Most branding agencies hand a client three routes and ask them to pick. Kesewi brings one, and spends about a month earning the right to.
Ask a branding agency for a new identity and you will usually get three of them. Three logo routes, three colour directions, three decks laid side by side, and a meeting that turns into a vote. The format protects the agency more than the client. If route one misses, there are two more in the folder.
Kesewi, a branding studio based in Seattle, brings one. The team spends around thirty days on research, strategy and design exploration, then presents a single recommended direction in a thirty-minute meeting. Founder Tirkish Gurban works through that exploration with Creative Director Osman Amangeldi and the design team, and only the strongest route reaches the client.
The choice moves the risk onto the studio. An agency showing three options can afford to be wrong about two of them. An agency showing one has to understand the business before it opens a design file.
What the thirty days buy
The work starts with a Brand Identity Strategy Form. Kesewi uses it to capture goals, audience, competitors, points of difference, tone of voice, visual preferences and the constraints a client cannot move. Those answers become a brief, and the brief produces three to six strategy keywords that every later decision is measured against. The keywords are ordinary words: trustworthy, modern, human, premium. Agree them first and the argument about the logo gets much shorter.
Then the team sketches wide. Symbols, wordmarks, type systems, colour studies, pattern families. Almost none of it reaches the presentation, which is the point of doing it.
“A clear recommendation requires deep preparation. Understand the business, agree on the strategy, and explain the reasoning behind every design decision.”
That is Tirkish describing what the client never sees. The thirty minutes are the visible end of about thirty days of work.
The thirty minutes
Kesewi structures the presentation as chapters rather than slides. It opens with the workflow and the strategy keywords, moves to mood references so the room can see the words before it sees the mark, then reveals the brandmark and the geometry and initials hidden inside it. The wordmark follows, with the spacing tested at billboard size and at favicon size. Typography arrives as a system of roles rather than a font choice. The palette arrives with contrast ratios attached.
Then the mockups, and this is where the method does its real work. Kesewi starts with the obvious surfaces, app screens, packaging, signage, decks, and then swaps in the client’s own photographs and copy. A deck of generic screens asks a client to imagine. A deck carrying their own product shots does not.
The exploration stays behind the scenes. Kesewi presents only the final recommended concept, guiding the client through its strategy, design decisions, and real-world applications. Every part of the presentation builds understanding of that single direction.
What it looks like on the page
Upper Kirby Kitchen and Bath, a Houston design and remodelling company, shows the output. Kesewi built a refined lettermark on geometric construction, paired Usuzi with Instrument Sans and opened the spacing to keep the tone warm, then led the palette with Innovate Indigo and Cosmic Navy. Silver Mist and Crystal Clarity hold the balance. A pattern system carries the rhythm across print and screen. A studio that names its colours is a studio that expects to defend them.
The portfolio runs across startups, law firms, real estate, education, software and non-profits: ATIK Law, ADAS Textile, Soft Innovas, the American Turkic Business Council, Ingigante, Nielsen Vaughan, BND Consulting, Kafilms, ElastixAI and MRCargo. The video side lists work for New York Life, Stronghold and DOVE Schools. Clients sit in New York, California, Houston, Oklahoma and Seattle.
“I’ve collaborated with many branding teams, but this one stands out,” says Vepa, chief executive of Soft Innovas.
Kesewi puts approval of that single recommended concept at 98 percent. The number is worth less than the reason behind it: by the time the concept appears on screen, the client has already agreed to the strategy it answers.
Simple is the expensive part
Tirkish is direct about where the difficulty sits. “The challenge is bringing different ideas and expectations into one clear brand direction,” he says. Kesewi handles it before design starts, through the form, the discussion and an agreed strategy, so the presentation settles a decision rather than starting one.
The studio has carried the Kesewi name since 2021, and the team behind it brings fifteen years of design experience. Tirkish wants to grow it as a creative partner for businesses in Seattle, Kirkland, Redmond, Snohomish, Bothell, Bellevue and beyond, across brand identity, web and app design, and brand story video. Kesewi projects typically range from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on scope. The motto stays two words.
“Our philosophy is Think Simple, and achieving that simplicity takes work. The simplicity clients see comes from the intensive work behind it.”
Kesewi (kesewi.com) is a branding, web and video studio based in Seattle, working with clients across the United States.
