Who is spunky psyche?
Introduction
Too many businesses see branding as just a box to check, and then they’re surprised when nothing really sticks. Your brand isn’t this magic stamp. It’s a living, breathing story you’re still writing that deserves more than just templates and trends. At Spunky Psyche, we’re not about cookie-cutter solutions. We create brands that evolve with you, not despite you.
summary
Spunky Psyche an online brand strategy and design studio. Businesses often struggle with disjointed branding because they treat it like a project instead of a system. We solve that through our Brand Ecology Method (a process that blends research, storytelling, and intentional design) and we pride ourselves on building brands that evolve with people. No more wasted time, energy, or money on misaligned visuals or messaging. We design expressive identities and inclusive messaging that help your audience see the real you.
How did it all start?
quick answer
Spunky Psyche is an online brand strategy and design studio started by our founder Alivia Burke, a 26-year-old from central Louisiana who’s always been passionate about all kinds of storytelling. From the start of her career, she realized that small business owners often have a hard time connecting with their audiences and believes that storytelling is the most powerful way to communicate.
Our Origin Story
Spunky Psyche an online brand strategy and design studio that helps small business owners, solopreneurs, and the unapologetic weirdos build brands that grow with them. We blend investigative research, emotional insight, and ecosystem-based design to create brand systems that evolve with purpose.
Through strategy, storytelling, and identity design, we help clients communicate who they are with confidence and attract the people who truly resonate with their work. We believe that a brand is a living system meant to grow and evolve with its owners, not just sit around to rot until the next redesign.
Our founder, Alivia Burke, is a 26-year-old from central Louisiana who’s passionate about creative writing and design. She kickstarted the studio on March 14, 2025, with the idea of helping other small business owners connect with their audiences through strategic storytelling. Early on in her studies at Louisiana Tech, Alivia saw that business owners constantly struggled to keep up with their customers’ changing needs and values. After graduating in 2021 and spending five years in the field, she continued exploring brand strategy and stumbled upon the brand archetypes; tools that help clients better understand how to position themselves in their brand messaging and networking.
We live by five big core values to help our company guide our decision-making:
Ambitious, but never unfocused: We chase bold visions with a sharp eye and a solid plan. Strategy will always be our anchor; even when the goals are sky-high.
Audacious, but never conceited: We dream big and dare boldly, but always stay grounded in purpose. Confidence isn’t cocky when it’s in service of something bigger.
Expressive, but never reactive: Every word is intentional and crafted to resonate. We take time think about the impact of our message because words are powerful tools that can create connection or insight division.
Playful, but never frivolous: Our fun will never be at the cost of strategic thinking. Every playful touch we add is rooted in intention, designed to connect and convert.
Connective, but never a Yes-Man: We love creative collaboration, but our north star isn’t just feeling good. Our job is to offer honest insight, set smart boundaries, and help you build something that actually works. We’re here to solve problems, not sugarcoat them.
These values keep us grounded in truth without hogging the mic. At the heart of it all, we’re here to help our clients & community show up fully, speak freely, and build boldly, without fear of being too much or not enough.
what problems do you solve?
Quick Answer
Businesses often struggle with disjointed branding resulting in mixed signals for their target audiences. Customers are unable to build stable relationships with brands who suffer from misalignment in their visuals, messaging, and communications.
What problems are our clients facing?
Our clients are doing important stuff in their industry but struggle with visibility because they don’t have a consistent brand presence in the market like their competitors. Clients with weak or no branding often feel frustrated, confused, and discouraged because they don’t see much traction in their business. Networking calls end up being dead ends, potential clients go quiet, and social media becomes just a game of vanity metrics.
They’re left wondering where to pivot next. It’s not that their services aren’t good; it’s that their brand doesn’t tell the right story to the right people. They’re stuck trying to explain their value with features and credentials, instead of sparking connection through shared values and vision. In a marketplace where consumers crave alignment and authenticity, brands can’t afford to show up as faceless, one-dimensional options.
People want to feel who you are before they buy what you sell. But many business owners are so deep in the day-to-day, they don’t know where to begin. That’s where we come in: to help you shape and share your brand’s lore; one that lives, breathes, and speaks directly to the people who are ready to champion your work.
