Our Clients
Our Services
brand development
brand development
- Brand Strategy
- Naming
- Brand Identity
- Messaging
- Voice & Tone
- Logo Design
- Brand Guidelines
packaging & retail
packaging & retail
- Creative Strategy
- Packaging Design
- Visual Merchandising
- Retail Readiness
- Ecommerce Shipping Programs
omni-channel content
omni-channel content
- Marketing Strategy & Execution
- Content Strategy & Planning
- Art Direction & Production
- Brand-led Advertising Campaigns
- Social Media Content
- SMS & Email Marketing
our leadership
Katie
Klencheski
Katie's experience sits at the intersection of brand strategy and creativity, where she has influenced meaningful change for brands across beauty, wellness and CPG, in order to develop better and healthier products and experiences—and greater wellbeing for all.
With a career spanning brand development and advertising for luxury brands like Cartier and health giants like Pfizer to championing climate causes with the Climate Reality Project and the Ecohealth Alliance, she started SMAKK in 2011 in order to uplift brands that embrace their responsibility to do things the right way for people and planet.
At SMAKK, she’s built a team that uses their expertise as a force for good. They work closely with their clients to craft cohesive, meaningful brands that disrupt categories, differentiate products, and build consumer loyalty. Their work leverages beautiful creative and technology to create holistic brand experiences that drive multi-channel growth.
A noted industry expert, Katie has contributed columns for Fast Company, Inc, Ad Age and more on a range of subjects – from beauty trend forecasting and brand strategy to the need for brands to go beyond sustainability to deliver real impact. She is a mentor in retail accelerator programs like Credo for Change and Target's Forward Founders - helping to shape the future of brands.
Her work and philosophy reflect a deep commitment to changing consumer behavior for good and she continues to be a driving force in forwarding responsible design and branding.
Anna
Kavaliunas
From a deep understanding of the current cultural landscape, to audience insights and competitive research, Anna looks beyond table stakes to provide clients with thoughtful, surprising and inspiring insights that help them win crowded categories and do so with a greater sense of purpose.
With a career spanning network television, branded entertainment and digital marketing, Anna has worked at large media companies including NBCUniversal and WBTV, and with global clients like L’Oreal, American Express, Samsung, Microsoft, and Maybelline. She uses her expertise to help brands connect with a new modern consumer—one that thrives on choice, craves authenticity and demands purpose from their brands. This not only means delivering brand platforms and campaigns that drive engagement, but messaging that inspires and promotes a vision for a better world.
Her work and powerful approach has led to her being featured in publications including Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, and Inc.com. As a (proud) medical school dropout, health enthusiast, and author of Matcha: A Lifestyle Guide, Anna believes that the future will be defined by brands’ commitment to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their customers. She also draws inspiration from icons of the entertainment industry; those that prove that women can be accomplished, funny, bold and kind -- a model of leadership for tomorrow’s female founded, disruptive brands.
Nick
Boyajian
Nick comes from an extensive background building technology and support teams for some of the most innovative global companies, including Apple, Zocdoc, Google, and Flatiron Health.
At SMAKK, Nick helps unlock development superpowers for companies and brands. Using his experience, knowledge, and intuitive understanding of platforms and systems to develop digital solutions that are both functional and innovative. They are instrumental in building out ecommerce experiences for clients that deliver a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience, optimize performance, and leverage emerging technologies for both conversion and growth.
Nick is also the co-founder and COO of Wild Flower, a sexual wellness company, and is the lead technologist behind the brand’s innovative product development, design, and production. Nick’s expertise in software and hardware development, as well as design and illustration, contributed to innovative product launches such as the Enby™, the first non-gendered vibrator.
Nick
Boyajian
Nick comes from an extensive background building technology and support teams for some of the most innovative global companies, including Apple, Zocdoc, Google, and Flatiron Health.
At SMAKK, Nick helps unlock development superpowers for companies and brands. Using his experience, knowledge, and intuitive understanding of platforms and systems to develop digital solutions that are both functional and innovative. They are instrumental in building out ecommerce experiences for clients that deliver a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience, optimize performance, and leverage emerging technologies for both conversion and growth.
Nick is also the co-founder and COO of Wild Flower, a sexual wellness company, and is the lead technologist behind the brand’s innovative product development, design, and production. Nick’s expertise in software and hardware development, as well as design and illustration, contributed to innovative product launches such as the Enby™, the first non-gendered vibrator.
Anna
Kavaliunas
From a deep understanding of the current cultural landscape, to audience insights and competitive research, Anna looks beyond table stakes to provide clients with thoughtful, surprising and inspiring insights that help them win crowded categories and do so with a greater sense of purpose.
With a career spanning network television, branded entertainment and digital marketing, Anna has worked at large media companies including NBCUniversal and WBTV, and with global clients like L’Oreal, American Express, Samsung, Microsoft, and Maybelline. She uses her expertise to help brands connect with a new modern consumer—one that thrives on choice, craves authenticity and demands purpose from their brands. This not only means delivering brand platforms and campaigns that drive engagement, but messaging that inspires and promotes a vision for a better world.
Her work and powerful approach has led to her being featured in publications including Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, and Inc.com. As a (proud) medical school dropout, health enthusiast, and author of Matcha: A Lifestyle Guide, Anna believes that the future will be defined by brands’ commitment to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their customers. She also draws inspiration from icons of the entertainment industry; those that prove that women can be accomplished, funny, bold and kind -- a model of leadership for tomorrow’s female founded, disruptive brands.
