MLCV Website
Where the refreshed brand went live — a full website rebuild, from site audit and content architecture to UX/UI and platform migration.
Tribal Enterprise · Brand Strategy
A brand system built to carry a proudly Native-owned identity.
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures came to us to update and extend its brand — the visual system, guidelines, and voice that represent the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s business portfolio across every audience. What began as a focused extension grew into a full refresh.
The Opportunity
Where We Started & What We Delivered
MLCV’s portfolio was growing fast — across gaming, hospitality, government contracting, tribal economy investing, and cultivation. The brand needed to scale to match: to communicate that breadth, hold together across very different businesses, and carry an unmistakably Native-owned identity rooted in the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
The engagement began as a focused brand extension and grew into a full refresh — updating the visual system end to end while staying grounded in the Band’s Ojibwe values: respect, bravery, wisdom, truth, humility, honesty, love, and curiosity.
Our collaboration with MLCV included an expansion of the logo, brand color palette, gradients, typography, photography treatments, letterhead, and more.
- Where we started
- We began by auditing their existing brand structure, identified gaps and areas of opportunity, scoped the work, and prototyped and iterated in collaboration with MLCV’s team throughout the process.
- The team
- Brand Strategist · Brand Designer · Account Lead · Copywriter · MLCV’s Communications Officer
- What we delivered
- Updated brand guidelines and assets, including brand story, brand voice & tone, brand visual guidelines, expanded logo files, expanded color palette, gradients, custom graphics, photography treatments, typography, and additional branded elements.
“MLCV already had an incredible brand foundation to build upon. We worked with their team to extend their brand in order to better communicate and celebrate Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe culture and values — as well as to celebrate MLCV’s successes, and those of their portfolio companies.”
Brianne HansHead of Design, Storyworthy
The Scope of Work
What We Refreshed
We refreshed and extended the MLCV brand across four connected workstreams — updating the system end to end so it could scale across the portfolio while staying rooted in the Band’s identity.
- 01
Visual Identity Refresh
Updated the brand’s visual assets and logo system, with a refreshed color palette built to carry across every portfolio company.
- 02
Brand Guidelines
Documented the system in comprehensive brand guidelines so it could be applied consistently across teams, vendors, and channels.
- 03
Typography & Custom Graphics
Established the fonts and typographic system, plus a library of custom graphic elements to give the brand a distinctive, ownable look.
- 04
Brand Voice & Tone
Defined a brand voice and tone rooted in the Band’s Ojibwe values, ready to carry across the website, social, and communications.
Explore Our MLCV Brand Work
01 / 16Logo Lockups & Icon
“Partnering on Storyworthy details from Alyssa Enno at MLCV.”
AE
Alyssa EnnoCommunications Officer, Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures
The Outcome
How Our Work Supported MLCV’s Mission
Delivered a refreshed, scalable brand system that carries an unmistakably Native-owned identity across MLCV’s entire portfolio.
What began as a focused logo project grew into a full visual and verbal system — one built to hold together across gaming, hospitality, government contracting, tribal economy investing, and cultivation, while staying rooted in the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s values. The refreshed guidelines gave MLCV’s team a single, confident foundation to build on, and set the direction for the website and communications work that followed.
How We Got There
- Expanded the logo system and color palette so one identity could scale across every portfolio company without losing coherence.
- Grounded the visual and verbal language in the Band’s Ojibwe values — respect, bravery, wisdom, truth, humility, honesty, love, and curiosity — so the brand reads as authentically Native-owned.
- Documented the full system in comprehensive brand guidelines, giving internal teams and outside vendors a shared reference to apply it consistently.
- Defined a brand voice and tone ready to carry across channels, from the website to social to day-to-day communications.
- Created the foundation for MLCV’s website and communications workstreams, so the refreshed brand showed up consistently everywhere it appeared.
- Strengthened MLCV’s presence as a recognized, distinctly Native-owned voice in Indian Country.
More Work for MLCV
Explore the Partnership
Strategic Communications
Where the brand voice does its daily work — an ongoing content and social strategy amplifying MLCV’s impact and cultural heritage across channels.
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