At Dawn, we essentially work with any company that needs to change things up and actually stand for something.
This usually means companies who have something brilliant to offer but can’t communicate it in the way they know they could be doing. We’ve found that some sectors always have room for improvement, particularly in B2B, which is where we mostly work. Industries like construction, finance and tech are usually very similar in how they come across and the language they use.
Our role is in helping to change that perception, and to enable individual brands to be seen a little differently.
How did you come up with the idea for Dawn?
I started the agency to rid the world of bad design and poor communication. There were so many brands I saw – and still see, on a daily basis – that just needed waking up. To actually stand for something. A lot of industries were full of brands that looked, felt, and sounded like every one of their competitors – there were no differentiators. And if they did have points of difference, they weren’t communicating them to their customers. So, the name Dawn came about as I was figuring out how I could take all of these bland brands out of the dark, and into the light.
I knew it would all start with waking them up. Uncovering the brand, their reason for existing, what makes them different, and where they sat in the market. It then moves on to building, crafting, developing something that will make them rise up beyond where they were, into new territories, creating new opportunities as they’re able to communicate their offering in a completely different way. After that, we’d work to give them everything they needed to succeed in the long run. Maintaining that brand through brilliant design and digital assets, to make them outshine their competition. Never an off-brand document again; never looking unprofessional.
In short, the idea was to help brands communicate who they are and why they’re brilliant, and to give them the tools they need to keep on repeating that process. And that’s what we continue to do today.
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How has the business changed over the last few years?
Alongside the big rebranding and website development projects that take up most of our time in the agency, recently we’ve been looking at how we can make tweaks to an existing brand or a website. Focusing on little improvements that can make a big difference.
We’ve started offering things like User Experience reviews, analysing the customer journey and how certain touchpoints might make users feel in the moment, making sure people are more likely to get where you want them to get to. We’ve also started sharing much knowledge with the community about brand, digital and motion for free, through things like our “Branding. Done.” webinars and podcasts. Next year, we’re looking into making everything accessible in one place through a course people can do at their own pace.
What can we hope to see from Dawn in the future?
Our aim is to cover even more parts of branding and digital. Whether that’s partnering with other incredible agencies to create bespoke sound portfolios, or running tone of voice workshops, conversion rate optimisation and UX sessions.
We want to provide more ways to improve digital accessibility for our clients, ultimately giving them an even better brand across multiple categories within the pillars of brand, digital, and motion. We’ll also start to develop our own brands and products. Over the years, we’ve seen lots of businesses in lots of sectors, and we’re keen to develop our own brands in some of these industries. That way, we’d have complete ownership over the brands and be able to push boundaries, and show what can be done. In short, to practice what we preach!