Why do those problems matter?
Quick Answer
The biggest risk businesses face is letting someone else define your narrative while your dream clients scroll right past. 81% of customers state that they need to trust a brand before purchasing from it (Wiser Review), and every misaligned moment is costing you time, energy, and growth.
What happens to businesses if these problems aren’t solved?
“If you do not position yourself as a business owner, the market will do it for you.” It’s a mantra in the design world for a reason: in a saturated market, unclear branding doesn’t just slow growth. It also signals immaturity to your audience.
When your visual, verbal, and written identity are out of sync, your business starts to feel risky. There has been a ton of research on humans’ “old brain” which allowed our ancestors to survive for million of years. One of the old habits that brain has kept is associating consistency (familiarity) with safety. An unreliable brand experience communicates to that old brain that the business in front of it is big gamble with the potential to lose resources; time, energy, or worse money.
“Half of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they recognize,” according to Wiser Review. So, if your brand feels a bit scattered, you're actually risking losing out to the bottom 50% of shoppers who don’t really care about your company’s values or goals. They’re just after the quickest and cheapest options, which is a tough game to win unless you have a ton of resources to outcompete everyone. Most small business owners are working with limited time and money. Having a clear and consistent brand is a critical survival tactic for smaller businesses.
how do you solve those problems differently from others?
Quick Answer
We help our clients tackle their problems with our Brand Ecology Method, a process that combines research, storytelling, and thoughtful design. We keep it simple with a 3-step approach: observing the market, building the brand ecosystem, and bringing it to life through strategic alignment.
let’s talk process:
Every project at Spunky Psyche is built on a solid foundation of strategy. We believe in starting fresh with each situation, not making any assumptions about the business, its industry challenges, or the clients it serves—even if we've done similar projects before. We use our Brand Ecology Method to lay a strong base for every project, making sure the systems we develop are scalable and flexible enough for our clients’ future pivots & ambitions.
Phase #1: Observing the Environment The first step of any project is to gather as much information as possible about the founder and the business that they are running. We do this through multiple channels: intake quiz, initial consultation, & discovery call. This allows us to understand how you view your own experience. Then we start looking at the industry and your competitor through market research understanding how the industry functions and we can lean into our clients’ strengths to expose their competitors’ weaknesses
Phase #2: Building the Brand Ecosystem Once we understand your environment, we start designing the system that'll help your brand stand out. We blend emotional insight with strategic planning by defining your values, positioning, personality, and messaging framework. This step turns abstract ideas into a solid, flexible base for your visuals and communication.
Phase #3: Bringing It All to Life Everything comes together visually and verbally as we work on the creative direction, visual identity, and storytelling assets that show off your brand’s core. This last step is where we put all your brand guidelines into action to create key digital and print assets you can use to connect with your audience.
Our goal with this method is to make sure our team creates solutions that your company can actually use on its own. We notice that business owners often spend more money on redesigning brand systems that outgrow them too quickly or get too complicated, instead of just setting up one solid system for the long run.
The 3 Most Common Branding Mistakes BUSINESSES MAKE
Quick Answer
The biggest mistakes we see owners make is ignoring their target audience, believing that their logo is their brand identity, & failing to define a clear brand identity. These mistakes result in wasted time, energy, and money on misaligned visuals or messaging.
Ignoring the Target Audience
This is by far the most common mistake out of the three on the list, and in our opinion, the least intentional. Business owners often have lots of great ideas to make life better for others. If they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be entrepreneurs. Sometimes those ideas move too fast without doing enough research and really understanding who will benefit the most from that solution.
Ignoring your target audience isn’t just about talking to the wrong people. It also comes from not fully understanding your audience’s buying habits, personal values, struggles, and customer identity. When you don’t focus on understanding who you’re helping, your business can end up coming across like a pushy car salesman, even if your intentions are good.
Knowing who you're talking to can be the difference between having a really good year or your last one before shutting down your business for good.
