Every team needs one idea worth rallying around.

I uncover and articulate the insight that sparks fearless, focused work.

$580M

Dynapower’s sale price, less than two months after the brand relaunch I helped craft with Solidarity of Unbridled Labour.

$125M

Annual Vermont child care funding under Act 76 (2023), the law Let’s Grow Kids championed with messaging we developed together.

$10.5M

Annual sales by year two for Freebird, a brand I conceived and built at Steve Madden that helped spark the festival fashion trend.

3M+

Pairs sold of one ballet flat, from the Amazon Essentials footwear line I helped envision and execute with Faryl Robin.

Process

When we all see ourselves in the idea, it catches fire.

01

Find the heartbeat

Immersion, interviews, support groups, dusty archives… following the trail until the real story surfaces.

02

Bring everyone in

Sharing the discovery, inviting input from all sides, and distilling it into one clear direction.

03

Let it take flight

From first draft to finished work, we shape and sharpen as a team, then release it into the wild.

Case studies

Burning bright, long after launch.

Dynapower

Brand strategy · Messaging · with Solidarity of Unbridled Labour

The challenge

A Vermont power-conversion company wanted to be seen as a clean-energy leader, but much of its business served mining and heavy industry.

The idea

Stop hiding the industrial work. With the Solidarity team, I found the line that unites both sides of the business: “Connecting Power to Purpose.”

The result

Sold to Sensata Technologies for $580M, less than two months after a full rebrand. Years later, the line still leads at Dynapower.com.

G.H. Bass Originals

Brand strategy · Copy · with Origin Outside

G.H. Bass Originals Spring 2022 email: Up in the clout. The legacy loafer with a lightweight lift.

The challenge

The 1876 brand behind the original Weejun penny loafer needed to win over a new generation without losing the heritage that made it iconic.

The idea

“This is not a renovation. It’s a restoration.” Alongside Origin Outside, I built the strategy around reclaiming the Weejun’s legacy, then crafted copy with swagger to match.

The result

Bass made the legacy story the heart of its marketing, and built its Spring ’22 campaign around my lines, from “Step into history” to “Up in the clout.”

Domeworthy

Naming · Strategy · Copy

The challenge

A new partner set out to build on Dome Inc.’s 40-year reputation with a fresh, younger-facing brand, in a category that still sold on hard logic and disaster data.

The idea

Women influence about 90% of home-buying decisions, yet no one spoke to them. So we did, with nurturing warmth: a dome as a place to live well, not just survive.

The result

A new name, a “Home is sacred” platform, and every word on the site, from “Sphere perfection” down, opening a second sales funnel for an established company.

Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op

Brand strategy · Campaign creation · Copy

Semicentennial poster: a quilt of 50 illustrated symbols, each marking a moment in the co-op's history

Awareness ad: a custom 50th-anniversary PLU sticker on an apple, with the line Locally grown, community owned. Since 1976.

The challenge

How do you honor 50 years of a beloved Vermont institution, and the community behind it, without making it feel like a museum piece?

The idea

Weave the story like a quilt: 50 symbols drawn from in-depth interviews and 40+ years of archived newsletters, with a cheeky custom PLU sticker.

The result

The quilt concept carried every ad, banner pole, and campaign expression, and the Co-op asked us to lead its full rebrand, now underway.

Learnexus

Brand platform · Research · Tagline

Key findings slide: passion, community and microcosm

Four audiences, four invitations: share your gifts with the world, make learning the ultimate priority, unite an industry destined for disruption, join a movement

The challenge

Learnexus needed four distinct invitations, for learning professionals, clients, employees, and investors, that still added up to one cohesive brand story.

The idea

Interviews revealed what all four shared: great teaching runs on gratitude. We rooted every message there, under a line the logo already held: “Learn Together.”

The result

The platform gave Learnexus one clear story across every audience, and it led the brand when Cognota acquired the company in June 2026.

Let’s Grow Kids

Campaign strategy · Messaging

The challenge

After 40 years, Vermont’s child care movement had a bill within reach, but its messaging kept swinging between children’s well-being and economics.

