For anyone who has ever experienced the stress of renovating their home, here’s a trigger warning. This article is about the rebranding of renovation planning platform Hey, Barb. Continuing reading will most likely rekindle some type of trauma.
The contractor who didn’t show up. The budget quietly doubled. Have 17 browser tabs open at any time. That folder with the invoices. More commonly, you’ll get the frustrating feeling that you don’t actually know what you’re doing, and that no one is here to help.
Hey, Barb is an app designed to help avoid situations like this. It’s aimed at homeowners managing their own projects, and it exists to bring structure to what is an overwhelming, unsupportive process for most.
So when the team at Hey, Barb came to Uther Studio, a new creative agency based in Stockport, they needed a brand that could take all that anxiety and turn it into manageable, approachable and even (whisper it) potentially enjoyable.
This is certainly an interesting brief for any studio. For Liz McCracken, director of Uther Studio, this is the first public-facing project her agency has delivered. So there’s no pressure there.
they didn’t do anything
At this point, it’s worth considering what “Hey, Barb” might look like. Transformation, as a visual category, tends toward one of two modes. It’s a wistful ending (the beautiful interior photography, the muted color palette, the aesthetic of a Scandinavian kitchen where no one is actually cooking in it). Then there’s the functional end: the world of hardware store signage, clipart toolboxes, and a typeface that communicates urgency without needing anything else.
However, none of this feels right. Hey, Barb isn’t selling dream kitchens, nor is he a tile supplier. This is something more tangible and useful: a platform that stays by your side when you hit a rough patch, helping you keep track of contracts, invoices, timelines, and decisions when everything else seems to be spiraling out of control.
This approach, then, is inherently humane. “Hey, Barb needs to be a calm, capable presence during this often overwhelming process,” Liz said. “We focused on building a brand that felt clear, human and supportive, while still having the confidence to stand out in the market.”
The phrase “a calm, capable presence” comes into play here. It describes not a visual style but a personality. As any brand designer knows, personality is harder to achieve than style.
what they built
The resulting image is one of warmth without being weak, confident without being corporate, and (crucially) fun without trying too hard.
The name itself sets the tone: informal, friendly, like you’d text someone who’s already had a loft conversion done and knows what questions to ask. Visual language tends toward this register. Bold, heavy typography takes up space effortlessly.
The complementary hues are both vintage and modern. Dusky pinks, deep maroons, sky blues and burnt oranges are reminiscent of 1970s prints without feeling too nostalgic. We also see eye-catching, starburst callouts and pill-shaped labels that carry functional information without losing personality.
The image of a fat tabby cat perhaps best embodies the brand’s ethos, sprawled out on a wall-sized mural, imbued with the kind of effortless confidence that “Hey Barb” itself attempts to convey. It’s a small detail, but it reveals something important about creative thinking.
This is not a brand that takes itself entirely seriously. It knows that renovations are stressful, messy, and sometimes ridiculous, and it’s willing to admit it.
Debut question
For the designer, there was something particularly interesting about the context of this project. It is the first public work by Studio Uther: a work that has defined the institution’s identity from day one. The temptation must be to overextend, to create something so obviously “smart” that the portfolio declares itself.
Thankfully, Liz, who has over 15 years of experience in brand identity across multiple sectors, seems to have resisted this temptation. The production of “Hey, Barb” is confident but not ostentatious. It solves real problems for real audiences in a really clear way. The craftsmanship is visible in the decisions made, not in the embellishments placed on top of them.
This all goes to show that sometimes the best way to announce a new agency is to do the work and let the work speak for itself.