Believing Your Logo Is a Brand
As design has become more accessible, it ended up getting absorbed into the marketing speech on social media where the words like brand, brand identity design, and brand strategy all started blurring together with marketing & business language. For alot of young start-ups, founders would throw together a quick logo to display on their website and call it a day for launch mistakenly assuming their “branding” work was complete.
A brand isn’t just your logo. That’s just a small part of a greater design. Your brand is made up of 7 key elements that all work together as one big ecosystem, and they also interact with your other systems within your business (like marketing, sales, finance, customer service, and so on).
Brand Purpose – Why you exist beyond profit. Your reason for being and the deeper “why” that fuels your business.
Brand Vision – The big-picture future you’re building toward. Where you're headed and what success looks like.
Brand Mission – What you do and how you do it. The tangible actions that move your vision forward.
Brand Values – The beliefs and principles that guide your decisions, shape your culture, and connect you to your audience.
Brand Personality – The tone, voice, and vibe your brand brings to every interaction; basically, your brand’s “human” traits.
Brand Positioning – Where you sit in the market relative to competitors, and the unique space you claim in your audience’s mind.
Brand Identity – The visual and verbal expression of your brand (logos, colors, typography, messaging)
Your logo is an important part of your brand and fits into your overall brand identity, but calling it your whole brand is a bit risky. You might end up making your brand feel bland or generic, like just another anonymous choice instead of standing out as the number one option.
Failing to Define a Clear Identity
This is the most costly mistake of the three because you could end up wasting years trying to reach the wrong crowd who doesn’t really fit with your business. Think back to your early 20s before you really knew yourself. Not everyone was a bad friend or partner, but they probably weren’t aligned with your own values, which led to more conflicts than your now current healthy relationships.
Business is pretty similar. Most entrepreneurs get what they do and how it can be profitable but find it hard to describe the deeper, more abstract parts of their brand — like purpose, vision, and values. These parts of branding are what anchor your company in meaningful relationships, helping you attract the right clients instead of chasing after the wrong ones.
Understanding who you are as a brand will help you better align your team on internal goals so that you can work together to growth and expand into new phases of your business.
How do you work with us?
Start by booking a free consultation with our founder, Alivia. Once you're scheduled, you’ll receive an email with a short intake form to help us understand your needs before we meet.
If we’re a good fit, you’ll get a customized proposal and contract outlining your project’s goals, timeline, and budget. And if we’re not the right match? No stress! We’ll point you to a trusted referral from our vetted network of design and marketing pros. See ya there!
FAQ: get to know us
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Spunky Psyche provides brand identity, brand strategy, website design, & graphic design services to their clients.
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We most commonly work with small businesses, solopreneurs, micro-teams, and even start-ups. The industry type doesn’t matter for us but we do look for like minded leaders who share our values of ambition, audacity, connection, playfulness, and self-expression.
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We work best with leaders who are curious, collaborative, and ready to dig deeper into the story and strategy behind their business. Most importantly, they’re committed to building a brand ecosystem that evolves with them; not one they’ll outgrow in six months.
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Every project is custom-scoped based on your goals, needs, and budget. Some take a few weeks, others unfold over a few months. We’ll map out the timeline clearly once we know what you’re dreaming up.
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We prefer to receive inquiries through our founder’s email address aliviab@spunkypsyche.com.
Key Takeaways
Spunky Psyche an online brand strategy and design studio that helps small business owners, solopreneurs, and the unapologetic weirdos build brands that grow with them.
We believe that a brand is a living, breathing ecosystem that is meant to grow with their founders not just a one-off project.
It was launched by Alivia Burke, a, is a 26-year-old from central Louisiana, on March 14, 2025 with the goal of helping business owners connect with their audiences through strategic storytelling.
Spunky Psyche helps businesses who struggle with disjointed branding (or none at all) that result in mixed signals for their target audiences.
The biggest risk businesses face is letting someone else define your narrative while their dream client finds their competitor to invest in.
We use the Brand Ecology Method, a process that combines research, storytelling, and thoughtful design.
The 3 most common branding mistakes we see business owners make is: ignoring their audience, believing their logo is their brand, & not having a clear brand identity.
If you’re interested in working with our team, set up a free consultation where we’ll get to know you and your business.
