Meet Allison Henry Aver, Creative Director & Founder, Letter A
"I believe a Brand is a World — it’s rich, intimate, dimensional, immersive, and emotional."
I love being in conversation with other awesome female founders. There’s so much to learn from their stories. Today, I’m introducing the first in a series of interviews with women business owners who are identifying problems, seizing opportunities, and changing the way things are done in their industries. I hope you love them as much as I do.
Allison Henry Aver is the founder and creative director of Letter A, a brand-building firm based in Portland, Oregon.
Allison has a penchant for building brands full of charm, style, and charisma and taking them from static to spirited. Prior to Letter A, she was a Creative Director with agency, in-house, and fractional consulting experience. Her expertise in branding grew from leading in-house creative marketing teams at Vogue, kate spade new york, Ann Taylor, Bumble and bumble, and Hanna Andersson. She was also the founding Director of Brand Creative for the cult brand, Kate Spade Saturday.
1. How and why did you decide to launch Letter A? How long did the process take?
For nearly two decades, I worked as a creative in the branding space both on the agency side and in‑house at brands like Bumble & Bumble and Kate Spade. When you’re in-house you’re bringing the brand to life across retail, social, email, campaigns, and IRL day in and day out. You learn fast quickly that to keep marketing fresh and customers engaged, you need to talk about more than just products—you need compelling stories. You need to be interesting.
When I moved to Portland, Oregon I was on an extended maternity leave and not officially “working” but Founders started finding me to discuss their branding problems. The most common issue I heard was their lack of having the ability or clarity to tell a story beyond what they sold. Often they had run out of things to talk about. Nothing was singing.
That’s when Letter A was born. I knew how to solve these Founders’ pain points. What they actually wanted, but didn’t know what to ask for. They wanted a living, breathing BRAND with a curated point of view, stories to tell and a way in to build community. Agencies were delivering “branding packages” and both parties were assuming a logo and color palette and a website was the solution. However, visual identity is just a piece of the brand pie. Drawing on my in‑house experience, I knew I could help lifestyle brands show up with more feeling, more foundation. Letter A would deliver a holistic, fully-formed Brand — grounded in values, driven by stories, full of personality and purpose.
Starting Letter A was a slow burn over several years. I’d been consulting under my own name, picking up branding and creative projects along the way, but I knew that to win bigger briefs I needed to present myself as a larger entity.
And what really got me in focus was working with a coach who helped me talk through pathways, talk through full-time, talk through agency, talk through freelance. And start to talk to myself intuitively, asking myself what feels right? What feels best? Where's my zone of genius? Where do I always have the most to give?
So over those years, the idea of Letter A simmered: I tested offerings, refined my process, and built out a network of collaborators. I also kind of knew that if I was to keep working and taking on these projects, I needed to rebrand myself.
When I started, I was just working under my name, under my own portfolio work. And I realized that in order to get bigger clients I needed to present myself as an entity, I needed to look bigger, even though it was just me at the time and demonstrate the point of view that I was ready to take on larger clients, and I had the support behind me.
2. How did you make the shift from freelancer to agency owner?
I think that's such a common challenge – moving from freelancer to being an agency owner or a business owner or founder.
Originally clients thought of me as a freelance graphic designer. So I knew I had to present the front as like an agency front, even though the back of the house was still the same people, but that that shift really helped – not using my name as my lead and changing the name and changing the entire presentation of my work to present myself as, “We are an agency, we're ready to take on large work, and I have the capability to bring on other people if need be.”
I was told you have to think of the company as something that lives separately, outside of you and who you are. This is a company you are promoting. This is a company that has a point of view. That kind of helped shift the idea of the business for me because I was like, oh, this is an entity that people are aligning with. I am a part of it, but it's no longer like me, and the company is something bigger than that. And that helped me learn how to present it better. And even though it’s easy to diminish this shift, it has a real impact.
You realize this is a business that has needs. It has to make money. It has to be profitable. It has to have structure. It has to have an organization. We have to respect the business.
And even this year, I just changed over to an S-Corp and another level up of the idea that this is a true business that's making money and operating the world. Whereas for a long time, it felt like a side hustle or a hobby.
By going from your name to a business name you’re putting something out in the world. You're staking a claim and you’re standing for something. And I think it's important to treat it that way because literally the minute I put up a website, I think people felt like, oh, there's a business.
It gets real, real fast.
3. What is your definition of branding?
I think of two quotes a lot when I think about brand, because I think there's a way to think of brand as a very practical way for your business, and I also think there's a way to think of brand as a very magical way that adds a lot of intangible value to your product.
“A well executed brand acts as a multiplier across all metrics” ~ Iona Carter
“I Dwell in Possibility” ~ Emily Dickinson
I believe a Brand is a World — it’s rich, intimate, dimensional, immersive, and emotional. Every World has its own logic, language, likes and dislikes and idiosyncrasies. It should express not just what you sell, but what you stand for.
Branding is your logo, your packaging, your website is the manifestation and physical execution of that thinking.
Brand is an organizing principle to make sense of the world you inhabit.
Most people come to me with the stated need – I need a logo, a website and packaging. This is going to solve all my problems. And, I've done this now for five years, and I've done so many talks, so many webinars, so many conferences, and talked to so many people.
What I started to learn was, yes, that is the literal request of what you are asking me to do. But what is the deeper need? Why is this brand not singing? Why is there misalignment among channels? Why is this brand not feeling like it should be loved? And what is that value I am solving for that person at the end of the day?
