Why Field of Practice treats branding as a practice of change — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Field of Practice’s Co-founders Kristin Lueke and Nermin Moufti treat branding as a question of who is not in the room when the decisions get made. “Design is never neutral,” they tell us, so a brand that states values has to pay for them in how the business runs. The women and member-owned strategic design studio that they run from Chicago and New Mexico was taking on clients by January 2021, before it even had a name or a bank account. They built it to test whether two people could make a living on a four-day week that they shaped themselves. In this interview, they talk to us about how they decide what to take on, what Moufti finds an Arabic and English identity requires that an English-only one doesn’t, and why growth for them is in depth rather than scale.

Hi Kristin and Nermin! How has the summer been in Chicago and New Mexico?

FP Our summer hours were full and flew by quickly. It was an excellent season to practice slowing down and being deliberate with our choices.

We experimented with our first Radical Sabbatical, and shut down the studio for three weeks – an experience that yielded so many beautiful lessons, which we wrote about in a recent Field Note. The headline – rest is not a luxury! Sometimes taking a step back gives you what you need to take a leap forward. Case in point. Upon our return, we made some cool moves on personal projects, and celebrated a few wins as a studio, like being named a Fast Company Innovation by Design Finalist.

We tried to plan our break for what’s historically been the slow season, but this year has been surprising. Many of the impacts and disruptions of the past five years seem to be alchemising toward big, palpable shifts in our collective ways of working and being. People across all industries are hungry for a renewed sense of purpose and connection. We’ve spoken to numerous peers with deep expertise in their fields who are launching their own practices and building new businesses – they’re all eager to start the next year with a clear sense of who they are, what they’re here to do, and how to put their skills and experience to meaningful use.

Rest is not a luxury!

TBI Why did you decide to start a studio of your own, coming out of the pandemic?

FP The pandemic and its ongoing impacts have been a serious reckoning. By 2020, we’d already been working together for a minute, and in that year of profound upheaval and uncertainty, we turned toward each other for comfort and, ultimately, clarity. 

Suddenly working from home, we both realised how much capacity we actually had. We could get so much done in a day and still have meaningful time to pour into the parts of our lives we really needed (and needed us!) at that moment. But we have to be discerning around who and what gets our time and energy. In turning toward each other, we found a shared vision for a future, built together, doing work that inspires and challenges us, in ways that feel liberating, joyful, and curious. 

As artists and organisers with our own passion projects and community connections, we started wondering how to integrate these resources more wholly into our work. Could we make a living working four days a week, decide for ourselves what our days could look like? What if we could build an intentionally small, nimble, and wildly competent creative studio that allowed us the space and autonomy to carve a new path? 

We became delusionally confident we could figure it out, so long as we stuck together. 

Nermin lined up our first few clients, and by January 2021, we were off to the races – without a name, without a checking account. We were determined, body and soul, to redesign our lives and careers to centre joy, creativity and purpose. Working remotely, Monday through Thursday, strategy and design going hand in hand, led by sincerely shared values, we attend to our work with loving care, while feeling present in our lives and pursuing our many interests with renewed alacrity and imagination.

TBI How did you land on the name Field of Practice?

FP We approached our name and brand with a lot of patience, beginning with values and vision. As a studio, we would embrace change and experimentation. We’d hold ourselves accountable to our shared values – Think + Do Differently; Choose Abundance over Scarcity; Work Together to Go Farther; Design without Ego. These helped us shape our core value proposition, attributes and voice. Our work would feel harmonious and methodical; fresh and inquisitive; playful and loving, never cloying. As Nermin pulled gorgeous design inspiration, we developed a growing sense of the home we were building – how type, colour and language would help us express ourselves with clarity and conviction. 

We noticed how we gravitated toward descriptive and evocative names, when we returned to an all-time favourite episode of On Being with Krista Tippet, featuring Zen priest and activist Angel Kyodo Williams.

In discussing the ‘transformative potential’ of our current moment, Rev. Williams speaks beautifully about wholeness and vulnerability, transformation, understanding, fearlessness and grace, language and skilful action. She says, “We can be more spacious… We can create meaning out of ways of being and work that we choose to do. And we can recreate it, over and over again.” Our work, she suggests, is an opportunity for learning and growth, “The world is our field of practice.” I remember standing in my closet, FaceTiming with Nermin, standing in her closet (personal space was tough to come by in those days); we were dancing and cackling, feeling like lightning had struck. Let us be a field of practice. 

TBI Nermin, you were born in Syria and work in Arabic as well as English – what does a bilingual identity require that an English-only one doesn’t?

NM English and Arabic brands need to resonate deeply with a bilingual community across the Arab and Arab-American diasporas. This means designing a system where Arabic is not treated as an afterthought or a direct translation of the English wordmark, but as an equal carrier of meaning and narrative. 

