“Micro but Mighty.”
It’s a slogan which was created by design studio Praktis but it has been a mantra the team, led by co-founders Marlon Darbeau and Blayne Clark, has put into practice successfully.
This year, the small studio has done branding and advertising projects for major brands such as the Massy Group and Tribe Carnival.
The slogan was created for social enterprise Nudge, an entity which promotes small and medium-sized businesses in the Caribbean to have their products featured by Massy Stores.
Nudge was co-founded by creative consultant Anya Ayoung-Chee and Julie Avey, executive vice president of People and Culture at Massy.
The design team’s work on that project saw them receive a Gold and two Silver Addy’s for its work on Growing Good; an integrated campaign and website developed for Nudge.
“From the very early stages when Praktis itself was also just starting up, Marlon and Blayne found a team to design the brand identity and the overall look and feel of Nudge the entity. So we’ve been growing together, Nudge and Praktis in parallel since then. Praktis started late 2019, Nudge launched in the middle of the pandemic in 2020,” said Ayoung-Chee, who had previously cut her teeth as a graphic designer working with Darbeau.
“Ever since then, we’ve had an extraordinary journey together. These two burgeoning entities are learning how to communicate about social impacts through the lens of Nudge and through the lens of the type of boutique work that Praktis does, which is very unique and very specific and also very impactful because of that.”
“I think for us as a micro business ourselves, it has been extremely significant to our development as a business while also ensuring that we take a look at how we operate and how we are structured,” said Darbeau, “So I think we are we have been the beneficiary of the dream and vision of Anya and Julie and the establishment of knowledge. So it’s really interesting that we are not only part of the Nudge team, but we’ve also benefitted as entrepreneurs in looking at how we also have developed our culture and the way we work.”
Following that success, Ayoung-Chee approached Praktis again when Massy sought to create a campaign in its centennial year.
That gave birth to Massy Group’s OUR100, an integrated campaign, which saw contributions from documentary filmmaker Miquel Galofré of production company T&T Rocks and Freetown Collective. Through OUR100, Massy launched activities aimed at social impact in eight territories, including Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and the United States.
Praktis, in tandem with Ayoung-Chee, earned a Gold Addy for the campaign.
“Initiatives that have been borne out to the centennial celebration, and it’s very, very unexpected to me, we have been awarded these Addys for that work, and it’s really kind of a massive validation for the type of work that we love to do, that we love to do together that we see as important in this region at this moment,” Ayoung-Chee told the Business Guardian.
“Just getting to do the type of Caribbean-centric messaging for a gigantic company like Massy around and about social impact is a truly an amazing experience for me as a designer, from a communication standpoint, but also me as a social design strategist,” said Ayoung-Chee, adding, “(And to do it) in collaboration Praktis, who I’ve known for a very long time in many different capacities, it’s just been magical.”
Clark said the key to Praktis’ success was the understanding that the campaign went beyond just delivering on the concept.
“We always say internally that we have two clients. We have a client who has come to us directly and then we have their clients and these are who we trying to speak to,” said Clark.
Clark explained that the company wanted to show that it could create campaigns for various entities and would be willing to work with businesses no matter their size or target audience.
“No matter where you are on the spectrum. One thing we like to say is that we want to bring good design to everyone, whether it’s a small entrepreneur that’s now starting, let’s say in the food and beverage sector selling a product or whether it’s, you know, somewhere, a mid-size manufacturing company, whether it’s somewhere as large as Massy, we believe that good design can service all these businesses across all the sectors or sizes,” said Clark.
Ayoung-Chee confirmed that the campaign created by Praktis was crucial to the development of Nudge, as crucial funding was earned as a result of the campaign.
“I would say from the perspective of measurable success, we have successfully been able to harness support, financial and otherwise from Massy, our primary partner over the last four years up to the tune of $4 million US. We’ve also been able to secure grant financing from the Caribbean Development Bank,” said Ayoung-Chee who also pointed to the major strides made via the Forces for Good One by One campaign which was created under Massy’s OUR100 Umbrella.
That philanthropic campaign was supported by the Group’s distribution of US$370,000 in grants to regional projects.
She said,” I think we are now looking back on the last four years and acknowledging the ROI is tangible. It is tangibly seen in terms of measurable data, the number of entrepreneurs we support, the number of charities, the forces we’ve got initiative has supported 47 projects across its territories.”
The team was also approached by Tribe Carnival for another campaign built around a milestone, Tribe’s 20th anniversary. However, the team also recognised the major Carnival imprint needed a revitalisation.
“After a fair amount of time, a brand has to evolve visually, it has to evolve verbally. And that’s kind of where we partnered with them to establish a new identity and come up with a new visual identity They have a following and a lot of work that they put into Build brand equity over the years. And I was just trying to build on top of that to start to appeal to the next generation, those people coming up for now entering the mas world who are in the Carnival playing days,” said Darbeau.
“We kind of took a look at that visualise at the existing visual identity and figure out what are the strengths what are the weaknesses what are the opportunities and how do we take this into a new space where they are connected with within the current market, appeal to the next generation and even compete on a global level? You know, it’s an entertainment business, and how do they like to say they like to create experiences, how do we start to build a cornerstone for them to build those experiences,” Clark said of that campaign.
Praktis’ analysis and execution also proved a hit, as Praktis won an additional two Silver awards for its work on Tribe Carnival costume packaging. In total Praktis secured 9 Addys this year, following on from its success in 2023 when it won Caribbean Advertising Awards’ Overall Best in Show for its work on the Machel Montano book King of Soca.