Creech is what happens when a writer and a designer start a studio Advertising Billboard Bottle

The Brand Identity: Creech, the New York-based independent creative studio, is led by a writer and a designer working as co-creative directors – a structure borrowed from advertising that remains rare in the branding world. Ashley Jones and Griffin Creech met at Partners & Spade, where they first saw how language and design could develop together from a project’s earliest stages. That approach has since shaped work for AG1, which helped the company grow from under 100,000 customers to more than half a million subscriptions.

The studio has also worked closely with Chipotle founder Steve Ells on Counter Service and developed Smash Kitchen’s packaging for a nationwide Walmart launch. Here, Jones and Creech discuss what the studio says no to, why they stay hands-on in the work, and how they approach branding products that require educating consumers on entirely new concepts. TBI Hi guys! How are you settling into 2026? C It’s busy and we’re always appreciative of that!! We continue to work a lot in the categories we are most known for. Food, food tech, agriculture, health and wellness of all kinds (and it’s a huge category), and clean beauty and beauty tech.

We don’t only work in these categories, but our depth of experience in them continues to open up some of the strongest opportunities. TBI You’ve built a studio where a writer and a designer lead creative direction together – how did that partnership come about? GC It’s definitely not the norm in design and branding studios, but it often is the norm at advertising agencies. There’s a good reason for that. It’s a more holistic, multi-faceted way to approach work. Branding is obviously design-centric, but positioning, creative strategy and language are also important parts of a brand.

So we’ve always thought it just made sense to have the essential disciplines represented at the creative director level and throughout the project. In our branding and design work, there are just so many different kinds of needs for language. Positioning, naming, packaging, web and social, advertising – yes, but there’s just a real need for language throughout, so why have it as an afterthought or not represented at the CD level? AJ To me, an idea first comes about through words, and then those words inspire images. I have an English degree, and then went to school after that for advertising and design.

Words have always guided my work, and making work with a writer felt like it was opening up a door that was closed when I was focused solely on design. Griffin and I met about 12 years ago at another studio (then called Partners & Spade and now called Mythology). That studio was started by Anthony Sperduti and Andy Spade. They both came from advertising in past lives; Anthony was an art director and Andy had been a writer. At that time, they may have been the only brand studio doing that.

And there still aren’t very many studios taking this approach. TBI Why is it beneficial to have language and design intertwined from the earliest stages of a project? GC Like Ash mentioned, most original ideas are first articulated in words. If language is how we frame ideas, why wouldn’t we bring it in earlier so messaging, positioning and design can inform one another?

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Creech's approach to integrating language and design in branding is significant and relevant for brand strategy professionals, though the concept of holistic branding is not entirely new.