The immersive designer
Why You Should Think Like an Insider
Great design is more than just a visual exercise; it’s about creating something that feels innate to the brand, as if it’s been there all along. It doesn’t come from trendy mood boards or generic design templates. The best design work is born from deep immersion—understanding the inner workings of the company, its culture, and its people.
The most successful designers aren’t outsiders looking in; they’re insiders who become a part of the team. They don’t just execute a brief—they live and breathe the brand. This article explores the anthropology of design and why thinking like an insider can make all the difference in creating branding that feels truly authentic and inevitable.
The Power of
Immersion in Design
In a world where designers often work in silos—receiving a brief, creating concepts, and presenting them—it’s easy to miss the subtle nuances that make a brand unique. But what if the secret to powerful design is not just about working for a brand, but becoming a part of it?
Immersion is key to understanding a brand from the inside out. It’s not enough to know what a company does on paper—you have to understand why it exists, what drives it, and, most importantly, what it feels like to work there.
Think of it this way: The best brands aren’t built on flashy logos or trendy color schemes—they’re built on stories, values, and internal culture. When you immerse yourself in that culture, you unlock the emotional and psychological underpinnings of the brand, which helps guide your design decisions. These deeper insights allow you to create work that feels less like an external imposition and more like a natural evolution of what the brand already represents.
The Anthropology
of Design
Design is inherently cultural. It reflects the values, behaviors, and beliefs of the people who create it and those who interact with it. By understanding the culture of a company, you’re able to translate that culture into a visual language that speaks directly to the audience.
When I was hired to lead the branding project for Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google), it became clear that simply working off raw assets wouldn’t suffice. The project spanned multiple disciplines—sustainability, urban development, housing, economics, engineering, waste & water management, policy, and investments—each filled with complex, technical language and intricate details that required more than just superficial design work.
The Sidewalk Labs teams had already prepared detailed Google Docs with content from all these areas, but it was still unstructured, raw, and difficult to digest. Over several weeks, I immersed myself in the material. I meticulously read, analyzed, and structured the content, developing a complex content hierarchy that would shape the entire storytelling process. This system categorized and ranked assets—maps, illustrations, images, renderings, charts, and system diagrams—into tiers of importance. The result was a clear structure that would guide the content’s flow and allow me to prioritize what was most essential for the audience to understand.
But that was only the beginning. This was a project about more than just design—it was about translating highly technical, thought-heavy content into something that could be easily understood by both experts and a broader public audience. The real magic of the project came when I started working directly with the thought leaders at Sidewalk Labs—the engineers, urban planners, and policy experts themselves.
Becoming an Insider
Learning from the Thought Leaders
What truly set this project apart was the deep collaboration I had with the experts in each field. I didn’t just rely on their written reports and presentations. I spent hours with them, sitting down to discuss their work in detail, asking questions, and learning from their experiences. The goal wasn’t just to understand what they were saying, but to get to the heart of why it mattered. I wanted to understand the core philosophy and goals behind each initiative so I could communicate it as clearly as possible.
By embedding myself in their world, I gained a comprehensive understanding of each subject. I didn’t just want to present the information—I needed to be able to teach it. This insider perspective allowed me to speak their language, to translate highly technical jargon into compelling visuals, and to create content that wasn’t just informative, but also engaging and intuitive for any audience. It became clear to me that great design doesn’t happen in isolation; it’s about fostering a true partnership with the people who know the subject matter best.
For example, when working on diagrams that illustrated complex urban development strategies, I didn’t simply rely on existing charts or images. I worked closely with the urban planners at Sidewalk Labs, often revisiting the diagrams and discussing how they could be made clearer and more impactful. Together, we would rework illustrations, considering how best to represent systems and flow, ensuring that the content was both informative and visually cohesive.
The Benefits of Thinking Like an Insider
When you immerse yourself in the company’s culture, you not only create work that resonates more deeply, but you also become more effective at solving design challenges. Here's how this insider perspective can elevate your work:
Deeper Insights: By understanding the culture, values, and goals of the company, you can make design decisions that align with its long-term vision. You’re not just creating something that looks good in the moment—you’re creating something that speaks to the future.
Stronger Emotional Connection: Immersing yourself in the internal language and dynamics of the company allows you to tap into the emotional side of the brand. This leads to designs that feel authentic, personal, and engaging. The audience doesn’t just see the brand—they feel it.
Better Problem Solving: When you’re embedded in a company’s culture, you’re more attuned to the challenges and opportunities that arise. You can anticipate what will work and what won’t, making the design process smoother and more effective.
Increased Trust: When clients see that you understand their company at a deeper level, they’re more likely to trust your decisions and value your input. It’s not just about being an expert in design—it’s about being an expert in their business.
The Immersive Approach in Action
The best brands are built on a strong foundation of culture, and the only way to fully capture that culture in your design is by living it, breathing it, and becoming it.
When I worked on the branding for Cavnue, a startup creating autonomous vehicle infrastructure, the project was as much about understanding the future of transportation as it was about understanding the internal dynamics of the team. Cavnue wasn’t just a tech company—it was a group of forward-thinking individuals with a shared vision of safer, smarter cities. By immersing ourselves in that vision and understanding their day-to-day challenges, we were able to create branding that wasn’t just sleek or futuristic—it was inspired. It felt like it had grown organically out of the company’s own DNA.
How to Think
Like an Insider
So how do you become an insider in the companies you work with? Here are a few tips:
Spend Time with the Team: Whether it's through interviews, shadowing, or informal conversations, make sure you're spending time with the people who live and breathe the brand every day.
Learn the Language: Understand the terminology, the values, and the cultural nuances that define the company. This will help you communicate more effectively and create designs that truly resonate.
Get Involved in the Process: Don’t just wait for the brief—be proactive. Offer suggestions, ask questions, and dive into the challenges the company is facing. When you become part of the solution, your designs will naturally reflect that.
Build Relationships: The best work happens when there’s mutual respect and trust. Make an effort to build relationships with your clients and colleagues—they’ll be more willing to share insights and collaborate with you.
Final Thought:
Design from Within
The future of branding isn’t about being an external force—it’s about becoming part of the fabric of the brand itself. The more immersed you are in a company’s culture, the better you can represent it visually, emotionally, and intellectually. By thinking like an insider, you not only create design work that is more authentic and effective—you contribute to a vision that feels inevitable, not imposed.
So the next time you take on a branding project, think of it not as a job, but as an opportunity to truly become a part of the company. After all, the best design work doesn’t just come from looking at the surface—it comes from diving deep, understanding, and living the brand.
