Joy Panos Stauber
Founder, President, Creative Director

Joy is a design strategist and consultant who helps ambitious brands and businesses punch above their weight — and she trains leaders and teams to think the same way. She works with design in the largest sense of the word: not decoration, but a rigorous way of thinking, a disciplined process of exploration, and a method for giving sharp, differentiating form to ideas. That thinking is what turns a brand, product, or service into something people notice, remember, and choose. 

Clients hire Joy for senior strategic judgment, strong leadership, and a clear point of view. A multidisciplinary thinker, she has developed creative strategies, visual identity systems, and brand communications across a wide range of industries, always working toward the same result: differentiation that shows up in the bottom line, not just the portfolio.

An East Coast transplant, Joy built her career at prominent design, advertising, and digital agencies in Chicago and Portland, Oregon. She founded Stauber Brand Studio to offer clients a thoughtful, effective alternative for high-priority marketing and communications initiatives.

Joy has served in volunteer leadership roles with the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and on several nonprofit marketing committees. Off the clock, she’s studying Modern Greek, gardening, or teaching yoga.

Nancy Blackwell Bolan
Communications Design

Nancy believes that good design helps people connect with businesses, services, and each other by effectively communicating essential and inspiring qualities and values. She creates integrated communications in many media, and has worked with clients in a range of industries. Her experience includes stints at leading design firms and advertising agencies in Chicago, Portland, and Minneapolis.

Nancy also maintains a printmaking practice where she explores visual ideas and processes, examines thoughts and life events, and gets her hands dirty.

Miriam Carey
Content Strategy & Development

Miriam believes in the transformative power of stories for people and companies. She is an imaginative communicator, content strategist, writer, and storytelling program leader skilled in developing content marketing campaigns for B2B companies.

She has deep experience in SaaS tech and, as a person with central vision loss, she is interested in assistive/adaptive technologies that help people with disabilities of all kinds gain access to tech that can help them keep reading.

Author of four books, Miriam is active in Chicago’s live storytelling community. She has performed on The Moth stage and leads storytelling workshops to help “non-writers” find and craft extraordinary stories.