Micro disruptions and the power of ideas with ICd

At Heur, we spend a lot of time deep in the commercial realities of e-commerce. We are constantly scanning the market for the signals that actually matter to operators, the shifts that impact contribution margins, CAC efficiency, and cashflow. But the truth is, the magic that gives those performance metrics something to actually measure is pure, unadulterated brand creativity.

To continue our series, The Transformation Tapes, we sat down with two people who know exactly how to build that magic: Dan and Elly, the founders of a brand new creative strategy studio, ICd.

The couple bring a formidable, complementary mix of technical pedigree and high-end fashion brand strategy to the table. Dan’s 32-year career bridges traditional design and digital innovation; starting in print and typographic design at just 16, he became a pioneer of the early web standards movement, co-authoring defining books that merged design with emerging tech, and landing clients including Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. Elly cut her teeth in fashion marketing during Whistles’ major 2008 repositioning, scaling her expertise through Topshop and Jaeger before pivoting to high-end luxury strategy at Victoria Beckham. After steering DTC startup KITRI through the pandemic, she launched her own consultancy, SearleStudio, built entirely on word-of-mouth and a firm belief in ‘thinking before doing’.

Catching up over a coffee, we dug straight into the realities of building a creative venture from scratch, the lost art of mentoring, and why they had been operating in “unintentional stealth” mode for over a year.

Here is our conversation on challenging the status quo, the power of slow media, and why being an ‘ideas person’ is actually a commercial superpower.

Scrapping the calendar and ‘micro disruptions’

We started the chat lamenting the traditional retail trading calendar. It was 30 degrees outside, yet the high street had been pushing summer stock since February. I asked them why brands are so terrified to adjust to the reality of shifting seasons.

For Dan, it comes down to a fear of standing out without data to back it up, leading to an industry blinded by dogma. He coined a phrase for how brands should tackle these archaic norms: micro disruptors.

“I’m tired of the word ‘disruptor’ as it’s been used to death and no one knows what it actually means,” Dan explained. “But if we consider the concept of disrupting the status quo, brands need to think about being micro disruptors. Don’t try to disrupt an entire industry. Try to find patterns that serve no purpose other than ‘that’s how everyone does it.’ How can we take something totally achievable, but just break everyone’s expectations? Just doing the same things at different times of year could be enough.”

From ‘twoseven’ to Independent Codependency

While Dan and Elly have operated successfully as solo consultants for years, the name for their new joint venture took some time to nail down. Initially, they toyed with the name ‘twoseven’, a nod to their favourite numbers. But as Elly noted, it just wasn’t sticking. The real lightbulb moment stemmed from a casual conversation about their own relationship.

“I’ve always called myself a staunchly independent, cynical troll woman,” Elly laughed. “When we got together, it was two very independent people forming a partnership. We were having a conversation and realised that together, we’re independently codependent. We rely on each other, but still feel very protective of our independence.”

Dan immediately knew it was the perfect fit. “It’s not just about us. That is the exact relationship an agency or studio has with its clients and teammates. We’re all independent, but codependent on each other. None of us can survive without that network.”

The abbreviation, ICd, came naturally, bringing an unexpected visual bonus. “It looks like a chemical element,” Elly pointed out. “Cd is cadmium, so we’re building a colour palette based around old cadmium powders.”

Navigating the algorithm and ‘unintentional stealth’

Despite already working with major clients, ICd hadn’t officially launched. They were, as Dan puts it, in “unintentional stealth mode.”

During 2024, they briefly considered positioning the studio as strictly anti-algorithm and analogue-only. But they quickly realised that didn’t feel completely authentic, as they both utilise tech to bridge the gap between pre-computer methods and modern tools. Rather than rushing out a cookie-cutter agency pitch, they took a step back.

“We haven’t necessarily been figuring out what we want to be,” Dan noted. “We’ve been figuring out what we don’t want to be. You carve away the parts of the pie you don’t want to eat, and what’s left is the good bit.”

Part of that process was reclaiming a phrase sometimes used as a backhanded compliment in the creative industry. “We’ve both been referred to as ‘ideas’ people at various points in our careers,” Elly recalled. “We would usually interpret those comments as implying we were ‘all ideas, no action.’ But the more we focused on our combined strengths we realised ‘ideas’ are the line in the sand. We are ideas people, and we are going to own it.”

