwood Creative

Find your
brand mixology.

Nine instinct picks. No wrong answers. Under two minutes.

Shaking your result

Tap the card to flip

No account needed. One email, that's it.

What We Do

Six ways we can
change your brand

01

Brand Identity & Strategy

Naming, visual identity, brand architecture, positioning. We build the foundation first so every execution that follows has something real to stand on.

02

Campaign Development & Production

Full campaign ecosystems from strategy through execution. Integrated paid, organic, and creator-led campaigns with performance measurement built in from day one.

03

Visual Design & Art Direction

Photography direction, shoot production, design systems, and the visual language that makes people stop scrolling.

04

Performance Marketing & Growth

Multi-channel paid media, acquisition strategy, lifecycle marketing, and the analytics infrastructure to know what's actually working. $47M scaled, not projected.

05

Creator & Influencer Programs

We've built creator programs from scratch at the inn, at scale in healthcare, and for clients across industries. Follower counts are the last thing we look at.

06

Interactive Design & AI Creative

Websites, digital experiences, AI-generated imagery, and automated content workflows. We're already building with these tools so your brand doesn't have to figure it out.

Thought Daughter series by Shauna Summers

Ready to build
something real?

We take on a limited number of projects each quarter.
Tell us what you're working on.

Start a Project ↗

Hospitality & Experiential

We've done it for our own property.
Now we do it for yours.

The Herwood Inn earned recognition from Forbes, AFAR, and the Michelin Guide with zero ad spend and one brand built to tell a story. That same process is now a package, built for Airbnb hosts, VRBO operators, boutique inn owners, and anyone running a hospitality property who's ready to compete on something other than price.

3× Return on the brand investment

$1.25M Exit value

Forbes AFAR Michelin Guide Recognition earned, not bought.

Starting at $2,500 · Scales with your portfolio · 2-week delivery

What's included Base Package · $2,500

One property. One brand. Everything you need to stop looking like everyone else.

Brand Identity 3 deliverables

Property name + tagline, built or refined

Logo suite: primary, stacked, monogram, full B&W set

Color palette + typography system

Copy & Voice 2 deliverables

Voice & tone guide

Listing copy: Airbnb/VRBO headline + full description

Social & Templates 2 deliverables

2 social templates: IG post + story, sized to system

Welcome card template, print-ready or digital

Files & Support 3 deliverables

Source files + full ownership (AI, EPS, PDF)

2 revision rounds included

Handoff call + 2 weeks follow-up access

Multiple units? +$500 per unit · +$1,200 for 2–5 rooms · +$2,500 for 6–15 rooms · Custom for 16+

Optional add-ons Modular · À la carte

In-Person Content Shoot

On-Site Project inquiry

On-site. Full shoot brief, creative direction, curated selects, edited gallery. Travel billed at cost. Limited quarterly availability. Routes to project inquiry.

From $2,500 + travel

QR Code Guest Welcome Guide

Digital

Digital guest experience doc: property info, local recs, house guidelines, all in brand voice.

+$400

Email + Message Templates

Copy

Check-in, check-out, review ask. Written so every automated message sounds human.

+$350

Social Setup

Social

Profile optimization, bio, highlight covers, 6 branded posts ready to publish on day one.

+$600

Stock + Photo Direction Kit

Remote

Directed shoot brief, curated stock library, photo direction guide. Remote delivery.

+$800

Ongoing partnership Monthly retainers

For hosts and operators who want a creative director in their corner year-round, so your brand stays sharp, your content stays consistent, and your property keeps growing.

Essentials

$750/mo

3-month minimum

2 social templates + caption copy monthly
Seasonal listing copy updates
1 async strategy check-in per month
Priority response time

Built by people who have
done the thing.

Em and June have been married for five years, and have been building things together since before it was a business. A boutique inn that earned national press recognition. A healthcare brand scaled to $47M. A decade of figuring out what actually works when you are doing everything yourself. Herwood Creative exists because of all of it.

Em Atkins

CMO · Co-Founder · Growth Strategist

Em Atkins previously served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff at TelyRx, where she guided the company through a period of rapid growth that brought the platform to over $47 million in revenue while expanding access to 450+ prescription medications and serving 250,000+ patients across the United States.

She built the full marketing infrastructure from the ground up: multi-channel paid media, creator programs, and brand partnerships with Howie Mandel, the Dallas Wings, Toni Breidinger, and Richard Torrez Jr.

