A month ago, Orely Studio, a world-class design agency based out of Sukabumi, reached out to us with a simple request: better content on their homepage.

They already had a sleek new design for it and just needed the right words to match.

For some context, we’ve collaborated with other agencies before, but mostly behind the scenes, creating content for their clients. This time was different. We weren’t helping their clients. We were helping them grow their client base through their website.

So we said yes, of course.

And at Warung Copy, we don’t just focus on content. We think about the brand too. It isn’t just copy or keywords that create a high-converting website — the brand has to stick. Learn more about what we offer right here.

Brand first, then content

Making sure we weren’t just focused on content, we first wanted to learn more about their brand.  The thing was, the team couldn’t quite articulate it. We’ll tell you why.

Orely had shipped 200+ projects across 24 countries worldwide, received 5-star ratings on Clutch, and was named one of "Dribbble’s Top 40 Agencies in the World". Oh, and did we mention they were also ranked "Top Rated with 100% Job Success" on Upwork? Well, now you get it, they had it all. A team of highly skilled executors.

But the brand, apparently, was something they barely thought about.

So we advised them to take steps back and focus on what was more fundamental than execution: brand identity.

Good content starts with a clear sense of identity. Simply, who is Orely to their clients? What do they stand for? Most importantly, why should businesses these days choose them over other design agencies? 

We did what any other content strategy-obsessed humans would do to get to the heart of the brand: we played detective.

Going on detective mode 🕵🏻‍♂️

We looked deep and wide into Orely Studio to understand (1) where they came from and (2) what they aim for, including their competitors. We asked the two people (founder and PIC for marketing) who would know the answers to help us dig out what truly makes Orely, well… Orelious.

Some of our questions were tough, even to us if we were in their position. Imagine you need to provide information so clearly it would still be relevant 5 years from now. And there was no room for half-baked answers.

It was important for us to either push back or break our question into simpler ones so we could get a more future-proof answer. Here’s an example:

• We asked: What should people feel when they visit your site?

• Orely said: We want them to feel that, “this is what I’m looking for”.

We told them that, that wasn’t a feeling yet. So we asked again.

• We asked: “What specifically triggers that?”

And finally, a more future-proof answer came out:

• Orely said: We need to show that we’re the leading end-to-end design partner in Indonesia. We deliver world-class solutions, we find the balance between beauty and usability (and we have proof of that). And we deliver our work efficiently. We work globally, and to this day a lot of our clients love working with us because we’re highly affordable compared to other US and EU-based design agencies. And we keep our clients in the loop every single day. This is how we’ve shown them that we’re reliable and trustworthy.

Whoa, did we just unlock a major insight? 

Creating a detective board

Lots and lots of notes were taken, pieced together, patterned, and synthesized. 

By the way, if you’ve seen a detective movie where they’d have a wall pinned with photos that link to each other, our whiteboard started looking like that. Literally like a detective board minus the crime scene, of course.

Only after 3 days – yes, that was all the time we had – of threading notes, we finally handed-off their brand identity guide.

This guide is their DNA that will keep them grounded in their historical roots, passion, aspiration, and ambition for the future. 

For partnership reasons, we’ll not disclose the actual content, but it generally contains the following elements:

1. The backstory of how everything started

2. Vision, missions, and values

3. What makes Orely Studio recognizable

4. Qualities that set the studio apart

5. Voice and tone

6. Taglines

With the brand identity defined and documented, our next step was just as intense. It wasn’t homepage writing just yet. We scheduled another meeting with the same people to talk about the content style guide.

The soul of content

The purpose of creating a content style guide was to discover how to communicate the Orely brand through their website. This guide has to match their brand identity to make sure every word feels Orelious. 

Think of it this way: if Orely Studio were a person, the brand identity sets the personality and beliefs, whereas the content style guide defines how they speak and the words they choose that bring the brand to life through forms of conversation with the people visiting their website.

A big idea was the first thing we aimed for before moving to the technical details that would make up a style guide, like principles, mechanics, glossary, etc. Big idea is a term often used by marketers to give soul to the content, and by content we mean visual and word choices. 

Because here’s the thing: we didn’t just want potential clients to compare deals and portfolios when they browse the Orely website. Deeper than that, we wanted them to feel something — the story, presence, and energy that make the studio theirs.

That kind of feeling doesn’t just happen by accident. It starts with a big idea that resonates to their target clients.

Initially, we thought of using a “zero to hero” story, considering you don’t come across a Sukabumi-based studio serving global clients every day. But this didn’t quite speak their identity, because as we dug deeper, their target clients were diverse.

Not the usual kind of diverse, but the travel-to-coffee-supply-chain-to-virtual-assistant-to-ski-rental-services kind of diverse. And as you already know, the team has somehow always managed to satisfy all their clients.

So it was starting to feel like versatility was their superpower. Not just the ability to do different things, but doing them really well.

They had a way of tuning into each client’s unique rhythm no matter how niche, and translating that into designs that worked and felt right.

That was when this idea struck: a theme park of uniquely designed playgrounds, mirroring the idea that visiting their website should feel like entering a theme park. Nothing beats the joy, surprise, and … of visiting a theme park. And just like a theme park parks offers different thrills, this website shows you a rich variety of designs which they've worked on in the past.

So, this was the big idea that set the direction for everything else in the content style guide.

Last step was homepage writing and smashing that big idea into headings and descriptions. Note that big ideas don't always have to be portrayed through the text. Like this, for example, the headline needs to be direct so it immediately communicates Orely's core service: end-to-end design. In this case, matching the text with the big idea may not communicate that. So, when not possible, show it through the visuals.

These illustrations are just examples, not the actual ones used by Orely Studio.

Final thought: beyond words, beyond services

Lastly, writing for design studios isn’t about selling services, it’s about designing an experience.

Whether we're asked to write content for a website or an app, we go beyond the standard clear-concise-helpful writing. While these principles matter, the true magic happens when we can make users feel they’re part of the story.

Prioritize being remembered over mere functionality, because at the end of the day, words shouldn’t just guide users – but invite, connect, and inspire action. That’s exactly what we provide at Warung Copy. So, how can we help your business?