The idea

Lead with the heart, and the mind will follow: children’s well-being first, economics right behind. With Let’s Grow Kids, I shaped that into a four-phase “Final Lap” strategy.

The result

It guided the campaign’s ads, social media, and rallies, helping achieve historic legislation. In 2023, lawmakers passed Act 76: $125M annually for child care.

Ostosure

Community research · Messaging · Copy

Bag?What bag?

Robert Bell, ostomate and inventor of the Ostovalve, arms crossed

The challenge

Recruitment for the first clinical trial of a pouch-free ostomy device was falling short. Early messaging read as insensitive to the people who needed it most.

The idea

Immersing ourselves in ostomate support communities, we heard how people said “this won’t stop me,” and built the campaign around their own words.

The result

Trials now run with a waitlist, and several copy lines have been trademarked and adopted as company slogans, including “Bag? What bag?”

Amazon Essentials

Product strategy · Customer insight · with Faryl Robin

3,000,000+

Pairs sold of one ballet flat, with over 85,000 Amazon reviews.

A pair of Amazon Essentials ballet flats seen from above

The challenge

Amazon’s private label was expanding into footwear, and repurposing other makers’ best-sellers was getting a lukewarm response.

The idea

Start over. Working backward from the entry-price customer, we brought luxury-level comfort to the most basic silhouettes, an investment competitors hadn’t made.

The result

We landed the contract, partnered with Amazon leadership on the rollout, and directed a launch collection of about 20 styles that’s still going strong.

Freebird by Steven

Brand creation · Design direction · Positioning

Freebird boots worn on whitewashed stairs against a blue sky

Freebird boots worn at a city curb beside a yellow taxi

Black-and-white editorial with slouched Freebird boots

Freebird boots and shoes filled with orange flowers against a yellow backdrop

The challenge

Steve Madden had spent 20 years winning with accessible, trend-driven shoes. Could the same company earn credibility with a high-priced, handmade line?

The idea

I saw festival fashion coming before Coachella became a style reference, and answered with authenticity: a rugged-luxury boot brand, crafted to own the moment.

The result

$10.5M in annual sales by year two and 300+ accounts, from Bergdorf Goodman to Isetan. The brand grew to $50M a year, opened its own stores, and still sells today.

Writing

A few choice cuts.

“State of Grace”

Profile for Hotel Vermont’s 10th-anniversary book

“The warmth and generosity Pradhan exudes is palpable; a force as gentle as it is inspiring and one that changes the chemistry of a room.”

“Shaped by Purpose”

On Richard Erdman’s bronze sculptures at Hotel Vermont

“Toulouse is nearly eight feet tall and weighs 1,400 pounds, but one suspects it may meander off at any moment, strolling into the distance.”

HelloBurlington.com

Features on Burlington’s people, places, and events

“25 cents won’t yield much these days, but at The Archives, it goes as far as it did 35 years ago.”

Dynapower brand book

Voice and segment messaging for a clean-energy power-conversion company

“It takes more than muscle and mettle to move mountains — it takes perfectly calibrated power.”

Learnexus brand strategy

The research and insight behind the “Learn Together” platform

“It is the AHA moment — the instant when the learner gets it — that functions as the true currency of this economy.”

Grounds of Play brand platform

Mission, positioning, and animating idea for an immersive playground in Santa Barbara

“Play is the medium between the individual and the infinite.”

Commencement speeches

Four speeches for Vermont State University’s president, delivered as written to its first graduating classes, 2024

“Your perseverance through all these changes and challenges has revealed the absolute depth of resolve you possess.”

Mamava

Spec brand film for the lactation-pod company. A voice reassures a tired mother, and in the last moment we learn it belongs to her child.

“I’m proud of you, mama. I love you. You got this.”

Let’s find the idea.

matthew.rudnicki@gmail.com 914.953.5707 linkedin.com/in/matthewrudnicki Download resume (PDF)

Ferrisburgh, Vermont · Open to remote, hybrid, and travel