A venture agency that partners with tenacious founders.
Logo
Website
Presentation
I worked with Neighborhood Studios to establish a brand identity for their startup incubation program. A logo, brand guidelines, presentation templates, and a landing page to introduce the studio to potential founders.
industry
Venture / Startup services
project type
Consumer - New build
role
Lead Designer - Freelance
focus area
Logo, presentation, web design
The Brief
Request
Neighborhood Studios runs on a quarterly cycle. They develop 12 to 16 startup concepts per year, then recruit founders to test and launch one idea per quarter. To attract the right founders and communicate the program's vision, they needed a brand identity built from scratch. A logo, lightweight brand guidelines, a one-page website, and presentation graphics.
Deliverable
The logo went through three rounds of refinement before landing on a hand-drawn N mark. The direction was intentional: Neighborhood Studios works with local, scrappy startups, and a more personal, handcrafted feel fit that better than something polished and corporate. Once the mark was settled, I paired it with a typeface that matched the tone and built out a color palette that felt bright but grounded. The N mark in its yellow icon shape became the through-line across the website favicon, presentations, and brand materials. The 'Only Neighborhoods Can Save Us' logotype came directly from Dave and became a secondary mark for the brand. It says everything about what the studio is trying to do.
Signage for the front door of the office.
The birth of squiggle. Not to scale.
Approach
The existing relationship with Dave meant we could move fast without a lot of setup. We started with a moodboard that mixed my own references with brands Dave was drawn to, which gave us a shared visual language before any sketching started. Logo exploration happened over three to four Zoom calls where I walked him through my Illustrator file directly, talking through the thinking behind each direction. I started in black and white to keep the focus on form, then introduced color in later rounds once the mark had legs. The animated logo exploration on this page shows the range of directions we worked through before landing on the final N mark.
Further Reading
A look inside the V1 logo exploration file. Early directions, rejected marks, and the iterations that led to the final N mark.
Outcome
Dave and I had worked together previously on Scoutmob, so we already knew how each other worked. That history made the whole process faster and more direct. The brand launched shortly after we wrapped, including a physical sign above their office entrance. Neighborhood Studios has since recruited founders and launched several startups in the community, including projects like Loop and Dandy in the Decatur area. The studio is still active, and the brand has stayed consistent and unchanged since launch.