Eight Years of Brand Stewardship

Early Previse materials leaned hard into the signature yellow. Bold, attention-grabbing, unmistakably startup. As the company matured and the sales conversation shifted toward enterprise procurement teams, the collateral needed to follow. Later white papers and one-pagers use yellow as an accent rather than a backdrop, with more white space, cleaner typography, and data visualisation that signals credibility. The brand didn't change, it grew up.

The inherited photography style was simply monochrome. At first, we explored using gradient maps in secondary colours that, whilst rich, also tended to be quite dark (although it contrasted well with the vibrant yellow). Later, we experimented with an "owned colour" approach, tinting photography to create instant brand recognition. Honestly, yellow proved harder to pull off than green or pink — it works in small doses but overwhelms at scale. More recently, I've been using AI image generation to create artistic interpretations of stock imagery, adding personality and distinctiveness to content that would otherwise feel generic. There's an irony in using AI to make things feel more human, but some of the results speak for themselves.

Brand extends beyond digital. I designed exhibition stands for trade shows — the pull-up banners, backdrops, and tablecloths that make a 3x3 metre space feel like Previse. Merchandise evolved from basic logo t-shirts to more considered pieces: a shirt where the "p" icon is composed of our four values icons, branded bottles, caps. None of it is revolutionary, but it's consistent — every touchpoint reinforcing the same visual language.

"Head of Design" at a startup means doing whatever needs doing. I've drawn floor plans for three different offices, specifying desk layouts, collaborative spaces, and quiet zones. When open-plan noise became unbearable — particularly colleagues on video calls — I designed bespoke acoustic partitions: tall and thick enough to actually block sound, with shorter intermediate dividers so teams could still collaborate along a row. It's not portfolio work, but it's the kind of problem-solving that keeps a company functional.