Brand Strategist · Writer · Creative Director

I find the truth inside an organization and turn it into work that wins.

I’ve spent twenty years building brands from scratch, reviving ones left for dead, and writing the ideas organizations rally around. Based in Vermont, working everywhere.

$580M

Dynapower sale, less than two months after a brand relaunch built around my strategic insight.

$125M

a year for Vermont child care under Act 76, the landmark 2023 law passed after the campaign my strategy guided.

3M+

units of one ballet flat, from the Amazon Essentials footwear line I helped build and launch.

$10.5M

in 2 years for Freebird by Steven, a brand I created from scratch that helped establish the festival fashion trend.

How I work

The best idea is usually present, but hidden. My job is to find it.

Listen

Immersion, interviews, archives, support groups, deep research. I go where the trail leads until the real story surfaces.

Discover

A customer’s phrase, a founder’s belief, a 40-year-old flyer… I unearth the insights that point to truth and build from there.

Form

I shape how the brand shows up, from strategy to creative, and partner with the designers who bring it to life.

I call this Brand Animism: the practice of treating an organization as a living thing, and sourcing strategic direction through that lens. Since 2022 it has been the name of my independent studio.

Selected work

Dynapower

Brand strategy · Messaging · with Solidarity of Unbridled Labour

The challenge

A Vermont power-conversion company wanted to be seen as a clean-energy leader, but much of its business served mining and heavy industry.

The idea

Stop hiding the industrial work. One line connects the clean-energy work to the purpose of every industry Dynapower powers.

The result

Sold to Sensata Technologies for $580M, less than two months after a full brand relaunch. The line still leads at Dynapower.com.

Let’s Grow Kids

Campaign strategy · Messaging

The challenge

After 40 years, Vermont’s child care movement had a bill within reach, but its messaging kept swinging between children’s well-being and economics.

The idea

Stop choosing. Lead with the heart and the mind will follow: a four-phase “Final Lap” strategy honoring decades of advocacy.

The result

It guided the campaign’s ads, social media, and rallies, helping achieve historic legislation. In 2023, lawmakers passed Act 76: $125M a year for child care.

Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op

Creative direction · Concept · 50th anniversary

Semicentennial poster: a quilt of 50 illustrated symbols, each marking a moment in the co-op's history

Awareness ad: a custom 50th-anniversary PLU sticker on an apple, with the line Locally grown, community owned. Since 1976.

The challenge

How do you honor 50 years of a beloved Vermont institution without making it feel like a museum piece?

The idea

Weave the story like a quilt: 50 symbols drawn from 40+ years of flyers and in-depth interviews, with a cheeky custom PLU sticker.

The result

The look carried ads, banner poles, and all marketing, and led the Co-op to hire me for a full rebrand, now underway.

Learnexus

Brand platform · Research · Tagline

Key findings slide: passion, community and microcosm

Four audiences, four invitations: share your gifts with the world, make learning the ultimate priority, unite an industry destined for disruption, join a movement

The challenge

Learnexus needed four distinct invitations, one for each corner of its ecosystem (learning professionals, clients, employees, and investors), that still added up to one cohesive brand story.

The idea

Interviews revealed what all four shared: great teaching runs on gratitude. That became the root of every message, tied together by a line the logo already spelled out: “Learn Together.”

The result

The platform gave Learnexus a clear story for all four audiences and helped carry the company to its June 2026 acquisition by Cognota.

G.H. Bass Originals

Brand strategy · Copy · with Origin Outside

G.H. Bass Originals Spring 2022 email: Up in the clout. The legacy loafer with a lightweight lift.

The challenge

The 1876 brand behind the original Weejun penny loafer needed to win over a new generation without losing the heritage that made it iconic.

The idea

“This is not a renovation. It’s a restoration.” I built the strategy around reclaiming the Weejun’s legacy, then wrote lines with the swagger to match.

The result

Bass adopted the legacy strategy for its marketing and built its Spring ’22 campaign around my copy, from “Step into history” to “Up in the clout.”