Selling ‘thinking’ in a world obsessed with ‘doing’

As operators, we know that performance marketing is an easy sell because you can point to immediate revenue. Brand strategy and creative thinking are much harder to put a tangible number on, simply because people value doing more than planning. Elly’s ‘thinking before doing’ philosophy from SearleStudio heavily influences this approach, comparing a brand to a house where a slick exterior means nothing if the structural foundations are rotting away.

“People want a quick win,” Elly said. “But if they do it without the strategy behind it, it’s ineffective.”

She recalled stepping into a client project near the end of its timeline. After getting on a call, she started asking foundational questions. “The person I was working with said, ‘Oh my God, we’ve been working on this for three months and hadn’t thought to ask any of those questions.’ It threw a spanner in the works, and the thing had to go in a different direction. But it made me realise that is what we do. You have a chat with us, and we ask you the questions that make you go, ‘Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought of that.’”

Butting heads and cross-industry magic

One of ICd’s core strengths is the friction between Dan and Elly’s respective backgrounds. Dan’s experience comes from a career spanning design, technology, and photography, while Elly brings deep expertise in fashion and strategy. “We often challenge each other and butt heads because our opinions are sometimes very different,” Elly explained. “But it allows our ideas to go further because we merge experience from multiple industries and points of view.”

It is a highly relevant approach right now. Elly pointed to consumer tech brands hiring CMOs from the fashion industry to completely rethink how their products are perceived. By blending the geeky, technical niche with high-fashion inspiration, ICd offers brands a completely fresh perspective that a traditional, single-lane agency simply cannot provide.

Instead of waiting around for client briefs to dictate their creative output, ICd acts as its own incubator. They have essentially split their business into two halves: client work and their own passion projects.

This summer, they travelled the entire length of Route 66 to produce a stereoscopic 3D photography book. It is a physical format you have to look through a View-Master style viewer to experience. “It’s slow media,” Elly explained, noting the recent validation of the medium by artists like Billie Eilish releasing 3D View-Master sets for her fans. “It’s something that you have to physically interact with to experience, vs. scrolling past on social media.”

For Dan, these internal projects are a vital commercial tool. “Ideas are worth nothing if you hold onto them and don’t put them out into the world. We’re not waiting for someone else to ask us to make them. We know these projects will inspire other people to create their own, or to come to us for help.”

The litmus test and the lost art of mentoring

When it comes to client work, Dan and Elly are highly selective. They operate like a specialist medical team, diagnosing the core issue, bringing in the exact experts needed from their trusted network to solve the problem. As their value is so heavily rooted in how they think and communicate in the room, they actively resist packaging themselves into a neat, one-sentence elevator pitch.

“Sometimes being a little mysterious and explaining just enough becomes a litmus test that helps you find the right people,” Dan said. “Ultimately, we are going to be interrogating and choosing our clients just as much as they choose us. We can do our best work when the client trusts us. Once you compromise on that trust by finding a shortcut, or just saying ‘the budget’s right’ even if they don’t understand why they are hiring us, you always pay for it in frustration.”

Part of that trusted relationship involves stepping in to fix the industry skills gap. They have found that many young in-house teams have missed out on foundational workplace mentoring. For one client, ICd didn’t just hand over a brand strategy; they flew the client’s team to Vienna and hosted a two-day bootcamp to teach them how to actually implement it. They are also actively doing pro bono mentoring work with social enterprises in Margate and with the University of Kent to teach unemployed youth about brand building.

“We don’t just want to do the work,” Dan said. “We want to teach people about all the good things that are becoming forgotten. The standards of work and output, we don’t want that knowledge trapped in our heads.”

Talking to Dan and Elly is a sharp reminder that beyond the algorithms and conversion rates, the best businesses are built on brilliant ideas, cross-industry friction, and human connection.

If we take away one thing from ICd, it’s this: brands shouldn’t be afraid to be micro disruptors, and never underestimate the commercial value of taking the time to think.

Find out more about ICd at independentcodependency.com