I realized, yes, I could update a logo or I could update packaging. But you have to get further and go deeper, deeper down to find what this brand truly needs. And then all those things can ladder up to that bigger need. That's how I started to play with that articulation of that need.
4. What's your unique take on branding? Where do you see businesses miss opportunities to stand out via their brand and branding?
I encourage brands to take risks and experiment with their marketing and social. To educate their consumer on culture, art, people and provide value beyond what you sell. These will never be the “top likes” so they are hard for data people to justify but they give you dimension. They make you interesting.
Value system, what you like = audience rapport even if it doesn’t immediately translate into sales.
There are opportunities to lead culture but, too many times internal leadership is making decisions based on what OTHER brands are doing. Instead of taking the time to invest in creative ideation, they copy what they’ve seen.
5. Who's your sweet spot client? When and why do they come to you?
I would say generally the sweet spot are clients in the lifestyle, fashion, and beauty space, usually with a female audience. Basically, I say if I can drink their Kool-Aid, if I can be a customer, we're a great match. So that's the world we're attracting.
But there's usually like two types of clients who come to me that I've noticed over the last five years:
Those who are looking for creative partnership and strategic thinking from the get-go (pre-launch). They know they have a big idea, understand that Brand is an all company need, and have seen multiplying power having well-defined brand has on everything from naming the product or business, production assortment, collaborations, identity, hiring, you name it. Every decision is made through the lens of brand.
Other clients come to us a few years in when they realize their brand can’t hold the weight of their ambitions. Growth has a way of amplifying the gaps in a business. These come to us to build or rebuild a Brand framework and foundation and clean up half-baked ideas so they can scale their vision with clarity and alignment.
6. What challenges have you faced as a female agency owner?
I feel pressure to write smart, thoughtful and witty answers to interview questions while at my son’s piano lessons. Lol. There’s pressure to feel like I’m always on.
I also feel pressure to tone down my “soft” skills — my sense of humor, my candor, my optimism, use of exclamation marks for fear of not being perceived as “cool” or “like a leader”.
And I sometimes think, well, if I was more serious or didn't laugh as much or didn't smile or was more of a hard worker, I would be better, bigger. People would trust me. And I ask myself, how do I become more influential? How do I work harder to grow as a leader and try to figure out what that is? What is that nice balance that doesn't lose who I am, and also helps me grow and mature? Sometimes, I think oh, maybe these qualities aren't helping me, but maybe they are.
7. At 5 years in, what do you think makes an agency, or any service-based business, successful?
When I started, I measured success by profit, awareness, and constant busy-ness. What else was there!? Initially, I considered myself “unsuccessful” comparing my income to my corporate salary and a slow month would have me calling up recruiters.
Over time, that definition evolved and there are different levels of success. The best outcome — portfolio-worthy work that reflects our spirit and aesthetic and attracts more of the right clients — is my main goal.
Success also means garnering a great reputation not just for the outcome of the work but ease the relationship. Do people want to work with you again? Would they recommend you? I used to constantly fight for the integrity of work, losing momentum when a project didn’t go my way and letting my feelings be known.
I learned that so many client decisions were out of my control. I had to find a way through where a long-lasting, positive relationship with the client was more important than winning the “perfect” work game. That and getting to a place in the business where we don’t need to take on a client who’s not aligned just for the money.
8. What do you wish you knew when you were starting Letter A that you know today? What tips do you have for someone starting their own agency?
It’s a hustle. I naively thought “build it and they will come.” Reminding people I’m not dead via marketing and keeping in touch (aka outreach and networking) and that Letter A is making great work is a constant ask of Letter A.
You have to really have the energy and the spirit to do that. But I did not realize how much of that, my energy, would be taken up by the outreach. And it’s an important part of business building.
It’s a rollercoaster. There is never a “typical day at the office.” There are days when it’s exactly what I dreamed it would be. There are days when I’m talking to a lawyer about how to get a client to pay me wondering “how did I get here?” The reality is “the buck stops here.”
You will not and cannot know everything at the beginning. There is so much learning just by going through the motions of running the business and living through it. You have to learn about writing contracts, writing proposals, hiring people, figuring out a budget, explaining your work to understand even how to hone your skills. Part of the “fun” of running Letter A is figuring it out as you go.
It’s an evolution. I am always honing and refining my processes, pricing, how I speak about Letter A and present and sell our work. How I presented the agency on Day One is completely different than how Letter A shows up now. I must change our LinkedIn profile copy three times a year. I'm always refining the “About Us” statement. So I'm very open about how I'm constantly tweaking and figuring out what our best way in is.
Find communities and peers and coaches. Especially in this remote era, finding other like-minded people doing what you’re doing will help you not feel so alone. I am in several networking organizations (different communities for different needs), have used both business and career coaches and hired experts to help me. This is all part of the investment in you and your agency.
Growth is slower than I expected. It’s steady, but slow. And by that I mean, I was working with smaller clients when I started, and I'm attracting bigger clients now. So my question now is how do I position myself to bring on the $100K, 150K clients?
Good work begets work. We can only keep moving forward by doing the work that is in front of us and finding our way through and hoping that that work shows up.
It's just interesting. Running a business has done so much more for me than I thought it was supposed to do. It's done more for me than just financial professional gain. There's a lot of personal growth that happens.
Learn more about Allison and Letter A in these online spaces:
And in case you’re wondering about the story behind the name…
Letter A comes from… Sesame Street, as in, “This episode has been brought to you by the Letter A.” Also “A” is for “Allison” and “the A Team,” not to mention Type A and A to Z.
#ICYMI
