Everyone can build.
Few can break out.
Refract is a brand consultancy that helps companies build an identity strong enough to move people and markets.
Because the right angle changes everything.
“The internal clarity was the breakthrough moment for me: watching the team immediately adopt the new language and narrative, as if someone had turned the lights back on.”
JONATHAN WIDAWSKI, CEO & FOUNDER
When growth outpaces clarity, everything slows down
Messages drift
Identity splinters
Priorities compete
Culture fractures
With AI erasing technical moats overnight, the best product is no longer enough. Your biggest advantage is how the world sees you and how your people embrace it.
What’s missing isn’t a better deck.
It’s a shared identity everyone can rally behind.
The Shared Identity System
Forget the brand book that sits on a shelf.
We build a living system your leaders can own, your teams can apply, and your customers can recognize.
The core of who you are: your mission, positioning, and strategic vision.
PURPOSE
The narratives that carry your identity outward: industry POV, product story, audience messaging, voice.
STORIES
The rituals and tools that make it real: onboarding, kickoffs, pitch decks, launch playbooks.
PRACTICES
“We had a much stronger point of view on who we are and what problem we’re solving—and, just as importantly, what we are trying not to be.”
MARCIO ARNECKE, CMO
Three disciplines, one team
Most consultancies bring one lens — brand, or comms, or people strategy. Refract brings all three, because identity only works when it lives across messaging, culture, and operations.
That's how we make it stick.
MATT HICKS, COMMUNICATIONS
A communications and marketing leader who built and led teams at Zendesk, Celonis, and Facebook, he's closely advised CEOs and execs through IPOs, billion-dollar funding rounds, rebrands, global crises, and market pivots.
Two decades defining the narratives that turn emerging technologies into market categories.
Tiffany Apczynski, People
Helped lead cultural evolution at Zendesk and Alteryx during pivotal growth stages, embedding a clear organizational identity across global teams.
Focused on building the infrastructure that turns identity into alignment, momentum, and measurable impact.
Matthew Latkiewicz, Brand
A founding member of Zendesk's creative team, he helped shape the brand voice and key narratives through its IPO — including contributing to the S-1.
15+ years of brand strategy, creative direction, and production across tech and media. IDEO-trained in design thinking and workshop facilitation.
We've worked closely with founders and executives at some of the fastest-growing tech companies.
We've lived every stage from the inside: startups to scale-ups, SMB to the enterprise, IPOs and acquisitions, and every identity shift in between.
Your next deadline is the best place to start.
Are you gearing up for a launch into a new category, a user conference, a re-org that’s long overdue?
Whatever moments you’re facing, we help you make them a success—and build the clarity that lasts beyond them.
We meet you in the moment
What we make possible
Rally investors around a pitch that's unmistakably yours
Own your user conference with a story the whole company can tell
Navigate a reorg with a narrative that holds
Launch into a new market with positioning that cuts through
Kick off the year with a strategy your teams can carry
We understand that every moment is different—we scope the work to fit yours.
Ready to break out?
Tell us what you're facing and we'll scope the work together.