Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wendy Ruyle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Wendy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

To honor the rich history and monumental contributions made by local Pullman porters, we helped St. Paul nonprofit, Model Cities, create a community space that was educational, authentic, and approachable called The Reading Room at BROWNStone. From the inviting palette to the heartfelt stories to the natural sunlight that fills the room, every effort was made to create a space that is welcoming to all.

We worked in collaboration with Model Cities, the University of Minnesota Department of African American & African Studies, the Minnesota History Center, an interior designer, and several local artists to fill the room with locally rooted artifacts and artwork, to make Black dignity visible in the space, and to connect the past to the present for all visitors. The outcome is an experience that is both humbling and inspiring all at once.

The stories of the porters’ lives are essential to the heart of this room. Our team incorporated interpretive narratives about labor, family, education, and racial justice into a number of environmental elements. Using vintage luggage for an artistic donation box and incorporating brick, reclaimed wood, and steel throughout the space brings history to life in a tactile and relevant way.

Local artists and artisans were commissioned to create custom artwork and furnishings that reflect the brand voice and vision. Through beauty, aesthetics, and purposeful curation, the room is adorned with grace and dignity. With every word, graphic, artifact, image, and careful detail, the room has been thoughtfully orchestrated to create a memorable visitor experience and honor the contribution of the porters to the neighborhood’s past, present, and future.

Wendy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started out my career interning at Little & Co. here in Minneapolis. There I met friends and colleagues who continue to influence my trajectory today. I came from a family of academics so how a business was run was a mystery to me. I learned quickly from Monica Little and her leadership team how to keep clients happy and a business running smoothly. From there I moved to a smaller shop, Tilka Design, where the focus was more retail-based including some product design. Again, I soaked up all I could about a different approach and niche.

My last stop before starting my own business was Larsen Design, a larger agency with Fortune 500 clients and more focused roles. Where previously, I managed design, project management, production, and account relations, here, my focus was design and art direction. With a team of upwards of 100 people, I was able to learn from and collaborate with a wide variety of abilities, which was invaluable to my growth as a designer, and I built an extensive network of the most talented people in town.

This is where I met my future business partner, Diana Lillicrap. She and I worked together for 8 years and found we had compatible and complementary skills. There are people you find in your career that you just mesh with, and Diana and I found that in each other. We decided to try a go at our own business in 2006, and we’ve been at it ever since.

5 by 5 Design is a brand strategy, marketing, and graphic design firm. We’ve been in business for almost 18 years. We have one employee and a wide network of contractors, freelancers, and other small businesses with whom we collaborate to create the best team for each project.

We believe design leads to emotion, which leads to action. Good design uncovers the parts of your brand that will connect, inspire, and delight. It requires asking the right questions and then truly listening to arrive at practical answers. We lay out smart strategy, manage the details, and deliver useful tools that breathe life into our clients’ brands.

Our clients include iconic commercial brands like MillerKnoll and Deli Express, philanthropic leaders like McKnight Foundation and Northwest Minnesota Foundation, large nonprofits like United Women in Faith and the State of Minnesota, and small vibrant business like Nwyze and Sagiliti, among dozens of others in various locations, sectors, and industries.

What’s unique about working with us is firstly, we start with a foundation of research and strategy. That helps us know we are making the right recommendations and helps our clients feel confident and have the means to sell our ideas internally. Secondly, we excel at taking complicated concepts and distilling them both verbally and visually to make them clear for an audience. And we make sure the details of the project are under control throughout the process so in the end we can deliver tools that are practical, understandable, and usable for each stakeholder.

There are also a few things about the experience of working with us that many clients find appealing. We want to work in true partnership with our clients so we work collaboratively and personally to dig deep into what makes their businesses tick. We’re very down-to-earth. There’s not a lot of bull, not a lot of jargon, and not a lot of layers. When you hire us, you work with us. And we know we don’t know everything. That’s why we ask the right questions and challenge our clients (and ourselves) throughout the process.

I’m most proud of the fact that our client list is truly a group of people that we admire and respect. One of the best things about owning your own business is the ability to choose which relationships you want to continue to nurture and which organizations you want to enrich with your skills.

Have you ever had to pivot?

After being in business almost 18 years, we’ve discovered that pivoting is just part of the job of a small business owner. The marketplace, technology, and culture change regularly, and we must change with them to keep serving our clients well. One example is about 5 or 6 years into our business we realized we were doing a lot of one-off projects, and our offerings weren’t focused. These projects were unfulfilling for us but more importantly, we were unable to give our clients the best tool to meet their goals because we hadn’t been part of the strategic process.

Over a few years we shifted our focus to brand strategy and developed a tested process so we could help our clients uncover their organization’s bigger purpose and connect emotionally with their customers. We firmly believe that no one makes a decision—to buy, to donate, to give of their time—unless they have an emotional reason to do so. The stories we uncover during a discovery process allow us to tap into what will connect. The research we do tells us what customers care about and what our clients do best. We can then take that information and use the craft of design we were using all along to create usable tools for our clients to live their brands on their own.

The pandemic was obviously a big pivot for everyone. We were able to convert the way we usually held ideation sessions, in an all-day, in-person meeting with all the stakeholders to a series of shorter online sessions doing very similar exercises but tailoring them to an online experience. Getting up to speed with the right technology and tools helped us offer the same service to clients who had plenty of time to focus on marketing but couldn’t meet in person.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We have a handful of touchpoint tools we have developed to make sure we connect with our clients on a regular basis and are able to celebrate their wins and milestones. We have these at the ready, so we don’t have to think too hard about what to do when opportunities arise.

For celebrations and milestones of our clients we have a set of greeting cards—thank you, congratulations, and hello—so we can send a note when appropriate for project conclusions, referrals, birthdays, weddings, retirements, births, or just to say, “Hi, nice to meet you!” For more major milestones, we’ll send a tasteful succulent plant or flowers from a trusted vendor.

We plan regular lunches and coffees with clients and collaborators from our past to catch up, find out what is going on in their lives, and share new offerings or potential partnerships.

We choose a charitable organization each year and donate in our clients’ honor and send a letter-pressed greeting card to thank them for their partnerships. For current clients we also send a curated gift that is not overly branded, so they are more likely to get used but they always remember the giver.

We have a blog on our website with tips and tools about branding. We push this content out via LinkedIn and a quarterly newsletter so clients can get regular information about how to take their brand to the next level. We also ask guest authors to contribute to the blog every other month to share their ideas as well. Often these are clients or collaborators.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.5by5design.com
• Instagram: @5by5design
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/wendyruyle/
• Other: Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/5by5design

Image Credits
Model Cities Reading Room by @Spacecrafting