Drawing on my experience crafting brand stories for Ultrahaptics, Resonate, Origami Energy and others, Laka turned to me and another member of the team, Grace Pyne, to refine and build upon the work previously done by branding agency Ragged Edge, which had yet to grip the imagination of people within the business.
Ragged Edge had already worked with the senior leadership team to define a mission statement, but what was missing was an origin story—and authenticity. We sat down with people from across the company, listened to their experiences with Laka, and reflected on our own. We crafted a story that captured why we—and others—fell in love with the brand. We took care to shape language that felt natural inside Laka. And, importantly, we brought the team along with us on a journey to a shared destination until the whole company was behind it.
We pitched the work as a curation of feelings and thoughts to reassure anyone worried we were undoing Ragged Edge’s contribution. In reality, this work was need to recentre and refocus during a time of growth. Following this we helped develop messaging guides and business values leveraging the language we created.
The story and language we developed will go on to influence Laka’s culture and output for years to come.
Customer. Investor. Employee. In that order. That’s my Laka story.
I was approached by Laka—an insurance startup pioneering a peer-to-peer cooperative model that’s earned them the Insurance Choice Award for Best Cycling Insurance Provider seven years running—to join the team as their foundation designer. I was tasked with leading the evolution of their digital product, but in a small, high-paced environment, my role quickly expanded—as I’d hoped it always would. I put my skills to use across the brand, evolving both the visual identity and messaging, while also getting deep into the mechanics of insurance. I took regular dives into pricing, helped shape the creative direction of copy and marketing materials, and built internal tools and documentation to support good, efficient design practices across the business.
I helped steer Laka’s transition from a single-country D2C proposition into a multi-channel business operating across much of Europe, including D2C, group, B2B2C, and B2B models. I designed integrations with some of the world’s leading bike brands and financial institutions. I also led the restructure of our insurance product—from a single-tier cycle cover into a three-tier offering—re-architecting how it was presented and sold to maximise both user satisfaction and conversion.