Brand Identity // Website DesignBeyond the Bench
Beyond the Bench is an HR consultancy built around a perspective that doesn't look or feel like traditional HR. Founded by former collegiate athlete and coach Jacquice Overall-Cooper, the practice brings emotional intelligence and leadership development into athletic programs, schools, and organizations.
Through my independent design practice, I worked with emerging entrepreneurs to turn early ideas into fully realized brands and digital experiences. Beyond the Bench was a great example of that end-to-end approach, taking a new business from an initial creative vision through brand development and website launch.
Jacquice came to me with a clear vision: she wanted her brand to feel youthful, energetic, authentic, and unmistakably hers. Rather than leaning into the polished, corporate aesthetic common in HR consulting, we built a visual identity around her experience as a basketball coach and the personality she brings to her work.
I led the project from initial brand exploration through website launch, translating Jacquice's vision into a cohesive brand system and digital experience that she could confidently carry forward on her own.
My role: Creative Director + Brand Designer
Scope: Brand strategy, visual identity, website design + development, and launch tools
The Brand
The visual identity combines warm, retro-inspired colors with authentic photography and graphic elements that nod to basketball without turning the brand into a literal sports identity.
Court-inspired grids and curves create structure throughout the system, while arrows, Xs, and circles reference the markings of a basketball playbook. These elements give the brand a sense of movement and strategy while keeping the overall look modern and sophisticated enough for an organizational consulting audience.
Photography was another important part of making the brand feel personal. Jacquice wanted to use her own photos, but the resolution among the images varied. I developed a treatment using filters, overlays, and other visual techniques that allowed us to preserve the authenticity of her photography while making the images feel intentional within the broader brand system.
From Messaging to Website
The brand messaging had already been thoughtfully developed with copywriter Ashley Strahm, who provided the foundation through a messaging guidelines document. My role was to translate that messaging into an actual website experience.
Rather than simply placing the copy into predetermined pages, I worked through the content to establish a clear hierarchy, develop engaging headlines, determine what information belonged where, and create a structure that would guide visitors naturally through the brand.
The site was designed and built in Squarespace as a low-code, drag-and-drop experience that Jacquice could manage herself after launch. Every design decision had the handoff in mind: pages were built using flexible, editable components, and I avoided custom solutions that would require a designer or developer to maintain.
For an emerging business working within a limited budget, that flexibility was just as important as the visual design. The goal was to give Jacquice a site that could grow and evolve with the business without creating an ongoing dependency on a professional designer or developer for every content update or new asset.
Designed for the Handoff
One of the reasons I built my independent design practice was to help entrepreneurs build their businesses without requiring a large creative budget after launch. That meant designing not just for the initial reveal, but for what would happen six months or a year later when the client needed to update a page, swap an image, create a presentation, or make a social graphic.
For Beyond the Bench, I created:
Brand consultation and mood board kickoff
Full visual identity and brand guidelines
Logo variations and graphic library
Color palettes and typography
Photography treatment
Icon library
Website UX and layout strategy
Low-code Squarespace website design and development
LinkedIn profile branding
Canva presentation + social media templates
Brand and website tutorials for ongoing use
The brand guidelines and Canva assets were structured so Jacquice could continue creating on-brand materials without needing to hire a designer for every new piece of content. The same principle guided the website: flexible enough to evolve, simple enough to maintain, and polished enough to represent a professional consulting practice.
Ready to Go
When we started the project, Jacquice was still questioning whether she was ready to make something as significant as a website and publicly launch Beyond the Bench.
The finished brand gave her something tangible to step into: a visual identity that felt like her, a website that communicated her expertise, and a system she could confidently carry forward.
The biggest measure of success wasn't a traffic number. It was seeing Jacquice go from building quietly behind the scenes to publicly announcing that Beyond the Bench was officially open and ready to work with the people she built it for.
Collaborators
Ashley Strahm provided the messaging foundation and content strategy that informed the brand and website.
Jacquice Overall-Cooper was deeply involved in the creative process, bringing her perspective and vision to decisions throughout the project.
Together, we turned a very specific personal vision into a brand that could move into the world.