Katie
Klencheski
Katie's experience sits at the intersection of brand strategy and creativity, where she has influenced meaningful change for brands across beauty, wellness and CPG, in order to develop better and healthier products and experiences—and greater wellbeing for all.
With a career spanning brand development and advertising for luxury brands like Cartier and health giants like Pfizer to championing climate causes with the Climate Reality Project and the Ecohealth Alliance, she started SMAKK in 2011 in order to uplift brands that embrace their responsibility to do things the right way for people and planet.
At SMAKK, she’s built a team that uses their expertise as a force for good. They work closely with their clients to craft cohesive, meaningful brands that disrupt categories, differentiate products, and build consumer loyalty. Their work leverages beautiful creative and technology to create holistic brand experiences that drive multi-channel growth.
A noted industry expert, Katie has contributed columns for Fast Company, Inc, Ad Age and more on a range of subjects – from beauty trend forecasting and brand strategy to the need for brands to go beyond sustainability to deliver real impact. She is a mentor in retail accelerator programs like Credo for Change and Target's Forward Founders - helping to shape the future of brands.
Her work and philosophy reflect a deep commitment to changing consumer behavior for good and she continues to be a driving force in forwarding responsible design and branding.
Download our 2024 trends report.
whether big or small, launching or growing — we meet brands where they are, in order to help them get where they need to go
We're building
brands that matter.
Any questions?
When SMAKK started up in 2011 we were originally called SM & KK Studios …But pretty soon all our clients were calling us “SMAKK” and it stuck. Since then we’ve learned that the word “smak” means cool things in other languages, like “yummy” or “to have good taste” in Polish.
It all depends on the specifics of the deliverables, size of the project and overall complexity but as a baseline you can plan on typical minimums of:
Branding: 12 Weeks
Websites: 12 Weeks
Marketing Campaigns: 6 Weeks
Packaging: 6 Weeks
When we do all of the above together to launch a new brand (or rebrand an existing one) we will overlap parts of the processes together – that’s typically a 6 month timeline from start to launch.
“Can you go faster?”
We knew you were going to ask! Yes, in some cases, we can. Get in touch and we can build a project plan with your deadlines in mind.
At SMAKK, we're small and that's good news for you – there's no 'B team' here.
All project teams are led by a dedicated Project Manager who will guide you through the process. Based on your project type we’ll pull together the right combination of our inhouse talent that may include strategists, copywriters, creatives, UX, and/or web developers. Across the project, you’ll meet with your whole team weekly so we can gather information, share insights, present our work and get feedback directly from you.
New York City, baby!
Most initial engagements start as projects. From there some engagements will move into a retainer for ongoing work. For instance, following the launch of a website we will often have monthly or hourly based retainers for ongoing testing, enhancements, and maintenance. We also work with clients on ongoing marketing in retainer engagements.
If you’re starting a new CPG brand you’ll want to start talking with us about 7-8 months out from the day you’ll be ready to start selling products. Typical end-to-end branding projects take a minimum of 6 months to complete on our side. Get started with us here.
We hear this a lot. One of the project types we’ve designed is a holistic approach to testing what messaging, content, marketing tactics, product visuals, and D2C experiences will move the needle and provide the most ROI for brands with their consumers. These “test and learn” engagements are tailored to work with existing brands that aren’t sure what tactics to tackle first. We’d love to hear more about your brand and walk you through how these projects work. Get started here.
We started the agency with a “brand strategy first, tactics second” ethos. Brands have to be seamless and recognizable across every touchpoint to build consumer equity so we built a team that can execute like nobody’s business. Our team represents the best specialized talent working across all of the places where CPG brands have to live: from messaging and visual identity, to packaging, ecommerce design, development, and omni-channel campaigns – always with holistic, brand-centric strategy leading the charge. Get in touch, we’d love to introduce you.
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Beauty And Retail Insiders Offer The Body Shop’s New Owner Suggestions For How To Revive The Storied Chain
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How Katie Klencheski of SMAKK, Owns It
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Little Spoon's Innovative Packaging Design By SMAKK Helps Transition The Brand From Baby To Big-Kid
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A day in the life: a senior designer at SMAKK
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The Changing Landscape of Sexual Wellness Brands
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Little Spoon redesigned Lunchables for a new generation of kids (and their picky parents)
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Smakk designs "functional and fun" identity for Little Spoon's kids' range
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Little Spoon collaborates with iconic '90's stars for kids' food launch
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Does Vikre Distillery Go Full-On Quirk? You Betcha'
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SMAKK crafts quirky branding for Vikre, an organic Minnesota distillery
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Dogs are People Too in Smakk's Designs for Skincare Brand Floof
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Wellness Reimagined: Katie Klencheski of SMAKK on 5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry
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Dogs Are People Too: SMAKK’s Packaging Design For FLOOF
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This skincare brand for pets looks to human wellness trends
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New Brand Day+West Resets Skincare For Sensitive Skin With Eco-Conscious And Elegant Products
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SMAKK x Day+West Press Release
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Let’s Talk About Brand Sustainability feat. SMAKK’s Katie Klencheski
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Day+West Feature
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SMAKK's new identity for Tabu makes sexual wellness for women over 50 sophisticatedly sexy
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Tabu Empowers Women Over 50 To Reclaim Their Sex Lives (and They Get Some Elegant Packaging To Boot)
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“7 female founders share their tips for success in the creative industry” feat. SMAKK’s Katie Klencheski