Build your brand right — the first time.
BUILD — BRAND ADVISORY FOR FOUNDERS
Direct 1:1 brand advisory. Build your brand with someone who gets you, your vision, your product — and knows how to get it right.
Most founders are navigating this alone. You don't have to.
WHY BUILD ALONE?Maybe you're building your first brand and don't know where to start. Maybe you've started but the brand isn't gaining the traction you expected. Either way, the challenge is the same — too many decisions, not enough support, and no one in the room who's been here before.
You're building your first brand.
You have the product, the passion, and the drive. What you don't have is a roadmap or someone who's been here before. The stakes are too high to figure it out as you go. Build gives you the experience and clarity to get it right the first time — with someone in your corner who isn't just advising but doing.You’ve started – but something isn’t right
Maybe the brand isn't gaining traction. Maybe the complexity has outgrown your resources. Maybe you're facing decisions you don't have the experience to make confidently. You need more than good advice — you need someone who will help you execute it.Cut the time to launch, with less trial and error, and fewer decisions to manage.
+ 1:1 Access
+ Partner Management
+ Founder Advisory
+ Launch Strategy
+ Brand Building
+ Big Ideas
+ Real Impact
+ 1:1 Access + Partner Management + Founder Advisory + Launch Strategy + Brand Building + Big Ideas + Real Impact
From zero to launch.
Two critical paths.
HOW BUILD WORKSWHAT YOUR ENGAGEMENT INCLUDES
✓ Weekly 1:1 sessions with Shawn
✓ Async access for day-to-day questions and decisions
✓ Strategic advisory across brand, product, market, and launch
✓ Access to SSStudio's full range of design and creative services
ONGOING THROUGHOUT THE ENGAGEMENT
✓ External partner referrals and management support
✓ Go-to-market planning and launch sequencing
✓ Brand governance and decision-making as you scale
✓ A trusted advisor embedded in your brand from day oneBuild is a month-to-month engagement — not a project with a fixed scope and a handoff date. Most founders spend 2 to 3 years in trial and error before getting their brand right. Build compresses that into 6 months by putting the right expertise, judgment, and executional support in your corner from day one.
PHASE ONE - MONTHS 1-6From vision and strategy through design, activation, and market entry. Six months to build the brand right and launch with impact — with someone in the trenches with you at every step.
Build & Launch
Post-launch advisory, external partner management, brand governance, and strategic support as your brand finds its footing. The phase where having someone embedded from day one becomes your single greatest competitive advantage.
Establish & Grow
PHASE TWO – MONTHS 7-12The work moves across six pillars — not as separate services, but as an integrated foundation that strengthens your brand from vision through growth.
BUILT RIGHT FROM THE GROUND UP1
Vision
Uncovering your authentic story, clarifying what your brand stands for, who it's for, and why it exists. Before anything is designed or decided, we get this right. It's the foundation every decision is built on.2
Strategy
Category and consumer research, competitive positioning, naming, messaging, and a strategic roadmap that makes every creative decision purposeful — so you never wonder if something is on brand.3
Design
Full-service brand identity and creative execution — visual identity, packaging, print, space, digital, and everything in between. Built to connect emotionally and perform commercially from day one.4
Activation
Bringing the brand to life across every touchpoint — packaging systems, spatial design, digital presence, content, and eCommerce. The work that turns a brand identity into a full brand experience.5
Launch
Go-to-market planning, channel strategy, trade and consumer activations, PR and events. Real experience helping you sequence what to do, when, and in what order — then executing it alongside you.6
Growth
By launch, I'm already an embedded expert in your brand and business. That context becomes your greatest asset — helping you evaluate, onboard, and manage the external partners who carry you forward.Choose the level of partnership that fits where you are.
LET'S GET BUILDINGAdvise
Strategic guidance and a trusted sounding board for founders who have execution capacity but need expert direction.
• Weekly 1:1 sessions with Shawn
• Async access for day-to-day decisions
• Investor and pitch deck support as needed
• Strategic advisory across brand, product, marketing, and launch
• Go-to-market planning and launch sequencing
• Brand governance and decision-making support
• Referrals to vetted production partners
• Design services for pitch decks, lo-fi branding, and landing pages on a per project basis
Starting at $1,950/mo. + 3 mo. min.Build
Most Popular • The full Build engagement — strategic and creative execution for founders building from the ground up.
