A quiet reason behind a lot of the work we do: embarrassment.

“So, where do you work?”

Maybe the reply is answered with a bit of furtive hesitation. Might be that person doesn’t want to answer because you might just pull up the website, and the website is a bit of a mess.

It’s a brand perception issue that plays out most immediately in web form. The first place anyone goes to get a sense about a particular business.

Some past work that comes to mind that has addressed this in different ways:

• A product agency that needs to look super current and a little edgy

• A healthcare brand that needs to embody the mission behind its preventative focused model

• A fixed income firm that needs to look like it’s still going to be around after its founders retire

• A legal tech startup that needs to signal it’s building a vibrant business and worth joining

Different problems, same issue. No one knows what it’s like inside but the people inside. What’s on the outside doesn’t match up.

Closing that gap, matching perception to reality, has more reach than most people expect.

It shows up in recruiting. In retention. In whether your own people feel genuine pride in where they work, or change the subject when someone asks.

Newly revitalized

Recently we launched a new website for Dolan McEniry Capital Management in collaboration with Six06 Strategy.

This is the fixed income firm mentioned above and it’s the one that got me thinking about this topic. We made sure a photoshoot took place showcase showing actual team members in their real place of work. We’re doing this a lot these days.

A digital presence that is refined yet progressive. A site that employees can rally behind. A signal to clients that there's more to come.

Throwing shade

A shader is a small program that controls how light and color render on screen. The reason designers care: shaders can be used to create motion and effects that do interesting things. And done so directly in browser. 2 weeks ago Framer made them part of the platform and I’ve been having fun experimenting.

Sensory Links

Sound — Indianola Mississippi Seeds was one in a small collection of vinyl’s my family had growing up. Very formative, great cover art.

Thought — Henry Miller’s work sched

Space — A little office on Bainbridge Island by Cutler-Anderson

Better than you look?

Bolster fixes the gap between how good you are and how you show up. Know someone whose identity is holding them back? Let us know, maybe we can help.