Legacy Planning
A financial planning firm outside Philadelphia needed more than a website refresh — they needed a creative identity strong enough to carve out distinct territory in a crowded local market. The stakes were higher than typical: a competitor in the same space shared their name, making differentiation not just a marketing goal but a business necessity.
My Role
I led the project from strategic concept through final execution — redesigning the website from the ground up, developing the brand's visual identity, and writing and directing a TV campaign to launch it all.
The Approach
The creative challenge was finding a visual and conceptual language that felt distinctive in a category that defaults to suits, skylines, and stock charts. The answer was already in their logo: a tree.
Rather than treating it as a decorative mark, we built an entire brand world around it.
Their core service — succession planning — is fundamentally about roots, growth, and what you leave behind. Nature wasn't just an aesthetic choice, it was a strategic one. A cohesive thread of greenery runs through every touchpoint: the looping homepage banner video, the photography, the TV spots — all pulling from the same visual well.
The Work
The concept deepened from there. A single tree became a forest — a metaphor for the depth of experience and support Legacy's team brings to business owners navigating one of the most significant transitions of their careers. And the forest naturally extended into family: warm, human imagery that connected the "family tree" idea to the firm's succession planning roots, making a traditionally intimidating financial category feel approachable and personal.
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The name conflict with a local competitor shaped decisions throughout. Every creative choice had to be bold enough that there would be no confusing the two.
The Outcome
The website earned industry awards for design, validating both the aesthetic direction and the strategic thinking behind it. More broadly, Legacy launched with a cohesive brand identity — visual, verbal, and conceptual — that gave them a clear and defensible position in their market.