Since 2000, Toni (left) and Stephanie (right) have been developing all kinds of marketing communications, from company names, taglines and logos, to print and web ad campaigns, to trade show posters and giveaways. Toni writes and Stephanie designs. And sometimes, Stephanie writes and Toni designs. We’re a fluid team that is always thinking of the smartest way to get a client noticed. While we find humor often gets a lot of attention, we always make sure it’s driven by a compelling core message and clear benefits. Our job is to search for the compelling emotional truth that will make your company stand out in the clutter, to answer the question, “Why you?” Work with us and this is what you’ll get: A smart creative strategy, exceptional design and writing, original thinking and you won’t have to go into your kid’s college fund to afford us.

TONI LANSBURY

I am a creative director, copywriter, strategist and blogger, attention getter and potato chip aficionado, but don’t get me started on that. I have had a long career working in advertising, at agencies, in-house and actually in my own house (best commute ever). I’ve worked in all the New England States, plus New York, but for some reason never Maine. (Hey, Maine, what gives?) I have a journalism degree from Boston University and enough experience to challenge the status quo, create a distinctive brand voice, be irreverent but polite, listen carefully to clients, meet deadlines, and do whatever else it takes to make a brand stand up and shout. I’ve worked on everything from Dunkin’ Donuts to Massport, Bertucci’s to Folger’s Coffee. I have been working with Stephanie at Uturn Design for 18 years. At this point, we can…. Stephanie: finish each other’s sentences. I also write a blog on gratitude (You will notice I have a penchant for the F-word, but you’d never find that in my professional work, I swear. I mean, I won’t swear). In other news, I do yoga, pilates, am the mom to two kids, think I may have given birth to my dog, and love potato chips. But as I said, don’t get me started on the potato chips. Seriously, don’t.

STEPHANIE ZELMAN

After receiving a degree in philosophy from McGill University in 1990, I thought philosophically about what to do. There was no logical answer. Passionate about graphic design and speaking absolutely no Japanese, I headed to Tokyo, where I managed to find a cool job as a designer at a printing company called Koyosha. (Ah, to be young and fearless!) Two years later, with rice cooker in hand, I moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design, and freelanced at some fun places like Vanity Fair. After receiving a BFA, I dove into advertising at the Ogilvy and Mather Montreal office. Yes, now in French. But don’t ask me to speak French or Japanese, because it’s been a while, okay? While working as an Art Director, 1998 I earned a MA in Communications from McGill and then began teaching at The Art Institute of Boston and Mass Art while building my design practice in Boston. (Toni taught advertising with me and we were like a couple of proud parents watching our best students get awards and fancy job offers.) In 2006, I co-founded Forgirlsake, a non-profit that educates vulnerable girls in underdeveloped countries. On a different but related topic, I love tennis. Maybe not as much as Toni loves potato chips, but enough to organize a Forgirlsake women’s doubles fundraiser every year which you can check out at www.forgirlsake.org/tennis. Wanna know more? Click here.

AND THE REST OF OUR TEAM

We do the strategizing, the concepts, the writing and the designing, and when you want to add public relations, media buying, micro-targeted online marketing, or a killer social media campaign into the communications, we work with our trusted and experienced partners who know their stuff inside out. Like a pu pu platter with or without the egg rolls, when you work with us as your “in-house” creatives, you’re not paying for additional salaries, overhead and markups, but just for the expertise you need, when you need it.

And speaking of our team, in 2021 we launched a cause marketing initiative called The Doing Good Project with some of our favorite women-owned businesses. If you are interested in building brand loyalty through philanthropy, check out www.thedoinggoodproject.com