Em co-founded The Herwood Inn with June, leading operations, community partnerships, and the guest experience strategy that drove national recognition. The property sold for $1.25M at 3× ROI. She did not just run campaigns. She built the systems behind them.

Creative drives performance. Trust builds growth. Systems scale companies.

CMO Leadership Growth Strategy Performance Marketing Creator Programs Campaign Ecosystems Brand Partnerships $47M+ Revenue Growth Herwood Inn Co-Founder

June Atkins

Creative Director · Co-Founder · Brand Strategist

June Atkins is a Creative Director with 10+ years building brands across hospitality, restaurant tech, fashion, spirits, and emerging technology. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, which taught her more about people than any design class ever could. That instinct for story runs through everything she builds.

She co-founded The Herwood Inn with Em, building the brand from nothing: identity, voice, content strategy, and an organic following grown without a dollar in paid media. The property earned national press recognition before the exit and remains the clearest proof of what story-first brand strategy actually produces.

She now leads Herwood Creative and is Adobe Certified, fluent in Figma and front-end development, and a B.A. in Graphic Design graduate of SCAD, Class of 2026, Cum Laude.

Design that works for everyone just works better.

Creative Direction Brand Strategy Hospitality Founder Adobe Certified NFC / PWA / AR Front-End Development B.A. Graphic Design, SCAD '26, Cum Laude Forbes · AFAR · Michelin

Revenue scaled at TelyRx

Herwood Inn exit value

Brands built across industries

Years building real brands

How We Work · Herwood Creative

We don't do
beautiful chaos.

Every project runs the same way. Not because we're precious about process. Because when the structure is solid, the work can actually take risks.

We won't touch a color until we understand who you're up against.

We look at your competitors, your category, and the people you actually want to reach. Not to copy anyone. To find where the conversation already is and figure out what's missing from it. This isn't the part where we ask you what your favorite fonts are. That comes later. This is the part that makes that conversation worth having.

What this includes

Competitor audit: visual identity, messaging, and where they're weak

Audience research and who you're actually talking to

A look at what's already being said in your category

Brand intake questionnaire so we show up to the first call ready

Written brief before anything else starts

Strategy before anything else. Every time.

We write the document that the rest of the project answers to. Your positioning, your audience, your voice. Then we bring you two or three real directions to choose from. Not vibes. Actual strategic options with reasoning behind each one. You pick what's true. We lock it in and build from there. Nothing gets designed before this step is done.

What this includes

Brand strategy doc: positioning, voice, audience, and what makes you different

Two to three creative directions, each with a real rationale

References and visual direction per option

A call to walk through the options and make the call

One locked brief before design starts. No exceptions.

Actual work. Not a mood board dressed up as a deliverable.

This is where we build. Design, content, campaign assets, digital builds. You see real work in real stages, not a big reveal at the end after we've already gone too far in the wrong direction. Two rounds of revision built in, scoped clearly from the start. We keep you posted. You never have to chase us.

What this includes

Work delivered in stages so you can react early, not at the end

Two rounds of revision per deliverable, clearly defined upfront

Check-ins every week on projects running longer than three weeks

Scope stays locked unless we both agree to change it

Files named and organized before they ever reach you

We walk you through everything before we close the project.

Files organized, exported, labeled. If you got a brand system, you get guidelines a designer you haven't hired yet can follow. We've seen what happens when agencies drop the files and disappear. We don't do that.

What this includes

Every file exported for every platform you'll actually use

Brand guidelines for identity projects, written for real people

A walkthrough call before we officially close

Two weeks of follow-up access for anything we missed

Everything ready to hand to a printer, developer, or new hire on day one

Story is the strategy.

Built for brands thatmean something

We're not a full-service agency.We're a sharp one.

Six ways we canchange your brand

Brand Identity & Strategy

Campaign Development & Production

Visual Design & Art Direction

Performance Marketing & Growth

Creator & Influencer Programs

Interactive Design & AI Creative

Ready to buildsomething real?

We've done it for our own property. Now we do it for yours.

Built by people who havedone the thing.

Em Atkins

June Atkins

We don't dobeautiful chaos.

Built for brands that
mean something

We're not a full-service agency.
We're a sharp one.

Six ways we can
change your brand

Ready to build
something real?

We've done it for our own property.
Now we do it for yours.

Built by people who have
done the thing.

We don't do
beautiful chaos.