Brand builder / Writer / Design thinker

Brenda Lillian Natoli

NYC

"We may be able to think without language, but language lets us know that we are thinking."—Arika Okrent, Linguist

A persistent belief in the power of the written word has led me to a decades-long career as a brand builder, innovation consultant, and editor.

I've worked in and alongside organizations of varying size and structure in a breadth of sectors and industries, from retail and financial services, to education and beauty.

My work draws from the design thinking methodology I was steeped in at IDEO, in addition to past tenures in branding. This latter experience includes verbal identity—voice, messaging, and naming.

Clients include: EILEEN FISHER; Citibank; KPMG; Microsoft; Diageo; Unilever; United Airlines; Black Girls Code; Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Lowline; and the Environmental Defense Fund, among others.

As an independent contractor, I build brand strategy and verbal identity programs, content strategy, cultural toolkits, collective impact models as well as pitch in with salt-of-the-earth copyediting and product copy.

Specialties

WritingBrand StrategyDesign ThinkingCreative DirectionCreative ConceptingWorkshop FacilitationBrainstormingQualitative ResearchTesting & ValidationScript WritingNamingVoice & MessagingEditingCo-DesignOrganizational DesignCultural Toolkits

Clients

EILEEN FISHERHeartworkPentagramVisionaireBone & BlackDoorstepsStudioForbeset al.

Education

Creative Leadership Kaos Pilots 2014 New York, NY
BFA in Printmaking and Design History University of Michigan 1994 – 1998 Ann Arbor, MI