• Everything in Advise
• Access to SSStudio's full range of design and creative services: Brand identity, packaging, print, space, and digital
• Integrated strategy and design from a single trusted partner
• Launch execution alongside you — not handed off
• Post-launch brand support
Starting at $5,000/mo. + 6 mo. min. Accelerate
A full brand director engagement for founders scaling quickly who need deeper daily involvement and full ecosystem management.
• Everything in Build
• SSStudio's full range of design and creative services include.
• Increased session cadence
• Active post-launch management of external partners: PR, digital, content, marketing
• Shawn operating as an embedded fractional brand director with response across all channels
• Ongoing brand governance and category expertise across all business decisions
Starting at $9,500/mo. + 6 mo. min.Start with a 90-Minute Brand Clarity Session.
$300 session fee credited toward your engagement upon sign-up.Success Story
Building a wine brand that could only ever be Donna.
BEVERAGE — ADONNA WINESBRAND STRATEGY, IDENTITY, PACKAGING, DIGITAL STRATEGY, E-COMMERCE, ON-PREMISE, PROJECT COORDINATION, ONGOING ADVISORYDonna Kato came with a vision and a story no one had told yet. A self-made Japanese American woman who built a career in biotech, raised a family, survived cancer, and followed a call back to the land — graduating with a Master's in Viticulture & Enology to pursue a dream she never forgot.
We built the brand entirely around her. The ginkgo leaf emblem drawn from her mother's family crest. Label artwork rooted in Japanese block printing and textile traditions. The philosophy of Ichigo Ichie — one time, one meeting — woven throughout. None of it pulled from a wine brand mood board. All of it pulled from Donna.
Today the relationship continues — touching everything from packaging, trade activations, digital marketing, and product strategy. Donna doesn't just have a designer. She has a trusted advisor who's still invested in the future of her brand.
"You bring your creative brilliance to our brand and you have been a strategic partner every step of the way."
Donna Kato – Founder, Adonna Wines< 1 Year
From vision to launch in under 12 months.Press
Featured in Forbes, Wine Spectator, and SF Chronicle in year one.3 ★
On the table at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant in year one.Founders who trusted the process
Bamboo – Brussels, Belgium
Expanding rapidly but their brand looked like every other premium cereal on the shelf. We went back to their founding story and built something the cereal aisle had never seen — timeless, minimal, handcrafted. Worth leaving out on the kitchen table.Now in major retail across 3 countries
CPGJoyride Pizza – San Francisco, CA
The founder came in with a different name already decided. When he told me he wanted his pizza to give people a feeling of joy, I asked if he'd explore further. The name Joyride was already in his intention — he just hadn't seen it yet.A brand worth growing with 9 locations
HOSPITALITY
Manhattn’s – Brussels, Belgium
After several attempts they still didn't have a brand they could truly build from. I built them a rich, dynamic platform — the kind of system that flexes across every touchpoint without losing its identity.A brand worth growing with 11 locations
HOSPITALITY
Dahl Restaurants – Sedona, AZ
Chef Lisa Dahl had built something extraordinary across five restaurants in Sedona. What she needed was a brand architecture that put her personal brand front and center, unified her restaurant group, and was ready for the spotlight. In six months we rebranded five restaurants, launched a new digital platform, and delivered it all in time for the Sedona Film Festival premiere of her short film "Blessed by Grace." A complete transformation in six months.
HOSPITALITY
Shawn Scott
Founder & Creative Director
YOUR BRAND PARTNERI've built brands that landed on the shelves of five countries, earned Michelin star placements, and scaled across multiple locations. But what I'm most proud of is something harder to measure — the founders who say I just get it. That I get them, their brand, and their vision.
I started SSStudio after years of leading creative work across food, beverage, and hospitality — from neighborhood craft breweries and wine labels to international retail brands. I've sat across from first-time founders with nothing but a great idea, and from seasoned operators who needed someone to help them see their brand clearly for the first time.
What I bring isn't design or strategy in isolation. It's the ability to hold both at once — and to stay in it with you through every decision, setback, and milestone between concept and growth.
Founders come to me for great design. They stay because I show up as a true partner to their brand.
Ready to build a brand made to last?
Build engagements are limited. I work with a small number of founders at a time to make sure every relationship gets the attention it deserves. Tell me about your brand and where you are — and we'll figure out together if it's the right fit.