Typographic matchmaking is a fun challenge that I am always excited about; it’s requisite to the process of crafting a visual identity. We ask how might the English left-to-right script work in harmony with the calligraphic-based Arabic right-to-left script. How might the integrity of both languages be preserved? 

Working with brands that speak to a predominantly English-speaking audience, we're often asked to integrate Arabic messaging as a supplemental storytelling voice, rather than the primary carrier of the conversation. In that case, we find ways to weave in that voice in meaningful and resonant ways.

TBI How does the quality of the conversations with clients show up in your work?

FP We’re deeply interested in what people say, even more so in why and how they say it. So we structure meetings, workshops, and presentations to be as conversational as possible – we create spacious agendas, pause for gut checks, and offer ample ways for different brains to contribute easily and expressively.

For instance, during our work with the Terra Foundation for American Art, we had the pleasure of collaborating with a brilliant leader who acknowledged early and often that she likes to turn over every stone before committing to a decision. She got to see a lot of work in progress and colour studies – we shared rationale, listened to learn, and refined our strategic guardrails as we moved through the process. Her anecdotes and experiences in the field helped us understand the contexts we were designing for, as well as the mindsets of those working within it. 

In the case of Braver Collective, a digital platform for survivors of sexual assault, we collaborated with trauma-informed designer Mary Foyder to assemble and convene an advisory committee of young survivors for a series of remote workshops. By centring ease of participation and psychological safety over strict agendas, our co-designers stepped into their creative confidence and offered us invaluable insight on how design, messaging, and UX could create an online space they’d want to be a part of.

Branding can feel a bit like group therapy.

The Center for Reflective Intelligence, Friends Fiduciary, Marble Wit – all recent and extremely sharp client teams composed of people from very different walks of life. We tailor our process to each client’s specific priorities, strengths and business goals. Some folks crave a scrappy, iterative process while others prefer highly structured presentations and feedback cycles. Still others are navigating massive life and career transitions as they launch new ventures; branding is an opportunity to see their stories and selves reflected back to them in a way that is affirming and fortifying. 

Branding can feel a bit like group therapy. We’re always learning how to learn better, faster, so we can build alignment and energy for the hard work of change and creative renewal. It’s extremely rewarding to guide a partner through this process and to see them take confident ownership of the work, and to witness the business and brand continue to evolve side by side.

TBI Which project has pushed you the furthest?

NM  Rebranding the Terra Foundation for American Art required the technical chops to build an identity system built for global scale and local impact, and just as importantly, the need to demonstrate confident creative leadership alongside humility – that is, knowing when to ask for help.

There was a moment in a high-stakes board meeting when a committee member asked why Field of Practice was the right team for this job, given how small we are. Kristin responded, without missing a beat. The people who are working on this are here in the room with you; if you have questions or ideas, tell us. We’re the ones who will figure it out with you. She modelled stepping into our power and embracing our size not as a constraint, but an asset. So when questions, concerns and ideas did begin to arise – as they always will, particularly in a large institutional rebrand with many and diverse stakeholders! – I felt emboldened to handle those conversations with a confident point of view and trust in our collaborators. It took nearly 16 months to finalise and launch, and there were moments we weren’t certain how we’d reach consensus, but through patience, curiosity, and deep exploration, we created an award-winning identity that we’re all proud of. The Executive Director still emails us photos of the logo out in the wild, in museums across the world.

KL Throughout our work with Braver Collective, we learned a lot about the importance of storytelling and reconnection in the aftermath of trauma. It made me realise how much I needed to heal some old wounds, and ultimately led me toward intensive somatic therapy and EMDR. Practising greater self-compassion and curiosity, learning tools and skills for regulation – it’s been shifting something miraculous for me. My own poetry and voice feel sharper, more fearless and direct. It’s been easier to show up to my daily work more responsive, expansive and adaptable. I feel more present and grounded in listening, and aware of how systems and structures can be supportive or suffocating. Braver helped me realise just how many people are living with quiet, open wounds. Our friend and designer Nick Adam once said to us, while sitting on Nermin’s floor over tea, that “everyone is carrying ten times more pain than they’re willing to talk about.” That really drove it home for me. Kindness is a prerequisite.

TBI What are your ambitions for the studio, in terms of team, scale and projects?

NM From the get go we confronted the idea that growth to us will be in depth, rather than in scale and breadth. It’s in our values that we can go farther, by going softer, slower even. It’s often tempting to say yes to every project that comes your way, as a small growing business, but at what cost? We're a duo that can do a lot, and we see this as a distinguishing asset. By being in every conversation, we become thought partners to the organisations we serve. Our agility is a strength and our boundaries are a resource. Small is beautiful, and our clients have sought this beauty out.

