Hello, and welcome to the prelaunch of Embrace Variety!
Imagine we are having a small party: it's just you, me and a few other people reading this page. Thank you for stopping by.
What is EV?
Embrace Variety (for short, EV) is a tri-weekly design-advice publication for builders of decentralized and open-source tech.
“Advice” will be a mix of micro-lessons and field notes: structured, but personal, sometimes long-game brand strategies, sometimes 2-minute hacks and DIY resources. It will help you give your project a brand that accelerates early adoption.
Lesson-by-lesson, we will cover four topics:
- Early branding, or minimum viable brand (MVB): when, how, and what to do when launching your big idea to the world.
- Visual languages: all things at the intersection of aesthetics, business, and human psychology.
- Pre-onboarding UX: everything that happens to a potential user/partner/contributor/donor from hearing about your company for the first time to becoming a first-time user.
- Rebranding: how to re-engineer your company's reputation after years of operating on the market – shifting from what people think about you now to the desirable Ideal Image.
Who is the audience?*
Developers-turned-founders, who have never been curious about the go-to-market side of tech, but their lives took a turn, and now they want their previously experimental products to be used and loved by many. These are the people I’ve been serving since 2018. These are my people.
Who else will find EV helpful?
- Product managers who seek product growth with limited marketing funds while wearing a marketing hat, just because 'we are a small team'.
- Product designers, who, as a design team of one, also do visual branding for their projects.
- Builders of decentralized tech who are generally curious about how aesthetics influence people.
* (Thank you, D.A., for asking this question!)
“A website? A newsletter?”
It’s both.
Mainly, Embrace Variety is a website.
It's not what newsletters are typically known for. You will never receive news or other promo material as the main topic of the email. See it as an open publication that arrives in your inbox because you subscribed. Like fresh-baked bread delivered to your door every morning! (No-news-letter sounds just right.)
You’ll receive emails from me three times per week:
Mondays — strategy advice to set up for a long-term game.
Wednesdays — step-by-step how-tos and quick-fix-big-win tactics.
Fridays — pure-aesthetic-joy listicle, mindset advice or DIY (design-it-yourself) resources.
Subscription is optional. Now you know that EV exists. I’ll be glad if, when the time comes, you remember where the Cave of Brand Wonders is.
What’s on deck?
Here is a line-up of the upcoming issues:
Three “Yes!”
Perception matrix for a better emotional response
A subjective list of the most beautiful Web3 brands
Website as a city
Five Whys (an exercise)
If your blog was a movie… (an exercise)
The cost of the design direction
An alternative to R.I.P. (an exercise)
A roundup of the most beautiful podcast designs
5 layers of brand identity stack
If your brand could sing... (an exercise)
9 strategy questions to ask before making a single branding move
First layer, or “Balenciaga vs H&M”
What does professional look mean
Your product category name sets expectations
Brand guidelines are a documentation, not a “maybe”
Swag as a conversation starter
The positive effect of lazy logos
When to start thinking about branding and when not to ignore it
Dark secrets of presenting data: lists
If you'd like me to unpack something specific for your project or industry, just email me at iryna@nezhynska.com or submit your question anonymously here.
Thank you so much for stopping by here today!
P.S.
Launching Ev is far beyond my comfort zone. Daily, I speak the language of shape and color, and... words don't come easy to me.
Add the fact that I'm Ukrainian, and you'll get a complete picture.
This whole endeavour makes me think: we are walking the same trail here – some of you stepped out of your comfort zone of research and development to bring your product to the market.
But the thing is:
Your maybe-out-of-comfort zone of brand design and marketing UX is my habitat for more than 16 years.
I'm here to guide you through it with glory and fire.