Less Than Half is a movement-driven organization dedicated to reshaping the art world through education, advocacy, and community action.
Founded by Hall Rockefeller, an art historian, writer, and curator dedicated to uncovering and amplifying the often overlooked contributions of women artists, challenging the structural biases of the art world through her platform.
Less Than Half came to us with a lot of writing notes from the founder, but lacked clear direction and strategy. We created audience personas, developed a detail brand strategy, and wrote out messaging guidelines. We then translated all of this on a beautiful, robust, and user-friendly Squarespace website.
The brand’s values: inclusivity, empowerment, authenticity, approachability, education, action, advocacy.
BRAND STRATEGY
We created a beautiful brand strategy document for the Less Than Half team to refer to time and time again. This strategy defined who they are, what they do, and why they do it, told the LTH story, defined an action-oriented mission and forward-focused vision for the future. We then defined the characteristics of the brand, its core values, its brand positioning, and it’s unique value proposition. After listing proof points to back up the value LTH creates, we outlined the business’ model, defined branded terms, and developed a story for the brand’s mascot.
TARGET AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
We created audience profiles for the buckets of ideal Less Than Half members, all made up of unique individuals but linked by common personality traits. We defined the LTH General Audience as Socially-Conscious Culture Seekers, and then created three distinct audience groups based on lifestyle factors.
BRAND VOICE + MESSAGING GUIDELINES
We combined the strategic insights from the brand strategy and target audience analysis to create a brand voice and messaging guidelines document that differentiates both the Less Than Half brand voice and spunkier voice of the brand’s mascot, Cornelia. For each voice, we defined the personality, tone, attributes, and language dos and don’ts. Lastly, we explained how to use both voices in tandem and created examples showing each in social media posts, an email newsletter, and website elements.
WEBSITE DESIGN
Before we worked our magic, the Less Than Half website was a DIY Squarespace template that lacked clarity, direct calls-to-action (CTAs), and had some messy elements affecting the user experience. We created a fully custom website and wrote copy that made the mission clear, illustrated the organization’s impact, defined the model, and clarified calls-to-action. We incorporated brand new, lively imagery and fun and funky design elements that spoke to the brand’s artistic background while incorporating commissioned art throughout the site.
“I really enjoyed the step by step—starting with brand strategy which then translated into the website copy. Doing the brand voice work gave me a tool that I can use in a variety of ways, from the website, to speeches and social posts. The brand voice work you did is like the Swiss Army knife of marketing!”
– HALL R., FOUNDER OF LESS THAN HALF
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