For one of the most ambitious civic structures of the 21st century, ReadyMade was engaged to transform a scattered and fragmented narrative into a cohesive, emotionally resonant story. The Middle East-based client had dozens of different ways of describing its unprecedented structure, resulting in a lack of clarity about purpose and impact.

Our strategy centered on three core principles: leading with deeper significance rather than surface-level design features, reducing cognitive strain through clarity and simplicity, and demonstrating radical empathy for its diverse audiences. This approach transformed technically-focused messaging into an iconic narrative: a framework that articulates how a project can create meaningful experiences and lasting impact for people, municipalities, nations, and ultimately, the entire world.

This work addressed a common challenge with ambitious architectural projects: the tendency to focus obsessively on explaining what is being built while struggling to articulate why it matters. We created a scalable storytelling system that worked across contexts by shifting from features to purpose, from abstract concepts to human experiences.  Whether an elevator pitch or a comprehensive board presentation, the iconic narrative now conveys the magnitude of the project while generating the emotional engagement necessary to align stakeholders around a shared vision.

A heritage footwear brand renowned for its iconic silhouettes needed to evolve its communications approach. While they had strong brand recognition, their messaging had become fragmented across markets and channels, diluting their cultural impact and blending into a noisy, competitive landscape. They needed to move from passively reflecting culture to actively creating it.

Working closely with the global communications team, ReadyMade developed a connected narrative framework that reimagined the brand’s role in culture. Sprouting from the central idea, "Independent enough not to follow," we positioned the brand as a creative co-conspirator that actively challenges conformity. Rather than treating each product launch as an isolated event, our narrative framework connected individual products to larger brand themes and cultural movements. This approach transformed fragmented product messaging into chapters of a cohesive brand story, giving purpose and context to everything from classic reissues to innovative new designs.

The work led to a transformative shift in how the brand communicates about its products and purpose. What was once a collection of disconnected messages became a powerful, unified story that provokes creativity rather than simply celebrating it. The connected narrative framework has fostered unprecedented cross-functional collaboration, more efficient resource allocation, and, most importantly, a distinctive brand position.

A private equity-backed design firm, formed through the merger of award-winning legacy studios across multiple countries, had made several unsuccessful attempts to create an integrated brand narrative. While the firm's leadership viewed the challenge through a marketing lens, our analysis revealed something far more fundamental: their organizational structure and business strategy were actively impeding their marketing goals.

Through our rapid discovery process, we determined that operating as separate entities wasn't just diluting the firm’s messaging—it was limiting access to transformative projects and undermining its valuation strategy. The ReadyMade team conducted workshops with leadership and stakeholders, analyzed client journeys, and mapped the competitive landscape to develop a breakthrough insight: the organization needed to shift its offering from being service-based to becoming solutions-oriented. This led to a distinctive positioning concept that transcended traditional industry categories and unified the firm’s capabilities in a way that was both unique to their sector and compelling to clients seeking transformative work.

The results validated our strategic reframing. Within 10 months, the firm executed 15 fully integrated projects that commanded premium pricing—a dramatic shift from zero previous cross-studio collaborations. Our remit expanded far beyond strategic consulting, spanning a refreshed brand identity, a redesigned website reflecting the unified positioning, a completely overhauled business development credentials deck, revamped case studies, and an executive visibility campaign that established the firm’s leadership in the marketplace. The new narrative architecture and comprehensive marketing program facilitated smoother integration of two additional studios, creating a multiplier effect on their enterprise value. By holistically addressing both the firm’s foundational business issues and its external market presence, we helped transform its operations, positioning, and value proposition.

A revolutionary sports league had successfully challenged industry norms and attracted world-class talent, but was approaching a critical inflection point in its evolution. Despite significant investment and growing acceptance, it struggled with persistent questions about competitive legitimacy, business sustainability, and cultural fit within their sport's traditional ecosystem. Media coverage remained mixed, with lingering perceptions of the organization as disruptors rather than builders, which threatened to undermine its long-term vision and commercial potential.

Through interviews with key executives, stakeholders, and a comprehensive media analysis, we determined that the organization needed to pivot from being defined by what it opposed to articulating what it was creating. The organization’s original mission—to be "a positive force for the good of the game"—had been overshadowed by controversy and resistance narratives. To combat these, we crafted a comprehensive narrative framework anchored by a unifying concept of forward momentum, supported by four strategic pillars that highlighted the league’s innovations in global access, fan experience, team dynamics, and athlete empowerment.

The narrative transformation provided more than messaging consistency, it became a strategic foundation for the organization’s evolution from challenger to leader. By shifting from defensive positioning to a confident vision of the sport's future, we helped leadership align internal teams, constructively address skepticism, and reposition as boundary-pushing pioneers innovating for everyone's benefit. This foundation enabled the league to move beyond early controversies and lead conversations about the sport's global potential, opening new doors for partnerships, fan engagement, and sustainable growth.

For a leading financial technology firm grappling with fragmented messaging across its matrixed wealth management services, we faced a crucial challenge: how to unify disparate business units under a cohesive narrative that resonated with its customer decision-makers, while elevating the firm’s reputation as a technology innovator.

The ReadyMade Team conducted a series of strategic interviews with front-line advisors and branch managers that revealed a fundamental misalignment between the company's traditional efficiency-focused sales narrative and what customers truly valued. Our research also uncovered a number of unexpected universal frictions that affected organizations across the industry, creating barriers to innovation and preventing strategic thinking at multiple levels.

The output was a strategic framework for how the company's diverse offerings could solve complex client challenges through purposeful, interconnected narrative journeys that address both manifest and latent client needs. We augmented the interconnected narratives with detailed experience maps that visualized hidden pain points and opportunities, providing a critical tool for unifying business units, differentiating from competitors, and most importantly, transforming the firm’s go-to-market strategy. By shifting from a narrative rooted in transactional qualities like cost savings to one that strategically elevates value creation, we equipped our client to articulate how its offerings addressed the emotional and practical needs of wealth management professionals, while establishing a foundation for an ongoing voice-of-customer program that will continue to inform the firm’s evolving market strategy.