Chalkbox Creative

Chalkbox Creative is a Seattle branding and design studio founded in 2004 by Josh Huisenga. It focuses on family and legacy businesses going through leadership or brand transitions, offering brand assessment, strategy, identity, web, print and event design.

Huisenga earned a graphic design degree at Montana State University, moved to Seattle in 1998 and spent five years on the brand design team at Amazon before launching the studio. Chalkbox says its goal is lifetime clients, supporting them as a brand is rolled out, built on and adapted, and notes that many clients return for years, some for a decade or more. Its process, called the open kitchen, is concept-first and keeps clients involved throughout. It has three steps: Discovery, where the team studies the business, audience and competition; Concept, where it shares its full exploration, including dead ends, so stakeholders align before execution; and Refinement, where the agreed direction is developed into the final creative.

• Brand audit and assessment: an outside review of what a brand has, what is not working and what to fix first
• Brand strategy consulting: research on what the organization does and believes, who it serves and who it competes with
• Logo and brand design: identity design built to be applied consistently across channels
• Web design and development: branded, content-rich websites designed to convert visitors
• Print design and production: printed materials that bring the brand into the physical world
• Event design and branding: event brands, stage and nametag design, physical or virtual

Selected projects include a name change and brand update for The Akopyan Group, a CPA firm preparing for a leadership transition; a full rebrand of The Diabetes Link that began with the name; a brand identity for the Singer Family Foundation as it enters second-generation leadership; and a redesign for Dog Guard after more than 20 years, with attention to its sales and distribution network. Testimonials come from WWC Global, The Akopyan Group, Dog Guard and Artala.

The studio says its team and processes can flex for organizations from about 10 people to about 400. Luke Harper joined as project manager in November 2020 with 25 years in the printing industry.