1% – the stat that needs to change
According to a report from 2022, just 1% of creative agencies are owned by women. So after two decades working for male founders, it was time for New York-based creative director Leigh Chandler to found her own studio, and do it her way.
Originally from the UK, Leigh is a trail-blazing creative who has made brands famous by helping them connect with their audiences and create devotees. It has earned her numerous industry awards and accolades.
I knew Leigh from Vault49, where we’d worked together on their comms. When she came to Becolourful with her new brand name – which we instantly loved – and a striking visual aesthetic, it already felt exciting. Sister Mary was a chance for Leigh to show off her own craft: branding with attitude. She knew words needed to be central, so we worked closely together to tell the story through a blend of the visual and the verbal.
A collaboration of creative women
Leigh embraces world-wide, cross-disciplinary collaboration – as do I. Becolourful is an "agency-that’s-not-an-agency", a brand voice consultancy that bring independents together for projects. I knew straight away that Australian writer Carolyn Barclay was the perfect teammate for this brief. Three women in three different continents, all of us highly strategic and dedicated to our craft. Was it tricky scheduling Zoom calls? Yes. Was that going to stop us? Hell no.
The start of the story
Verbal identity starts with a name, and Leigh came to us with a good’un. She had long admired radical Californian nun, activist, and pop artist Sister Mary Corita Kent, and this was her inspiration.
“Sister Mary Corita Kent was the OG female trailblazer who never really gained the recognition she deserved. So when I set out to create an agency that stood strong for women's contributions to design, I could think of no better way to honor her, and to signal my values, than to take on her name.”
We loved how the reference was personal and authentic to Leigh, and gave us a wealth of highly relevant themes to play with: sisterhood, followers, devotion, iconoclasm. Dream brief? Absolutely.
Finding divine inspiration at the intersection of art and enterprise, we break down the walls between creativity and strategy.
Owning the language
Disruptive. Brave. Problem-solving. These are all true for Sister Mary. But, yawn. How many times have we seen these words on creative agency websites? For a supposedly creative sector, it’s an incredibly same-y landscape.
We needed to practice what we were preaching (yeh) and create something more distinctive. A verbal identity with as much bite as the visuals. Confident and ownable statements; words that reach out because they have something important to say.
We have faith in the process.
Part I. Illumination
Part II. Revelation
Part III. Creation.
A call to arms
Strong beliefs and principles underlie the Sister Mary brand, and it felt right to express these in a manifesto – a promise to clients, collaborators, and to the creative industry at large.
Devoted to diversity of thought.
A sisterly soul.
Experts in the virtues of vice.
Tuning into a vibe
All this might sound like we were simply having fun with a quirky theme, but everything was built on very firm strategic foundations. We were tuning into a vibe that would speak to brand owners in the categories Leigh specializes in: cannabis, CBD, cosmetics, luxury food and drink brands. We had a mandate for personality.
We dance between disciplines to rewrite the rules, lifting your brand above the masses.
A fine balance
And this was also the challenge. Having fun with language and working a theme demands a delicate balance. We wanted to gently tease the reader, and avoid the usual industry jargon wherever possible. But we also needed a clear message – and to take care not to over-work it. This is where the collaboration truly came into force, as we continually checked in with each other to get the balance right. Want to contact Leigh? Email halo@sistermary.nyc. (Too much? Ah, c’mon. The devil’s in the details.)
See all the copy on the Sister Mary website.
Credits:
1% – the stat that needs to change
According to a report from 2022, just 1% of creative agencies are owned by women. So after two decades working for male founders, it was time for New York-based creative director Leigh Chandler to found her own studio, and do it her way.
Originally from the UK, Leigh is a trail-blazing creative who has made brands famous by helping them connect with their audiences and create devotees. It has earned her numerous industry awards and accolades.
I knew Leigh from Vault49, where we’d worked together on their comms. When she came to Becolourful with her new brand name – which we instantly loved – and a striking visual aesthetic, it already felt exciting. Sister Mary was a chance for Leigh to show off her own craft: branding with attitude. She knew words needed to be central, so we worked closely together to tell the story through a blend of the visual and the verbal.
A collaboration of creative women
Leigh embraces world-wide, cross-disciplinary collaboration – as do I. Becolourful is an "agency-that’s-not-an-agency", a brand voice consultancy that bring independents together for projects. I knew straight away that Australian writer Carolyn Barclay was the perfect teammate for this brief. Three women in three different continents, all of us highly strategic and dedicated to our craft. Was it tricky scheduling Zoom calls? Yes. Was that going to stop us? Hell no.
The start of the story
Verbal identity starts with a name, and Leigh came to us with a good’un. She had long admired radical Californian nun, activist, and pop artist Sister Mary Corita Kent, and this was her inspiration.
“Sister Mary Corita Kent was the OG female trailblazer who never really gained the recognition she deserved. So when I set out to create an agency that stood strong for women's contributions to design, I could think of no better way to honor her, and to signal my values, than to take on her name.”
We loved how the reference was personal and authentic to Leigh, and gave us a wealth of highly relevant themes to play with: sisterhood, followers, devotion, iconoclasm. Dream brief? Absolutely.
Finding divine inspiration at the intersection of art and enterprise, we break down the walls between creativity and strategy.
Owning the language
Disruptive. Brave. Problem-solving. These are all true for Sister Mary. But, yawn. How many times have we seen these words on creative agency websites? For a supposedly creative sector, it’s an incredibly same-y landscape.
We needed to practice what we were preaching (yeh) and create something more distinctive. A verbal identity with as much bite as the visuals. Confident and ownable statements; words that reach out because they have something important to say.
We have faith in the process.
Part I. Illumination
Part II. Revelation
Part III. Creation.
A call to arms
Strong beliefs and principles underlie the Sister Mary brand, and it felt right to express these in a manifesto – a promise to clients, collaborators, and to the creative industry at large.
Devoted to diversity of thought.
A sisterly soul.
Experts in the virtues of vice.
Tuning into a vibe
All this might sound like we were simply having fun with a quirky theme, but everything was built on very firm strategic foundations. We were tuning into a vibe that would speak to brand owners in the categories Leigh specializes in: cannabis, CBD, cosmetics, luxury food and drink brands. We had a mandate for personality.
We dance between disciplines to rewrite the rules, lifting your brand above the masses.
A fine balance
And this was also the challenge. Having fun with language and working a theme demands a delicate balance. We wanted to gently tease the reader, and avoid the usual industry jargon wherever possible. But we also needed a clear message – and to take care not to over-work it. This is where the collaboration truly came into force, as we continually checked in with each other to get the balance right. Want to contact Leigh? Email halo@sistermary.nyc. (Too much? Ah, c’mon. The devil’s in the details.)
See all the copy on the Sister Mary website.
Credits:
