White Bear Studio

Founder and Creative Director

The Big Idea - Ireland

Director

Carter Wong Design

Carter Wong Design is an independent, London based graphic design agency. It combines intelligent solutions with outstanding creativity.

Senior Creative

Identica

Middle Weight Creative

Kelly Mackenzie Design

I have undertaken a number of branding and identity, advertising, campaign and design work as a freelancer. I have worked with a number of companies, retailers, charities and artists.

In 2011 I attained an Institute of Designers in Ireland Award for the branding and identity of Industry Design.

Creative Director

Imagination

Imagination is a world-leading communication agency, a global concern with full service offices on four continents. 

During my time at Imagination I worked across a number of disciplines from branding and identity to design for print and experiential.

Landor

Landor is a global company which provides a full range of integrated brand consulting, creative, and design services to help clients create, build, and revitalize their brands.

Middle Weight Freelance Creative

Zinc Design Consultants

Tackling briefs such as branding and identity, campaigns, promotions, web design, corporate publications and advertising. 

In 2010 I attained an Institute of Designers in Ireland Award for branding and identity working as part of a team on the Rua Red South Dublin County Council Art Centre project.

Junior Creative

Graphics IT

Work experience while under going my visual communications degree. I was mentored by creative director Paul Keane, designing stationary, printed ephemera, company identities and websites.

Junior Designer

Founder & CD at White Bear 🐻‍❄️ | Top 22 Female Founder 2022 ⚡️| Small Agency of the year 2022 🥇| CP Top 5 Agencies in UK ✏️ | Speaker and Host 🎤 | 16x Award winner 2022 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

I'm Kelly, the founder and creative director of White Bear, an agency built on brilliant strategy and big idea creativity. All in the pursuit of creating brands that are impossible to ignore.

Learn more at http://www.whitebearstudio.com
Subscribe to our newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/dsXbi1
Or contact me directly at kelly@whitebearstudio.com

Delighted to wake up this morning and find that I have been named as one of Creativepool top 25 Most Influential Creative Directors worldwide. 

This is beyond awesome, thank you Creativepool!

Alongside Samira Rafi, Mark Richardson, Louise Sloper, Peter Allinson, David Joubert Jim Seath, Mari Albuquerque 🏳️‍🌈 Simon Pendry Grant Hunter Barry Tranter Kelly Bayett Vadym Aseiev Simon Waloszek

Kelly Mackenzie 🐻‍❄️ 

Founder & CD of WhiteBear the agency for Challenger Brands. CP Creative Leader 2023 | Startup Mag Top 22 Female Founder 2022 ⚡️| Small Agency of the year 2022 🥇| CP Top 5 Agencies in UK ✏️ | Speaker and Host 🎤

Running your own agency? Is it worth it? 

📊 Constantly looking to grow the pipeline 
🥵 The buck stops with you 
🎩 Wearing all the hats in your business
🏃‍♀️ Never feeling you’ve done enough
🤷🏼‍♀️ Making the hard decisions 

The perks…

🏖️ TAKING A RANDOM DAY OFF TO SPEND AT THE BEACH ON YOUR SON’S SUMMER SCHOOL TRIP ☀️ 

One of the things I value the most about running my own business is freedom. 

I can’t stand the mundane, 9-5 slog. I’m anti-routine, variety and uncertainty excites me. I’m happy to work late, go above and beyond when needed, in fact I thrive off it however the freedom to say “f*%k it, todays a day we’ll always remember” will always out weigh all the other challenges running a business entails. 

Freedom and adventure are my favourite aspects to owning my own business. What’s yours?

(Yes, I’m wearing kids marvel glasses. When in year1…)

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Not all days go to plan. 

Carlsberg Group don’t do working mothers but if they did I bet it would look a little more “take over the world, you can have it all” than this does.

The reality 
💤 Up all night with a sick child 
👧🏼 little one can’t go to nursery
🧟‍♀️ mum looks like she’s been dragged through a bush backwards 
🦸🏼‍♀️ we must keep calm and carry on 

Instead of ‘bring your daughter to work day’, today is more ‘bring your work to your daughter’ and I’m down with that. 

Grateful I can run a business where I can be flexible and work with great people who get it. 

#FFRise #entrepreneur #agency #workingmum

Super excited to announce that White Bear's work for BEVAS has been shortlisted for the Creativepool annual 2024. 

