Behind the Brand: Emm’s Transformation with Play Make
““I’d do it all again, hands down.””
When Emm approached me in early 2024, she was concerned that her business wasn’t where she wanted—or needed—it to be. She had lost pride in it, momentum had stalled, and, frankly, she felt a little embarrassed by it.
After our initial kick-off call, I could tell she had completely fallen out of love with her business identity — and I was determined to help bring some of that love back. We spoke at length about her business, and I got to know a lot about her (and let me tell you, she is one very cool woman).
At Play Make, we call this process developing the distinctive blueprint. Without this deep dive and discovery stage, there’s no point in designing, well, anything.
Emm had been struggling because, until now, her identity was just surface-level graphics and visuals with little to no connection to who she is or what she does. That had to change.
What we designed for Emm was an entirely new identity and visual system to support her business as it moved into its next phase. Emm was all about breaking free from the typical styles and trends of the finance industry — and in many ways, she already was. She’s a woman in a male-dominated field with the most fabulously fashionable corporate wardrobe I’ve ever seen. She’s also a millennial, unafraid to show it, and she brings that confidence and fresh perspective into everything she believes about the industry. Now, to bring that to live through design…
It's been over a year since she launched this new look for Lumaire Wealth, so, recently I sat down to chat with Emm about what it was like to work with me and what impacts this has had on her business. Here’s what she had to say.
Q: What made you choose Play Make over other designers or studios?
A: “I think it was just simply that I'd spoken to a bunch of people. I'd worked with a few people in the past and I just never quite hit the brief. And I knew what I wanted, but finding someone who could be along the same wavelength;, it was impossible. And so I was referred to you (Bec) and you just obviously picked it up and I thought, “wow, she gets me.”
You definitely had a vibe about you that a lot of people sort of lack.
And you had a lot of different diverse work. And all of them were executed differently, which just shows your level of skill, really, in my opinion."
Q: How did you feel about your brand/visuals before working with me?
A: "If anything, it didn't define who I was and wanted to be as an advisor. It just wasn't anything that I associated with.”
Q: What were your expectations going into this project with me, — and did they change during the process?
A: “In all honesty, I went in with really low expectations just because of my experiences in the past (with other designers) . The level of detail that you went into and the journey that we went on just completely blew my mind. It also helped me feel seen and heard and inspired.”
Q: How would you describe my approach to understanding your brand and vision?
A: "You were just so receptive and wanted to hear everything on such a granular level. …(You) helped me understand what I want to feel.”
Q: How has your brand changed since we worked together?
A: "Oh, tenfold. I'm still getting compliments about it. Even now, I find that other businesses want to engage with me, which is really interesting.
I'm constantly getting people reaching out and saying, “I feel like your brand is very aligned with who I am”, which is cool because I've now been able to meet referral partners that I really I've started screening now, because there's so many of them coming in.
I'm standing out. I'm already a minority. So even just showing a couple of colours and things, we're going to stand out naturally. We’ve achieved what we wanted to do and then some, which is cool.”
Q: How did the brand we created make your business feel different from before?
A: "I just felt like we entered a whole new era. Not just because we looked different, but I felt like we formally became something and we were clear on who we were as a company and what we were delivering. We already knew who we were servicing, but it just helped push home, you know, who we wanted to work with.
So I found that the types of clients that have been coming through, I have a lot more in common with them naturally.”
Q: How has your confidence in your brand changed?
A: "Tenfold. That's an easy answer.
I actually had a client say that to me. ‘oh, wow, you are exactly what you look like on your website.”
A huge thank you to Emm for trusting Play Make with her vision (and for sharing her experience!)
Stories like hers remind us why we do what we do — helping business owners step into their next chapter with clarity and confidence.
If you’re ready to stop feeling “stuck” in your brand and start showing up with confidence — we’d love to help you create your own Distinctive Blueprint.
