Benz

Design Kit

Color Palette for Print & Screen
Font Selections & Styling
Photo Style Selection
Icon Family Selection
Two 1-on-1 Consultations
How-to Guide

Select from 5 Color Palettes

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Benz Design Kit

This Design Kit suits brands with a penchant for practicality and a taste for adventure. Your audience would be drawn to this look & feel for its casual, natural and energizing qualities.

Whether your offerings center around the outdoors, STEM, athletics, political passions, apps, educational content, and more, you’ll enjoy the approachability of the bright, earthy color palette, bold font selections, icons and dramatic photography style.

Ideal for these brand archetypes:

Explorer

Hero

Creator

Innovator

Tags:

Adventurous, Bold, Bright, Earthy, Energetic, Independent, Natural, Practical

What’s Included

Font Selections & Hierarchy

Give your documents and website an instant facelift with recommended font weights and sizes for headings, paragraphs, subheadings, and more.

Versatile Color Palette

Keep your colors consistent across print, swag and screen with professionally selected colors. Colors are listed in Pantone, RGB, CMYK & HEX formats.

Photography Style

Photos play a central role in your look & feel, and in your ability to communicate ideas. Learn how to select and style your images to complete your polished look.

Swag Selection

Your company might not feel real until you have the t-shirt to prove it. We’ve done the shopping for you with recommendations for soft tees to fit your values and budget.

Icon Style

Icons are essential for quickly relaying concepts and catching users eyes as they scan through information. We include a selection of icons to embellish your work.

How-to Guide

This 12+ page guide shows you how to apply your design specs to collateral, swag, products & websites. Industry secrets and lifetime updates included.

Two 30-min Consultations

Get expert support for your brand and marketing questions from Founder & Creative Director, Kari Kay. Choose when to use your consultations within 90 days of purchase.

Lean Design for Startups was developed by Kari Kay, the Founder and Creative Director of Plot Creative Studio based in Seattle, WA, to help more entrepreneurs bring their vision to life. Since 2006, Kari has developed creative strategies for startups, scaling companies, mid-size corporations, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 100s. Companies rely on Kari’s keen insights, strategic questions, and confident directives to define and refine their brand strategy and product design. A systems thinker who is passionate about efficiency and creativity, Kari brings design principles to businesses to help them pinpoint their value and focus their energy on what matters most.

Color Palette Options

Choose from one of five color options. Or, select the Custom Color Palette Add-on to work with us on a fully custom branded color palette. We’ll guide you to colors that resonate with your company and audience, and set you apart from competitors.

Reserve your Design Kit today.

Starting at $2,700

Easy to Use

Professionally Designed for Non-Designers

Take the guesswork out of applying your colors and fonts, or choosing images for your marketing materials.

Managing assets between collaborators is a job in itself. Keep your design guidelines in one place, always ready to share.

Compatible with Any App, Platform or File Type

Ideal for a Variety of Businesses

SaaS Companies
Developers
Copywriters
Consultants

Physicians
Fitness Coaches
Stylists
Authors

Educators / Thought Leaders
Speakers
eCommerce
and more…

When to Use a Design Kit

Launch a New Brand

Accelerate your growth with a solid, scalable marketing foundation.

Save Time Hunting & Tweaking

Get your look & feel right the first time. Simply copy & paste directly from the provided guide to create consistently branded documents, web pages, social media and more.

Update Your Existing Look & Feel

Get your team on the same page with a consistent look & feel.

See Instant Improvements

Use your Design Kit during any point in your growth to solidify your look and create a memorable presence. Instead of trying out a new look with each product or piece of collateral, our comprehensive Design Kit allows you to reduce design work for you and your team with plug n’ play design.

Reserve your Design Kit today.

Starting at $2,700

Natural, Clean, Minimalist

Mood Board

Mood boards are curated groups of images that visualize a vibe. This is the second step in narrowing down a look & feel to effectively convey your brand message.

This board is a good fit for brands that provide relief from busy, aggressive or complicated situations. The content is organized, thoughtful, and light—nothing fussy or artificial.

Notice how the brands represented below use clean, crisp lines, nature-inspired color palettes, and subtle textures to create their put-together look. These brands have a somewhat nostalgic or traditional look, but with a modern twist, such as an unexpected color or handwritten fonts. These details add an extra bit of energy to avoid looking overly simplistic, plain or stuffy.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Lover

Sovereign

Caregiver

Innocent

Sage

Tags:

Clean, Simple, Minimalist, Uncomplicated, Traditional, Nostalgic, Natural, Smart

Is this the right feel for your brand?

The images below show how various companies have used color, type, icons, photos, illustrations and textures together to translate their personality into a unique look and feel. As you consider your company’s presence, do these samples achieve the vibe you’re after?

Please note: The images posted here are subject to copyrights owned by the individuals or entities who created them. They are intended for educational purposes, and not to be used for your brand or for any other personal or commercial use.

TIP: Audiences looking for clean, trustworthy products tend to hold companies to high standards of customer service and transparency. Be diligent in building your company culture with this in mind. Regularly communicate about your company values, and be careful to align with others who share and practice these beliefs.

Not quite the vibe you’re looking for? Explore All Mood Boards

Get the look! Choose a Design Kit to match this vibe.

Choose Design Kit

Understated, Minimal, Professional

Mood Board

Mood boards are curated groups of images that visualize a vibe. This is the second step in narrowing down a look & feel to effectively convey your brand message.

Naturally sleek, these brands have a gift for making a statement without shouting for attention. Their elegance and clarity attracts an audience with picky palettes who yearn for the best in whatever products or services they seek.

When it comes to feel, nuance and subtlety are weapons in the hands of these brands. Thoughtfully selected type styles, colors and textures are woven together to create a rich, layered experience. Brand experiences can be further enhanced with clever wording and unique scavenged materials that help share a story that goes beyond the product or service being offered. In this way, the audience becomes part of the experience in a more intimate way, bonding with the brand through their own intellect and imaginations.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Creator

Sovereign

Explorer

Tags:

Artistic, Clear, Clever, Creative, Elegant, High-end, Independent, Mysterious, Natural, Nuanced, Polished, Professional, Sleek, Subtle, Understated, Unique

Is this the right feel for your brand?

TIP: Audiences with an independent streak are difficult to convince. They will tend to be skeptical and do things on their own time. Be careful not to pander to them, oversell them or push them to take action. They tend to be interested in high quality, high value offerings and ignore what could be perceived as a waste of time. The more transparent you are, and the more room you give them, the happier they will be.