client

Crane Stationery

scope

ethnographic research
audience insights
cultural & industry audit
brand positioning
employee education
workshop facilitation

role

researcher
communications design
brand strategy

challenge

Cultural notions of etiquette and vehicles for meaningful connection are reinvented daily through an expanded universe of social interactions. For Crane Stationery, with its storied 250 year legacy of craftsmanship and a story cemented in American history, the company fell out of relevance. Writing letters and personalized stationery felt like artifacts, not desirable objects or routines.

To effectively expand its reach, Crane needed a clear brand brief to deliver a clear set of instructions for brand stewards throughout the organization to confidently express and execute on a new  vision for the next 250 years. 

We began the rebranding of Crane by reexamining the of the role of correspondence in people’s lives in a cultural and industry audit to understand how we connect, through what platforms, what role technology plays, and where and when we still reach for pen and paper.

Research included 14 employee interviews, 34 consumers interviews (in-depth interviews, journals and video diaries), 14 B2B and Retail Interviews, 30+ retail visits + online retailers, 50+ review of industry articles, & review of client provided materials. I supported the drafting of all discussion guides and stimulus, conducted the majority of interviews, and led on synthesizing the results into clear, actionable human insights.

A glimpse from the audience insights presentation, demonstrating how final implications are accompanied by clear, concise models that invoke evidence.

insight

Confining meaningful connection to letter writing is limiting—not just for Crane, but for any potential audience. Whether we write love notes on post-its or scribble words of affirmation on a napkin, it is the time and effort spent that adds soul to a gift and meaning to words. For Crane, reviving physical correspondence meant hurdling over our fears of writing and tapping into our universal desire to be both creative and generous. The ambition to create space for expression opened Crane up to products that nourish the soul through the greatest gift of all: time. 

A simple model demonstrated how to move beyond the writer to multiple creative personalities—whether you are the intentional, curated gift giver or the DIY explorer who loves to start from scratch. The positioning, or shared ambition, was simply “to create space for expression”.

Put brand tools into practice. A brand positioning is essential to streamlining decisions; it’s a small phrase or set of instructional words that guides how every department, employee, and partner thinks of Crane products. Once a brand ladder was developed, I co-facilitated workshops to help Crane employees practically apply brand strategy. They generated new products, created guardrails for their department’s decision making, and felt inspired to create and imagine.

The brand positioning also informed the development of a creative brief, passed to esteemed designers at COLLINS, who beautifully transformed Crane—maintaining its elegance while also bringing modernity and literal flourish to their look and feel.

solution

The new brand brief activated the ambitions of personal expression through creativity and generosity to fuel a visual identity that melded past and present, classic and modern. For Crane teams, the strategy set in motion a wave of new product development and provided inspiration for a new e-commerce site.

outputs