I worked with Ruthie Ackerman for several months to develop her brand before her forthcoming book, The Mother Code. It was a wonderful experience that started like most of my branding projects do with a conversation and a questionnaire where we narrowed down the tone of the brand. That was followed by presenting Ruthie with mood boards to align on the look and feel of her new brand. We decided to ground her brand in a concept I borrowed from a Billy Collin’s poem called Marginalia. Collin’s poem focuses on the delightful scribbles that people doodle in the margins of a book. Ruthie and I came up with a list of illustrations and words that show up in Ruthie’s writing and teaching and would pepper the pages of her work. Those became the focus of her new brand. I took those illustrations and incorporated them into her website, deck, and a variety of templates for social and substack.