WRKBKS
Project Overview
We design for clients every day. Turns out we needed to take our own advice.
Client
WRKBKS
(Part of Wood Mill)
Role
Owner
Year
2021
Scope of Work
- Branding
- Product Development
- Printing
- E-commerce Design
- SEO
- Marketing
- Email Campaigns
- Social
What is WRKBKS?
WRKBKS is a purpose-built analog notebook and EDC stationery brand — and it’s ours. A DBA offshoot of WoodMill, built and run by the same hands. Pocket-sized logbooks engineered for specific use cases: film photography, golf, and everyday carry. Manufactured in the USA. Printed in Indiana.
The founding principle was simple: only build a notebook when you can build it meaningfully better than what already exists.
The idea came out of 2020 — two personal frustrations during the pandemic. Tracking golf performance across rounds and managing film stock across multiple cameras. Everything on the market was either too generic or built without any real understanding of how those tasks actually work in the field. So we built something better.
The Cobbler’s Son
Here’s the honest version: for the first couple of years after launch, WRKBKS had almost no branding.
A veteran designer — someone who builds brand identities for clients regularly — launched his own product brand and let the branding sit on the back burner. The product came first. The visual identity was minimal at best. It’s one of the oldest traps in the business and we fell right into it.
The raven came later. The full identity came later. In the meantime, WRKBKS existed — it just didn’t look like it meant it yet.
What WoodMill Built
When it was finally time to do it right, WoodMill handled everything.
Brand Identity
The brand mascot is a hand-drawn raven — a deliberate symbol of intelligent problem-solving and memory. Hand-drawn to match the analog, handwritten nature of the product. The brand voice came together around nine words that say everything: Purpose-built. Pocket-sized. Made in the USA.
Product Design
Every logbook is designed from the inside out. Form factor, layout, and content are all matched to the specific task the notebook is built for. No wasted pages, no generic grids.
Print & Production
WoodMill handled the printer relationships and file prep — ensuring everything that went to press came back right.
Shopify Build
Full e-commerce build on Shopify — structured for SEO from the ground up, with product pages, collections, and content built to convert and rank.
SEO & Content
Blog content covering the founder story, the analog renaissance, and an EDC buyer’s guide. Built to pull in organic traffic from people who are already looking for exactly what WRKBKS sells.
Results And Reflections
After launching on TikTok and partnering with a handful of influencers, WRKBKS sold 1,000 Pocket Golf Logs in just a few months.
That’s not a vanity number — that’s proof that a purpose-built product, marketed to the right audience, with a brand that finally looks the part, works.
Why This Case Study Exists
We include this here because it’s the most complete picture of what WoodMill actually does. No client brief, no compromises, no scope limitations. Every decision was ours — the brand, the product, the build, the strategy.
If you want to know what WoodMill is capable of end-to-end, WRKBKS is the answer.