Wild Blackberry Studio

Wild Blackberry Studio Every brand is transmitting, all the time. You don’t have to settle for mediocre design just because your budget is small business sized. Let’s talk.)

We help changemakers, purpose-driven organizations, and the teams behind complex ideas make sure what they’re putting into the world actually sounds and looks like them. I love helping small businesses figure out who they are and what they want people to feel and remember about them and then creating an identity around that. My personal goals include making great brands that support small business

goals, getting opportunities to work with and learn from other designers, earning enough greenbacks to fill a pair of college funds and finally, supporting my rather serious font habit. (Oh, and I should mention I am open to unique arrangements, including temp and contract work and bartering services for services. No matter what size your business, your business needs good design.

NAACTeach kept talking about wanting alternatively certified teachers to find their people.That became a pretty importan...
09/02/2026

NAACTeach kept talking about wanting alternatively certified teachers to find their people.

That became a pretty important sentence for us. Because the logo needed to represent an organization built around teachers supporting other teachers. That’s where the woven knot came from.

Every piece is connected. The individual pieces are what make the larger shape work. Or, as we started saying during the project: Every thread strengthens every other.

The new identity has already made its first appearance on a landing page we pulled together for Dr. Cheryl Rhonda Parker Countee’s book launch and August 6 conference event.

Now we’re working on the larger NAACTeach brand and website. Still very much in progress.

But this is where it started.

08/31/2026

We overcomplicate networking. B2B is really just P2P (People to People). 🤝

As SallyAnn Gray brilliantly breaks it down, getting referrals doesn't require a complex formula. It comes down to this: people work with people they like. Being authentic, reliable, competent, and easy to work with is the ultimate business strategy.

When you build that kind of mutual trust, you never feel the need to micromanage your collaborators. You just let them do what they're great at.

🔗 Read the interview here: https://bit.ly/4xMXbpm

08/29/2026

Let’s be honest: the pressure to perform "okayness" is exhausting. 🫠

Traditional networking can feel a little gross when you are forced to walk into a room, be perfectly "on," and project hyper-competency. In business, there are hard weeks where you have to pretend everything is going great for the sake of your clients, which is exactly why you need a safe space where you can drop the act.

In this clip, SallyAnn and I talk about the massive relief of having peers you don't have to perform for.

🔗 Catch the full conversation here: https://bit.ly/4xMXbpm 🦅

08/27/2026

What are the most healing words you can hear when you are struggling? "Oh my God, me too." It is incredibly easy to sit in isolation and convince yourself that you are the only one struggling with a specific challenge. But as SallyAnn Gray reminds us in this Lucky 13, the second you bravely share that struggle out loud, you give someone else the permission to exhale and realize they aren't alone either.

If you need a reminder that someone else out there understands exactly what you're going through, this conversation is for you.

🔗 Read the full interview at the link in comments!
(And go listen to SallyAnn's podcast, Chin Hairs and F-Bombs, wherever you get your podcasts!)

08/25/2026

Hard truth: Your website has a shelf life. 🕰️

You wouldn't skip oil changes on your car and expect it to run forever, right? In this clip, Margaret breaks down a massive misconception clients have about web development. Technology moves so fast that sometimes it literally changes while we are building a site.

If you're treating your WordPress theme like a "one and done" investment for infinity years, you're going to end up in some very expensive technological debt.

🔗 Check the full interview to learn how to future-proof your digital home.
https://bit.ly/4fQgSXj

I have a complicated relationship with formulas.I like a good process. I like knowing where we’re going. I absolutely li...
08/22/2026

I have a complicated relationship with formulas.

I like a good process. I like knowing where we’re going. I absolutely like having a plan. But I get suspicious when someone tells me there’s one right way to market a business. Because...which business?

- The one that has been around for twenty years and is trying to figure out how to talk about what it has become?

- The founder who is brilliant at what she does but cannot explain it without giving you the twelve-minute version?

Those are different problems.

And you don’t discover the difference by arriving with the answer already in your hand. You listen.

You ask another question. You pay attention when someone says, “Oh, I never thought about it that way.” And eventually you start seeing the threads that keep showing up.

That’s the part of strategy I love. Not applying the formula. Finding what was already there and finally making some sense of it.

I’ve met plenty of really interesting business owners who don’t have a particularly dramatic story about why they starte...
08/21/2026

I’ve met plenty of really interesting business owners who don’t have a particularly dramatic story about why they started their business.

They were good at something, noticed things they wanted to do differently. And eventually, they built a business around that.

I actually think we make branding harder when we assume there has to be some big story hiding underneath all of it.

Sometimes what makes a business interesting isn’t how it started. It’s how the person behind the business sees the work now.

The things they believe clients deserve. The things they’ll happily get on a soapbox about because they’ve seen the same problem too many times. That point of view gives us a lot to work with.

Because a good brand doesn’t need a more dramatic version of you. It needs enough of the real you that people can start to recognize who they’re dealing with.

08/21/2026

"I'm starting to get closer to an age where I don't really care if you can't handle it." 😂

If you want a creative partnership to survive long-term, you have to prioritize blunt, unfiltered honesty. In this Lucky 13 clip, Margaret and I talk about why direct communication and absolute transparency are worth more than any specific dollar amount on a project.

When you don't have to tiptoe around each other, that's when the best work actually happens.

Check the full conversation here: https://bit.ly/4fQgSXj

08/18/2026

Who is in your corner cheering you on (and telling you to raise your rates)? 📣

In this clip from our Lucky 13 series, Margaret Pickard shares what it was like to finally meet another woman successfully running an agency in our industry. Spoiler: It led to a professional crush, a great mentorship, and the push she needed to start charging closer to what she’s actually worth.

Surround yourself with people who want you to win, and who freely share the resources to help you get there. 🦅

🔗 Check out the full conversation here: https://bit.ly/4fQgSXj

Anyone can write down their business values.Integrity. Collaboration. Community. Transparency. Whatever yours happen to ...
08/17/2026

Anyone can write down their business values.

Integrity. Collaboration. Community. Transparency. Whatever yours happen to be.

But then comes the harder question: Where do they actually show up?

- If collaboration is important, maybe it's built into the way you work with clients.

- If transparency matters, maybe it's how you handle the conversation when something doesn't go according to plan.

- If community is one of your values, there should probably be some evidence of that beyond the sentence on your website.

This is where strategy becomes really useful. It connects what you say, to the choices you're actually making in your brand and your business. Because people might not remember exactly what you wrote. They will remember how your business made them feel.

And that's how trust gets built.

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