Welcome to The Brand Lab
A series of workshops to provide accessible, impactful branding for innovative businesses in technical fields. While other branding solutions exist, few focus on making complex technical concepts visually accessible. Our approach goes beyond standard branding advice by teaching businesses how to use design to make their ideas approachable for wider audiences. This design-thinking approach empowers founders to engage customers more effectively and increases their potential for growth.
Enrolment to The Brand Lab is officially open – sign me up!
Enrolment to The Brand Lab is officially open – sign me up!
How to be inclusive
24 February | 10am-11:30am GMT
During this virtual workshop, we’ll explore the key dimensions and elements of accessibility, review the latest developments, and establish ways to make your own brand inclusive and accessible.
Attract your dream audience
17 February | 10am-11:30am GMT
During this virtual workshop, we’ll unpick what good branding REALLY is, why we need it, and how it attracts your dream audience.
Build authentic relationships
24 February | 3pm-4:30pm GMT
During this virtual workshop, we’ll learn the skills to craft an authentic brand narrative that builds trust, engages customers, and fosters long-term loyalty.
Visualise and sell your story
20 February | 10am-11:30am GMT
During this virtual workshop, we’ll identify your best brand assets and generate ideas to successfully promote your story. No brand yet? We’ll help you to select strong visual foundations including your colour scheme and fonts.
Here’s why
Greentech, Healthtech, Legaltech, and Fintech organisations often struggle to communicate their complex products or services to customers. These industries can feel daunting, especially when the technologies are hard to understand or inaccessible to non-experts. Many businesses in these sectors fail to recognise how their brand and communication strategies impact their ability to connect with target audiences. Without a clear, engaging brand narrative and accessible visual communication, these companies risk losing potential customers, partners, and investors.
The Brand Lab will address this by combining branding expertise with sector-specific insights. Through a series of workshops, we’ll help businesses translate complex concepts into easy-to-understand and visually appealing formats. We’ll ensure participants receive creative advice and understand how to tell a compelling story. Our focus will be on the accessibility of design, including visual storytelling and inclusive communication, which are often overlooked by technical industries.
Inclusive support
While The Brand Lab is open to all Leeds-based tech businesses, the primary beneficiaries will be diverse, minoritised, and female founders in Leeds’s innovation sectors, particularly in Greentech, Healthtech, and similar fields. These founders often face barriers to visibility and investment due to challenges in communicating complex ideas. As a female-founded studio, we can offer an approachable source of support.
Leeds is seeing a rise in tech-driven businesses and investment in these sectors. By providing support to underrepresented founders, our project will ensure that diverse businesses thrive in Leeds’s growing innovation ecosystem.
Who’s running The Brand Lab?
The Brand Lab is run by Buttercrumble, a creative design studio based in Leeds and London, established in 2017 by twin sisters Abigail and Chloe Baldwin. With a focus on delivering inclusive branding, graphics and illustration that educate and connect the young and the young-at-heart, they have collaborated with high-profile brands including John Lewis and Santander, and are published authors of “The Brand Power Manifesto”.
This project is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It’s being run as part of a wider partnership with Innovation at Leeds, Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
What do I receive?
🧪 Up to 6 hours of learning in our interactive workshops.
🧪 Personalised brand consultancy with a design expert.
🧪 A bespoke brand action plan with recommendations for success.
🧪 Access to our exclusive showcase event and network.
The workshops will cover:
📕 Understanding your brand and audience
📗 Visual storytelling and brand design
📘 Accessibility in design and digital communication
📙 Building a brand narrative for investors and customers
Am I eligible?
The Brand Lab is open to all Leeds-based businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups. We encourage diverse female founders in innovation sectors (particularly in Greentech, Healthtech, and Fintech) to join us!
What happens next?
Once you complete our simple registration form, we’ll be in touch via email with an invitation to our interactive workshops, and to arrange your personalised consultancy session.
Questions? Please contact us – we’re here to help!
Sign me up!
Sign-ups are available here for Leeds-based businesses.