Domeworthy

Naming · Strategy · Copy · Creative direction

The challenge

A new partner set out to build on Dome Inc.’s 40-year reputation with a fresh, younger-facing brand, in a category that still sold on hard logic and disaster data.

The idea

Women drive about 90% of home-buying decisions, yet no one in the category spoke to them. We cracked the code with nurturing warmth: a dome as a place to live well, not just survive.

The result

A new name, a platform built on “Home is sacred,” and every word on the site, from “Sphere perfection” down. The revitalized identity sparked fresh interest in a classic company.

Freebird by Steven

FOUNDER · CREATIVE DIRECTOR · FOR STEVE MADDEN

Freebird boots worn on whitewashed stairs against a blue sky

Freebird boots worn at a city curb beside a yellow taxi

Black-and-white editorial with slouched Freebird boots

Freebird boots and shoes filled with orange flowers against a yellow backdrop

Freebird in campaigns and editorials, styled by the retailers and publications that made it a phenomenon.

The challenge

Publicly traded Steve Madden had never sold a high-priced, handmade line in its 20-year history.

The idea

I saw festival fashion coming before Coachella became a style reference and built a rugged-luxury boot brand to own it.

The result

$10.5M in 2 years and 300+ accounts, from Bergdorf Goodman to Isetan. The brand went on to $50M and its own stores, and still sells today.

Ostosure

Research · Messaging · Makers of the Ostovalve

Bag?What bag?

Robert Bell, ostomate and inventor of the Ostovalve, arms crossed

The challenge

Recruitment for the first clinical trial of a pouch-free ostomy device had stalled. Early messaging read as insensitive to the people who needed it most.

The idea

Immersing ourselves in ostomate support communities, we found a phrase people used to say “this won’t stop me,” and built the campaign around their own words.

The result

Trials now run with a waitlist, and several copy lines, including “Bag? What bag?”, have been trademarked and adopted as company slogans.

Amazon Essentials

Product strategy · Design direction · with Faryl Robin

3,000,000+

pairs of one ballet flat, with over 85,000 Amazon reviews.

A pair of Amazon Essentials ballet flats seen from above

The challenge

Amazon’s private label was expanding into footwear, and repurposing other makers’ best-sellers was getting a lukewarm response.

The idea

Start over. Working backward from the entry-price customer, we brought luxury-level comfort to the industry’s most basic styles, an investment competitors hadn’t made.

The result

I landed the contract, partnered with Amazon leadership on the rollout, and directed a launch collection of about 20 styles, still selling strong today.

Writing

“State of Grace”

Profile for Hotel Vermont’s 10th-anniversary book

“The warmth and generosity Pradhan exudes is palpable; a force as gentle as it is inspiring and one that changes the chemistry of a room.”

“Shaped by Purpose”

On Richard Erdman’s bronze sculptures at Hotel Vermont

“Toulouse is nearly eight feet tall and weighs 1,400 pounds, but one suspects it may meander off at any moment, strolling into the distance.”

HelloBurlington.com

Features on Burlington’s people, places, and comebacks

“25 cents won’t yield much these days, but at The Archives, it goes as far as it did 35 years ago.”

Dynapower brand book

Voice and segment messaging for a clean-energy power-conversion company

“It takes more than muscle and mettle to move mountains — it takes perfectly calibrated power.”

Learnexus brand strategy

The research and insight behind the “Learn Together” platform

“It is the AHA moment — the instant when the learner gets it — that functions as the true currency of this economy.”

Commencement speeches

Four speeches for Vermont State University’s president, delivered as written to its first graduating classes, 2024

“Your perseverance through all these changes and challenges has revealed the absolute depth of resolve you possess.”

Mamava

Spec brand film for the lactation-pod company. A voice reassures a tired mother, and in the last moment we learn it belongs to her child.

“I’m proud of you, mama. I love you. You got this.”

Let’s talk.

matthew.rudnicki@gmail.com 914.953.5707 linkedin.com/in/matthewrudnicki Download resume (PDF)

Ferrisburgh, Vermont · Open to remote, hybrid, and travel