🏆🏆 🏆 For not one, not two BUT THREE AWARDS! 

🐻‍❄️  Branding
📦  Packaging 
✏  Illustration 

If you love the project as much as we do. Please give us a vote.
The people's choice means so much to us as a small business. 
Every vote counts! 
 
This was such a fantastic project which would not have been possible without a fantastic team and equally fantastic client.

(link to vote for branding, packaging and illustration is in the comments)

🐻‍❄️ in mind: Brand association

Distinctive brand asset association (eg colour) plays a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions and fostering brand recognition. 

Colour acts as a visual and sensory cue that triggers immediate recognition and recall, creating a mental shortcut for consumers navigating a crowded marketplace. 

Colours can evoke specific emotions and associations, enhancing the brand's personality and appeal. 

Take for example: 
🔴  of The Coca-Cola Company = suggests excitement and energy
🔵  of IBM = conveys trust and professionalism

By consistently utilising distinctive brand assets like logos, typography, and mascots alongside a coherent colour scheme, brands can solidify their identity, differentiate themselves from competitors, and build a loyal customer base that instinctively associates these elements with the brand's promise and values.

I LOVE The Walt Disney Company 'The Bear' it's my favourite show at the moment and their art direction is phenomenal. 

... these ads are so clever, impactful and ownable however when I first saw them what did I think? 🇸🇪 I was getting all kinds of IKEA vibes, purely because of the colour association I have with 🔵 and 💛 being one of Ikea's distinctive assets.

So What?
Be clever, this ad smashed it but also be cognisant of pre-existing colour associations. This ad puts IKEA into the front of my mind straight away not 'The BEAR' or Disney+.

From one 🐻‍❄️ to another 🐻

Demographics vs Psychographics. Who wins?

We've been talking a lot about the different benefits psychographics and demographics provide in the studio recently. Which made me think others may be having the same debates. 

I'm a big advocate for psychographics. Tapping into deep belief systems, attitudes and aspirations opens the door for richer storytelling. Not to mention the fact it helps you to uncover real human truths and insights that demographics just don't scratch the surface on. 

That said demographics do play a valuable role too, especially when budget is constraint. 

Ideally we need to know the WHO and the WHY. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your research methodologies before you kick off a new project?

#research #marketing #branding #quant #qual

Demographics vs Psychographics

😎 Monday Mood 😎

A brand is a feeling. 
Typography helps create that feeling. 

This is epic!

Which is your favourite?

🚨 We want YOU in the Bear Cave 🚨 

Are you a switched on, insanely organised and glass half full kind of person? 

We’re currently hiring an account/project manager at junior/middleweight level. 

Check out the If You Could Jobs description below and see if White Bear should be your next home.
 
(link in comments)

Your brand is your reputation.

It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room. 

How would you like people to talk about your brand? Or, more importantly how DO they talk about your brand? 

#agency #brand #FFrise #bridgeton

Show us your craic! 
(Not that craic, you filth!)

Love this post from Sir John Hegarty 

Personally, I work better, communicate better, have better ideas and generally feel more productive and happier when humour and sillyness are in the air. 

Often the banter, or craic as we call it in Ireland, gets hoovered out of meetings as we all try to move faster, achieve more or have TOO big an ego. 

So take this as an invitation from me, for any incounter we have that I welcome the quirky, the silly, the witty and the downright outrageous.

Bring your rubber chickens and let’s dance!

Co-founder and Creative Director at The Garage Soho & The Business of Creativity

Paul Smith doesn’t think meetings should be too serious.
 
But when negotiations are taking place, confabs can take on a humourless tone.
 
The designer has a technique to lighten the atmosphere.
 
Smith will interrupt the conversation, announcing that he has a burning issue to raise.
 
He’ll reach into his blazer pocket, and will suddenly pull out…
 
A rubber chicken. 

The ruse alters the flow of the meeting, causing laughter and bewilderment.
 
But there’s a deeper purpose to it.
 
People who are amused are more open. Which makes it easier to find an accord. Absurdity makes the meeting (and Smith) more memorable, too.
 
Humour is a great disarmer.
 
Would you ever be daring enough to try something like this?
 
#paulsmith #rubberchicken #humour #businessofcreativity

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