With all that said, we are part of a robust community of designers, strategists, developers and creatives. We want to continue being an active part of that community, and to bring other perspectives and experiences into the fold whenever we can. Alfredo Ruiz, Mary Foyder, Nate Beaty, Lindsay McMenamin are all collaborators we’ve loved working with, and want to work with forever, or as much as possible.

KL I’d like Field of Practice to be part of a broader, patient movement that allows workers everywhere the balance, agency, and material support we need to be as imaginative and effective as we can be, in the time we have. Diane di Prima writes, “No one thing works, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down.” So many people have great ideas for harnessing and sharing our abundant resources in thoughtful, regenerative ways. This studio allows us to be in contact and community with brilliant leaders, idealists and builders, and to channel our energy and abilities toward causes and beliefs we support. My ambitions aren’t that major. I just want to spend my days with people who believe another world is possible, and are willing to work together to glimpse it.

TBI How do you structure your working weeks?

NM As a co-founder, mother, and a curious enthusiast about pretty much any person or project that matches my energy, balance doesn’t come easy. I learn from Kristin, our resident Virgo, a lot. Our weeks include lots of reality checks and gentle reminders of capacity. I am also blessed with a village that I've leaned on for years, and over the last six years, I’ve become clear on a handful of non-negotiables – start the day with a walk, look up at the sky, work out of home at least twice a week (body doubling is a game changer!),  4-day work week, no Monday presentations + no Friday calls. Ever. Treat meetings like a ripe avocado – it’s precious time, mid-day showers are my friend! Great nervous system regulator. Take a problem for a stroll. Sleep on it as praxis. Put space between stimulus and response.

KL We meet Monday mornings for ‘Avocado Time,’ a precious moment to take temperature checks on our work load and get organised around weekly and daily priorities, with an eye toward what’s upcoming. Questions, concerns? Let’s air ‘em out early and put time on the calendar to check in on them in the days ahead. If something’s not a priority for the week, we name it out loud as a nice-to-have.

Every morning, we each share our daily stand in Slack – here’s today’s priorities, here’s the nice-to-haves. If we notice a task following us from day to day – Nermin calls them ‘frogs,’ because they’re the ones that keep slipping away – we own it. We share why it keeps getting away from us, as well as ideas for how to get it in hand.

Thursday afternoons we do ‘Guacamole Hour’ to share how we did on our priorities for the week and identify any struggles or blockers, then think through our next best steps. The best part of Guacamole – sharing any and all wins for the week (we also have a dedicated Slack channel specifically for this. Celebrating every win, big or small, is a massive source of energy and gratitude).

The days are as long as they need to be, but we take plenty of breaks to move, and change our context and posture often. We both have standing desks, lots of natural light, and multiple workspaces in our homes – it matters!

TBI What do you look for when deciding whether to take on a project?

FP Over the last few years, we’ve created and refined a new business rubric that we turn to consistently when talking to prospective clients. It’s split into three columns. Essential / Nice-to-Have / Yellow Flags.

It’s essential that a new client or project comes with an appetite for exploration, respectful communication, and women and people of color in roles of influence.

Nice-to-haves include the luxury of time and a known budget for branding and creative.

Yellow flags are factors we want to be mindful about, like a preference for speed over care or attachment to a logo that no longer works.

The rubric is a nice tool for objective consideration, but we also trust our intuition. A thoughtfully written email or particularly fun intro call is sometimes enough to make us fall in love with a possibility. We’re looking for alignment in values and vibes, projects that play to our strengths, and opportunities to stretch and learn, maybe to phone a friend.

TBI What makes for a great client relationship?

NM Years ago, a mentor of mine told me the most important part about being a successful designer is love + (client) service. Hard design skills are everywhere, but soft skills are more rare than ever. People will often forget what you did or said, but will remember how you made them feel.

We pour a lot of care into these relationships, and find what we pour into grows. We cultivate trust in each other and the process, as well as palpable joy. We create room for whimsy, and encourage our partners to embrace their innate creative confidence.

TBI What do you want your newsletter, Field Notes, to do for the people who read it?

KL Field Notes is an expression and extension of our practice. We’d like each edition to feel like a balm, a friend in your inbox.

Annie Dillard (rest in peace, queen) wrote in The Writing Life, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” We take that to heart, and through Field Notes, want to encourage readers to reflect on work, craft and community, while also offering tools and frameworks that support the creative process, and the project of designing our own days.

When we say what we must, to the people who are willing to listen, beautiful possibilities emerge. Field Notes is just one of several channels we use to find our people, and to put ourselves in the way of possibility. Our hope is that by sharing our ideas, experiences, process, and tools, someone may find their next best step. Maybe that step is reaching out to tell us, “Hey, I’m trying something too.”

We are part of a living constellation; each new connection brightens that constellation. We’d like Field Notes to make the day and the work feel brighter, lighter, and the path forward more possible for those who read it.