Business as Sculpture
1. Built, Found, Assembled
TLDR: While a work of sculpture can be built, found, or assembled, a brand is always necessarily an assemblage of some which is built and much which is found.
Creative Strategy + Information Design
Complexity, made legible.
The Argot/Nots help knowledge-rich organizations make sense of change, align around what matters, and turn shared direction into clear positioning, coherent systems, and useful digital experiences.
From uncertainty to shared direction
We help identify what should be preserved, what must evolve, and how the parts belong together. The result is a clear direction your organization can explain, use, and carry into action.
01
Understand what changed
Interpret the internal and external shifts creating pressure for a response.
02
Decide what matters
Clarify what to preserve, what to change, and what to prioritize now.
03
Align the people involved
Create shared language and a direction stakeholders can use together.
04
Give the direction form
Carry the strategy into positioning, structure, identity, and experience.
The Argot/Nots Method
We make the thinking visible.
Our process combines inquiry, interpretation, systems thinking, facilitation, and hands-on making. Clients can see how observations become an organizing idea—and how that idea guides consequential decisions.
01
Observe
Listen to stakeholders, audiences, language, artifacts, and points of breakdown.
02
Interpret
Identify patterns, tensions, assumptions, metaphors, and the deeper problem.
03
Structure
Create positioning, priorities, architectures, hierarchies, and a shared model.
04
Express
Give the direction language, identity, interfaces, narratives, and experience.
05
Test
Refine through stakeholder response, user evidence, and implementation reality.
IDEAS + FIELD NOTES
Essays and practical notes on organizations, meaning, systems, and the work of making complexity intelligible.
TLDR: While a work of sculpture can be built, found, or assembled, a brand is always necessarily an assemblage of some which is built and much which is found.
TLDR: A foundational brand strategy should inspire your team, identifying the north star that drives the business and the essential principles that define its character. By way of illustration, this list presents our core values and context for putting them into action.
TLDR: Consistently investing time in strategic thinking before implementation will save you time, money, and headaches.
Not sure whether you need positioning, a website, or something else?
If your organization has changed or the way you explain your value no longer feels sufficient in a rapidly changing world, let’s talk before the answer has already been decided. You do not need to arrive with a finished brief. A useful conversation can begin with the pressure, uncertainty, or opportunity you are trying to understand.