The Alma Collective

Brand strategy and creative direction for founders in the experience economy.

From the founder

A Note

Most brand work falls into one of two categories. The first is strategy without execution: a slide deck of positioning frameworks that no designer or photographer can actually translate into something a guest, a patient, or a customer experiences. The second is execution without strategy: beautiful work that does not know why it exists or who it is for.

The Alma Collective sits between these. We do strategy that knows what its execution looks like, and execution that carries the strategy through every surface.

Kate, founder

The Approach

We start with the question, not the deliverable.

Every engagement begins with a working session that produces no design and no copy. It produces a single document: a clear statement of what the brand is trying to be, who it is for, and what is at stake.

We work with a small number of clients at a time.

Never more than two Studio Engagements and a small handful of smaller projects in any given quarter. The constraint protects the work.

We bring strategy and execution under one roof.

A brand identity built by a strategist who has never directed a photo shoot will not survive a photo shoot.

We document everything.

Every engagement produces a working brand book: the source of truth for every visual, verbal, and operational decision the brand will make.

Capabilities

Brand Strategy and Positioning

The foundation of every other capability. Positioning, narrative, voice, audience definition, competitive context.

Visual Identity Direction

Creative direction of the visual system: color, typography, photography style, brand book documentation.

Editorial Brand Documentation

The brand book itself: a working document that defines the system and protects against drift over time.

Photography and On-Site Production

Editorial brand photography directed and shot in-house. Interiors, food and beverage, landscape, atmosphere.

Digital Ecosystem

Website strategy and build on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify. Sites the client can maintain themselves.

Sustained Creative Direction

Ongoing fractional creative direction for clients past the initial brand build. Monthly retainer with a defined scope.

Photography

Visual work

Editorial brand photography. Interiors, food and beverage, hospitality, atmosphere. Directed and shot in-house.

Photography Photography Photography Photography
Selected Work

Engagements

Two pre-launch brand engagements presented with depth. Click to expand.

01 — Case Study

Casa Bera

Boutique Guest House · Costa Brava, Spain · Pre-Launch

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The brief

A seven-room guest house in the final phase of a four-year restoration on the northern Costa Brava. The founder, a former front-of-house manager at a two-Michelin-star Spanish restaurant, inherited the 18th-century property and brought it through restoration with her partner, an architect.

The work

Full brand foundation: positioning, narrative, voice, color system, naming conventions for the rooms and restaurant, brand book, and a twelve-month launch strategy structured around quiet editorial press rather than conventional hospitality marketing.

The position

Casa Bera is positioned not as a hotel, not as a B&B, but as a guest house in the older sense. The brand operates as the opposite of a resort: smaller, quieter, more personal, deliberately undermarketed.

Deliverables

  • Complete brand book
  • Twelve-month launch strategy
  • Five-letter editorial press outreach
  • Soft-launch list of forty individuals
  • Website foundation and visual identity direction

Read Full Strategy and Deliverables →

02 — Case Study

The Hawthorn Practice

Collaborative Wellness Practice · Portland, Maine · Pre-Launch

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The brief

Three licensed practitioners preparing to open a collaborative practice in Portland, Maine. The challenge was unusual: the brand had to communicate clinical credibility to primary care physicians making referrals, while feeling warm enough that a patient with chronic anxiety would walk in and exhale.

The work

Full brand foundation including positioning, naming logic, color system designed to thread the gap between clinical and welcoming, voice and tone calibrated for patient and professional contexts simultaneously, language rules covering the specific category traps of the wellness industry, and a launch strategy built on professional referral rather than consumer marketing.

The position

The Hawthorn Practice is positioned as a collaborative wellness practice, with deliberate emphasis on practice. Three practitioners. One shared record. One care plan. The integration is the practice.

Deliverables

  • Complete brand book
  • Practitioner profile copy in each practitioner's voice
  • Twelve-month launch strategy organized around professional referral
  • Patient resource library architecture and first five clinical documents
  • Website foundation and visual identity direction

Read Full Strategy and Deliverables →

Selected Work

Brand building

Brand identity, packaging, and visual systems for founder-led companies.

Brand building
Selected Work

Experience direction

Event direction, on-site production, and atmosphere for brand launches and hospitality moments.

Experience

Earlier Engagements

Venus Villa

Luxury Hospitality and Travel

Brand strategy and digital ecosystem for a luxury villa rental brand serving high-end travelers.

Glamp Life Magazine

Boutique Travel Publishing

Brand direction and editorial design for a travel publication at the intersection of adventure and high-end comfort.

Abacus Builders

Premium Residential Construction

Brand strategy and marketing leadership for a premium residential construction firm.

Giselle Koy

Founder-Led Creative Consulting

Ongoing brand direction and creative strategy for a founder-led practice.

Holistic Health Startup

2020–2023 · Three-Year Embedded Engagement

Full marketing leadership across three years. Built and ran the podcast, shaped brand identity, guided strategic direction.

Founders who care are the only kind of client worth doing the work for.

How We Work Together