About Us

We’re experts in designing meaningful brands, digital products, and service experiences.

We don’t assume we know you—your company, customers or corporate culture.

We ask questions. We observe. We engage. We embed. We learn to speak your language. And only then are we ready to roll up our sleeves and craft a compelling dialogue with your audience.

Our meaningful brand experiences keep customers engaged, enlisted and invested—whether they’re on-line, in-store or on-the-go. And to help you retain customers for the long haul, we stay connected for the long haul—ensuring your message becomes neither diluted nor frozen in time. Because, like everything else in life, your brand should evolve (a process that can result in another of our specialties: re-branding).

As veterans of esteemed branding agencies, we believe that inside every great designer there lurks an aspiring anthropologist.

OUR PEOPLE

As veterans of large and unwieldy agencies, we know their pitfalls: overpricing, junior staffing, needless operating expenses. That's why RLD was created to stay lean, nimble and highly experienced. We leverage talent from an extensive global network of experts in a variety of disciplines that range from digital to identity, from product to environmental design.

Instead of the traditional, overhead-heavy, layered agency model—in which your account is handed to whomever needs the billable hours—we take a different route. In the tradition of filmmaking, we assemble each team with best-in-class talent, selected specifically for the engagement. So you won't find a fantasy league growth hacker on your complex emerging markets welcome book.

LEADERSHIP

Rick Lowe

Executive Creative Director/Founder
rick@ricklowedesign.com

Creative director. Vice president. Award winner. Speaker. Educator. These are a few or Rick’s many accomplishments in upper echelons of the design world. Prior to forming RLD, he was partner, vice-president, and creative director at the legendary international design agency, MetaDesign.

Rick has played a key role in developing and shaping many brands we use, wear, eat, drink, visit, patronize, and lust over every day—such as Nike, the Exploratorium, Adobe, Sony, Apple, Netflix, the Getty Museum, Bank of America, Adidas, Rio Tinto Diamonds, Boudin, Silicon Valley Bank, and many more.

Melding an obsession with design with a fascination with business, Rick followed his BFA in graphic design (with outstanding honors) from RISD with an MBA-equivalent in business management, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. His wide-ranging curiosity and fervor for sharing his passion have led him to speak at universities and industry conferences such as Carnegie Mellon, Arts Center, and the AIGA, and his work has been featured in such publications as Communication Arts, Print, ID, and Graphis.

Melissa Harris

Account Director, Digital Strategy, Usability Design
melissa@ricklowedesign.com

UI design. Video production. Ad campaign manager for Yahoo!. Melissa brings an abundance of both creative and management expertise to the table. Oh, and did we mention her Suma Cuma Laude work ethic?

Prior to joining Rick Lowe Design as account director and digital strategist, Melissa served as Director of Interactive Experience at the global business communications agency, Doremus.

While there, she oversaw a team of project managers, taking responsibility for all usability design and video production. Among her favorite award-winning campaigns was the Corning video, “A Day Made of Glass.”

Before Doremus, Melissa was recruited to run a project management team for Yahoo!’s internal advertising agency, spearheading production of many award-winning campaigns. Melissa cut her teeth as a production manager in broadcast television, where she managed more than 170 nationally televised soccer matches, before leaving to produce a syndicated sports call-in show. Always a bit of an over-achiever, Melissa graduated Suma Cum Laude from Barnard College in 1995 with a double degree in Latin American Studies and Environmental Science.

OUR PLACE

Since our teams are hand-picked for each project (although many of us have worked together for decades), we don't all work from one single GPS location. Our talent may reside anywhere—maybe Portland or even Southand. And our travels take us to the project base—be it Beirut or Yellowknife.

Because our office is virtually virtual, we can more effectively collaborate with clients and live “inside” their business. By forgoing the fancy lobby and hip conference rooms, we instead immerse ourselves in being where your customers are: everywhere.

“For RLD and team, it begins with understanding the essence of the company and the unique customer experience the company is trying to create and deliver.”

Paul Zuber
Elemica Chairman of the Board, Thoma Bravo Operating Partner

OUR PROCESS

Though no two projects are identical, we’ve found that most follow this four-phase process–seamlessly moving through our range of services—from strategy to design, to implementing customer touchpoints to producing brand tools for lasting success.

1: DEVELOP STRATEGY

Experience Strategy
Brand Positioning
Content Strategy
Social Media Strategy
Digital Strategy
Naming

2: DESIGN & REFINE BRAND

Brand Development
Product Branding
Visual Design/Systems
Tone of Voice

3: CREATIVE TOUCHPOINTS

Website
Digital Marketing
Product/Application UI
Marketing Collateral
Product Packaging
Video/Photography
Environments
Signage
Business Systems
Advertising

4: CHAMPION BRAND

Build Champions
Brand Inspiration Book
Standards + Guidelines
On-line Brand Toolkit
Brand Assets
Brand Launch Event

YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW US...

If you’ve worn, watched or worked with any of the brands shown below, well, you may already know us. We’ve had the privilege to help shape some of the most important brands in our global economy.