Fifteen years of finding what's underneath.
I'm Clay Schmidt. Fifteen years of asking the same question: what's actually true about this organization, and why isn't the brand saying it?
For fifteen years I've helped organizations find the clear thing underneath — the honest, specific version of what they stand for — and build a brand presence that finally reflects it.
I'm drawn to work with purpose behind it. Businesses rooted in a place. Organizations that exist because something genuinely needed to exist. Brands that have more depth than their current presence suggests.
CLARITY RUNS DEEP.
The work starts below the surface.
An organization does extraordinary work and somehow the brand sitting on top of it doesn't let that truth surface. The logo doesn't hold the weight. The website says the right words in the wrong order. Something is murky where it should run clear.
The work starts below the surface — in discovery, in listening, in asking questions most designers don't think to ask. What does this organization actually stand for, in a sentence that's true and not just aspirational? Who needs to trust you immediately, and what do they need to feel when they land on your site? What's the specific, irreducible thing that makes this business, this mission, this idea worth believing in?
When that foundation is solid, everything that follows — identity, web design, messaging, creative direction — emerges with the kind of clarity that feels inevitable. Like it was always there. It usually was.
Like it was always there. It usually was.
Fifteen years of finding what's underneath.
My work spans brand strategy, identity design, and web design — built around organizations doing meaningful work in the world. Conservation nonprofits.
Environmental advocacy groups. Community-rooted businesses. Farms and food producers. Organizations where the mission is real and the brand hasn't kept pace.
I came up through food justice and mutual aid work in Gainesville before I came up through design. That background isn't incidental — it's why I understand the communication challenges of mission-driven organizations from the inside, and why the organizations I work best with tend to feel it immediately.
I hold a Google UX Design certificate and a BA in Sociology — an apt combination for someone who spends most of their time thinking about how people relate to organizations and why they choose to trust them.
I'm rooted in North Florida, where the water runs clear over limestone and the landscape rewards attention. That's not incidental to the work either.
