Making an Impact through Design

BY AMY VERNER’98 PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELIZAVETA KOZLOVA’15

On a late Friday morning in early November, the Ivy Soho Brasserie in a bustling part of London, England is thrumming with activity. Nearby, young businessmen can be overheard talking about Bitcoin and foreign markets, while well-heeled diners at other tables are digging into indulgent breakfasts or have moved onto lunch with Instagram-worthy burgers and fries. Bernise WONG’13 is nibbling on her second miniature pastry when she points out the graphic wall panels behind glass and the chairs upholstered in a palm leaf fabric. As someone who is constantly questioning and drawing inspiration from the visual world, she notices details that might be unremarkable to the rest of us.

“I walked in here and thought, ‘Look at this interior design; look at what you’re wearing; look at how they’re displaying the jams,’” she says, noting the tiered tea tray beside us. “But someone with a business mind would be like, ‘How fast can they turn the tables?’”

Bernise, who lives in New York City but has family in England, returned to London aft er spending a few weeks recharging her creative batteries around Europe. She says the downtime was long overdue, having accumulated several vacation days while deep in work as head of brand, creative, at Saysh, the community-driven lifestyle brand conceived by and for women.

Founder Allyson Felix is America’s most decorated female track-andfield Olympian, according to Time magazine. She is also known for standing up to Nike, her then sponsor, in seeking protection for female athletes against penalties tied to performance that she experienced personally while pregnant. When Felix decided to launch her own brand of athletic shoes in 2019, Bernise was the fourth hire, after meeting her via Zoom.

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Once on board, she and her creative partner began to conceive how the brand would speak to women motivated by various qualities at once: “an ethical conscience, an aesthetic sensibility and an athletic mindset.” For Felix, who is Black, there was also the broader and ongoing intention of ensuring that the brand would undermine inequality through its design and communications.

Bernise says she was guided by her own values as they corresponded to those established at Saysh. “I hold ‘design for good’ as my principle and goal,” she notes. In more handson terms, her role has never entailed shoe design (credit for this goes to Natalie Candrian). Rather, Bernise has overseen essential creative development, such as the logo, the label, the packaging, the brand campaign, the retail environment in Los Angeles and more.

Put another way, Bernise possesses a wide spectrum of brand-marketing expertise in both digital and physical realms. Asked how she would describe this—to a seatmate on an airplane, for example—she replies, “I’m a creative.” Note the shift from adjective to noun, a reflection of our multidisciplinary times. “I’m a product designer; I’m a graphic designer; I’m a campaign art director—whatever that is.” She continues,“It’s 2022; if you’re creative and you’re interested in being in tune with culture and being relevant, this could come in many different expressions.”

As 2023 gets underway, Bernise will be starting a new position—and it’s a significant leap. For contractual reasons, she is keeping the news under wraps, but her excitement is palpable. She feels grateful for her time at Saysh —“They will forever be part of my family”—but the anticipation is sinking in, and a smile stretches across her face. “It will be a really big job—I cannot wait.”

Perhaps most impressively, with a decade of experience on both the agency and brand sides, Bernise has also maintained a fair degree of professional independence. She has co-founded and built two companies, MMM Studio and Notation, that specialize in different creative offerings—including brand identity, campaigns, packaging, digital products (websites and apps) and metaverse development. Populated with “non-conforming creatives,” each studio takes on freelance projects ranging from more conventional typography work to motion graphics and NFTs, or digital artworks. Among past and current clients are McLaren, the luxury automotive manufacturer, watchmaker Audemars Piguet and a CBD oil start-up.

Her time at Saysh, meanwhile, led to her appreciation for mission-driven brands, where all messaging must be conveyed with authenticity. “You don’t want to talk down to people or talk to people, but “with them,” she explains. “As a designer, I think that is beautiful because it’s a responsibility.”

Some designers have an identifiable style or aesthetic. While Bernise calls her approach

“very playful but extremely well-disciplined,” she insists there is no single signature. “I think creatives or designers are problem solvers. The fi rst rule of thumb is that they should not design for themselves,” she explains. “So it’s not about me, and I will always take a lot of time to understand the brand. What does it stand for? What do they want from the brand? What story do they want to tell?”

When telling her story, Bernise underscores the value of nurturing one’s strengths. Even before attending Branksome for four years as a boarder, she knew she would end up in a creative career. While still attending school in her native Hong Kong, Bernise met with then Deputy Principal Karrie Weinstock, who was interviewing prospective students at a local hotel. As Bernise tells it, “It was 6 a.m., and when

I saw her, I was so nervous. I thought she was going to judge me. But she didn’t. She was so warm-hearted. She asked questions like, what inspired me, what I was passionate about. And then she looked me in the eye, and she said, ‘Let’s try.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure?’”

To this day, she seems in awe that Deputy Principal Weinstock took a chance on her— not only ahead of her arrival at Branksome but also during her time there. “I would not be where I am today without her. She’s my greatest mentor and inspiration of all time.” Thanks in part to such unwavering encouragement, Bernise excelled in an area that was also her passion, receiving the Pippa Harris ’78 Memorial Prize for Visual Arts. Additionally, she was the recipient of the Branksome Hall’45 International language award (she speaks five).

At the School of Visual Arts in New York, Bernise further expanded on her creative interests. “It felt like I was speaking my language,” she says (worth mentioning: she also paints colourful, abstract compositions as a pastime). She received scholarships for her outstanding ability, and her final year portfolio was ranked in the top 10 per cent. She graduated with a BFA in the advertising and interactive design honours program. Bridging these skills, she came to understand how brands and people can communicate stories with impact and purpose. Among the questions she seeks to answer on an ongoing basis: How can you bring different perspective into things? And, how can you speak inclusively?

Th at she is 27 puts her at the centre of a desirable demographic. Yet clients will simultaneously imply that she is too young to arrive at broad insights. “In my industry, there’s not a lot of women; there’s not a lot of Asians; there’s not a lot of young creatives. So you’re constantly being asked, ‘How old are you? Do you have the experience? And do you have the years?’” When she needs reassurance, her various mentors inevitably remind her that experience matters more than age—that she has accomplished an impressive amount in a relatively short time.

During her Installation speech, equally poignant and personable, she noted how her contributions to Saysh (including a Maternal Returns Policy and an NFT project that funded child care for current and aspiring athletes) represent a natural progression of the inner strength she developed at Branksome. “Th is is a story about being fearless,” she told the audience. “Th is is a story about bravery, courage, [resilience]—values that I hold true to my heart, values that I exercise, that Branksome here has taught me.”

With her mother acting as a stable presence in her life, Bernise seems at ease with change elsewhere. “Home is mum, where mum is. And that’s all that matters to me. Location doesn’t matter,” she says. (Her father, who lives in Hong Kong, is unable to travel for health reasons.) Asked where she sees herself in five years, Bernise offers an open-ended answer: “I don’t know, which is exciting. I love uncertainty.”

But she also knows that uncertainty in today’s world has contributed to her peers feeling a particular and ongoing unease. In this way, taking time to travel allows her to discover new sources of inspiration, while also putting life into perspective. “Having a worldview is so important. Once you have that worldview, you can speak inclusively.” Her success can also be attributed to direct experience and taking care of herself. “I have been away from home since I was really young. I love being shocked by culture,” Bernise says, suggesting that even happiness involves a certain amount of work. “I have put a lot of effort into committing to being happy.” R

Mary Pat JONES Armstrong’63 has suffered challenge and heartbreak, yet it has inspired a life of exceptional community service