4 tactics I’m stealing from Smith & Diction

I recently got to interview Mike and Chara from Smith & Diction.

You might recognize that name from the episodes with Henry Modisett and Phi Hoang because they’re the ones who designed the Perplexity brand identity.

It didn’t take long to realize that these two have more hacks and mental models for brand strategy than anyone I know so here are a few of my favorites 👇

4 tactics I’m stealing from Smith & Diction

1 — Tie a brand identity to a person

“Perplexity is like Malcolm Gladwell”

Those five words carry a lot of context. All of a sudden it’s easier to imagine the optimal personality and tone.

That’s why Mike and Chara often use people comparisons to unlock a deeper level of a brand’s identity. For instance, Simone Biles might be “determined”, “measured” or “accurate”, which help them push into unfamiliar territory and understand what could make a brand unique.

“It’s easy to use words like ‘clean’ and ‘tidy’ but are those words you’d use to describe your friend?”
— Chara Smith

2 — Write for prospective employees

Too often corporate strategy is written with shareholders in mind.

That’s why when Chara is working on a vision for a company, she imagines a candidate reading it while considering accepting a job offer.

What would it take for them to cancel their other interviews and accept the job on the spot?

“It shouldn’t just be a plan… it should be a thing that makes somebody feel something”
— Chara

3 — Test your moves in the bathroom

“A brand is like food…you have to make it again every single day”
— Mike Smith

The “moves” you have are like ingredients in your kitchen. It’s all of the things you can do with the brand that feel “ownable” beyond the logo (like this subtle geometric pattern you see sprinkled throughout the Perplexity UX).

Mike and Chara have a simple test they use to evaluate their moves:

You need to be able to type out “Bathroom is closed” and it has to still feel on brand 😆

4 — Change your medium

So much of a brand identity is formed while solving specific problems (i.e. “How do I make this work for a FB ad?”).

That’s why Chara makes a point to solve new, seemingly unrelated problems as a way to stretch her thinking.

So the next time you’re stuck writing copy for a website, try writing something completely different like a poem or a story about the brand.

“We did this for a brand we were just working on. We're like, okay, write this like it's the Star Wars crawl at the beginning. Are they going to use that? No, but it gives you ideas”
— Chara

Each medium you write for produces something new. The more you tackle, the better you understand a brand’s language 💪

Brand strategy deep dive

If you want to go even deeper there’s a lot more in the full episode with Mike & Chara including:

• What it takes to stand out in an AI world

• Their hacks for cracking a brand strategy

• Why the best brands have lots of “moves”

• Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designers

• What people really mean when they say “timeless”

• Their experience using Visual Electric in brand design

• Positioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscape

• a lot more