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

Elegant, Authoritative, Precise

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.

Grace under pressure is a rare and attractive quality. These brands exhibit strength and confidence in arenas where being unprepared or having poor judgment can have very real consequences. While underscored with a serious tone, they’re able to present a polished, chic image to assert a sense of control that garners respect.

Notice in the examples below how the use of neutral colors, sophisticated fonts and clean lines create a calm, composed presentation. Combined with high contrast palettes and shapes with sharp edges, these brands appear pristine and high end.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Sovereign

Sage

Caregiver

Tags:

Authoritative, Elegant, Precise, Smart, High end, Clear, Controlled, Practical, Strong

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 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.

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

Powerful, Serious, Balanced

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.

Expertise is difficult to imitate—authority even moreso. These brands aspire to find answers that have evaded all others, to provide resolution for difficult situations, or to correct what hadn’t been done right the first time. They present a reasonable and responsible image, referencing data and drawing on wisdom gained from years of experience and keen observations.

Brands with this calm, deliberate approach are best represented by an equally serene visual identity and tone of voice. Neutral or classic colors, simple layouts, crisp fonts, and minimal decoration create a feeling of balance and trustworthiness.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Sovereign

Sage

Tags:

Authoritative, Balanced, Careful, Cautious, Fair, Intelligent, Powerful, Practical, Serious, Smart, Strong, Trustworthy

Is this the right feel for your brand?

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

Caring, Warm, Dependable

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.

A warm embrace from a friend in a time of a need, the scent of freshly cleaned laundry, the feel of home. These brands create a space of safety and comfort that emulate our most cherished experiences. While their presence may not be readily apparent, companies in this category are there to help in the ways we want or need. They will tend to take one of two approaches: to wait in the background and only appear when we need them, or to usher us in, guiding us carefully and compassionately to where we are trying to go.

Depending on other characteristics of the brand personality, the look and feel could lean towards a quirky, humorous tone, a more subdued and serene presence, or a comforting, folksy simplicity. Nevertheless, warm or neutral colors, smiling faces, soft or rounded edges and crisp fonts, and clean, organized layouts will provide a feeling of support and care.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Caregiver

Sovereign

Sage

Tags:

Caring, Capable, Comforting, Dependable, Friendly, Organized, Patient, Practical, Reliable

Is this the right feel for your brand?

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

Considerate, Mature, Approachable

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.

During important moments, it helps to know we have someone to turn to for guidance, restitution or even an empathetic ear. Brands in this category strive to provide a safe environment for their customers, accounting for deeper needs that require extra care and attention. Those looking for help will appreciate a gracious approach as they seek a sense of control, make important decisions, or look to reinstate normalcy in their lives.

Creating a supportive atmosphere requires openness and clarity, even in the types of visual treatments that are used. Whether simply on vacation, planning for the future, or dealing with a significant loss, providing clear communication is essential for these brands. This is best expressed through clean, simple layouts, crisp fonts, and minimal decoration. Depending on other characteristics of the brand personality, the look and feel could lean towards a more formal or informal tone. Human touches like illustration and uplifting colors and scents can create a comforting, encouraging vibe.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Caregiver

Sovereign

Sage

Tags:

Approachable, Careful, Clear, Composed, Considerate, Mature, Organized, Practical, Reliable, Safe, Secure, Supportive

Is this the right feel for your brand?

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

Informed, Scholarly, Prudent

Mood Board

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

The quest for knowledge in the modern world often starts with a simple online search that sends users traipsing down a rabbit hole of distraction and misinformation. These brands combat the frustration generated by the firehose of data that users are often subjected to by creating a more organized and factual experience. Their diligence supports more effective learning and vetted answers. This look would be appropriate for brands in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare or cyber security, that need to create an atmosphere of trustworthiness with rigorous attention to detail.

Brands with this vibe need to portray authority, diligence and precision, and therefore tend towards a clean, Spartan-like image. Depending on other characteristics of their brand personality, companies in this category will want to opt for a sparse, modern look to showcase their perceived futuristic foresight, or an image that hints at a historic heritage, studious tendencies and depth of knowledge.

Ideal for these archetypes:

Sage

Sovereign

Caregiver

Tags:

Analytical, Clean, Detail-oriented, Expertise, Historic, Intelligent, Modern, Practical, Precise, Smart, Scientific, Studious, Trustworthy

Is this the right feel for your brand?

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

TIP: Clean, minimalist design is highly appealing but can be difficult to execute well, especially in your early days. Every detail counts—be judicious with the quantity of words on a page, and select your imagery, icons and fonts with care. Be careful not to oversimplify your look, as you risk being bland and forgettable.