newkid positions Howie as the antidote to AI’s visual sameness

The Brand Identity: AI tools have developed a visual language so predictable it’s become nearly invisible. Gradients, glowing orbs, abstract neural networks – the shorthand for artificial intelligence has calcified into wallpaper. When Toronto-based creative company newkid began working with Howie, an AI scheduling tool still in private beta with a roster of early adopters from the tech world, they saw an opportunity to abandon these conventions entirely.

The resulting brand positions Howie as something the category lacks: a presence with genuine personality, warmth and a sense of humour. The strategic foundation centres on a word most productivity brands would avoid. While competitors cluster around assistant, copilot and bot, newkid reclaimed secretary – a title that carries unexpected weight. “We first started talking about it when Howie’s Co-founder & CEO mentioned that the hosts of TBPN had used secretary in reference to Howie on an early broadcast,” explains Alex Avendaño, Co-founder at newkid.

“Together we agreed that there was an opportunity to lean into it, given its persistent use in influential titles like Secretary of State, while also reframing it to be something more accessible and contemporary by deeming Howie ‘The People’s Secretary.’” The positioning captures an interesting duality – the administrative role and the commanding government position – while sidestepping the overused vocabulary of the AI space. The brand line ‘Howie is how’ emerged from a desire for simplicity and confidence.

Rather than explaining what the product does through feature lists or technical capability, the phrase treats Howie as a given, as if scheduling problems have a self-evident solution and this is it. newkid’s ambition extended beyond serving Howie’s tech-heavy early user base. “Howie’s vision was clear: to win with the tech world, but harness that momentum with a brand that felt ‘big’ in every sense of the word,” shares Matt Donne, Co-founder at newkid.

“It would have been easy to lean into the reflexive branding codes of emerging tech and achieve the first goal, but the scope and scale of the ambition demanded a brand that defied the tropes and leaned into more widely accessible branding cues.” The visual direction arrived through an unusual starting point. Rather than beginning with competitors or category conventions, the team focused on how using Howie actually felt. “We began collecting references of people with those expressions, which naturally led us toward a cleaner, more fashion-led aesthetic, with people at the centre of the visuals,” explains Rich Brown, Cofounder at newkid.

“That art direction then shaped the graphic world, allowing us to be bolder and move even further away from traditional tech brand tropes, and helping the idea of ‘Howie is how’ come through visually, not just verbally.” The approach places human expression – specifically expressions of relief, satisfaction and empowerment – at the centre of the visual language. The newkid team experienced this firsthand. “When we first used Howie for ourselves, a lightbulb really went off: it was as simple as cc’ing Howie into an email chain and asking for help,” Donne recalls.

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The article discusses a unique branding strategy for an AI tool that challenges industry norms, making it significant and relevant for brand strategy professionals seeking to differentiate in a saturated market.