Lezlie Garr Brand & Creative Strategist
Animated illustration of a creative workstation: a central monitor ringed by floating windows for illustration, web design, video editing, and an AI assistant

Brand strategy
that ships

Discovery → Strategy → Execution → Launch

Equal parts strategic and creative, leading client work end-to-end.

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01
Selected work

Ten years of brand & creative

01 / 09
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About Who I am How I work Track record

Hi —
I'm Lezlie Garr

Brand strategist and builder. 8 years turning ambiguous briefs into work that actually ships.

Brand strategy, creative systems, and execution. I don't just name the strategy — I ship it. Currently looking for a senior strategy seat at an agency that takes craft seriously.

Equal parts strategic and hands-on.

I've done brand building, rebrand, and turnaround work for businesses, nonprofits, and national member organizations. (I even did this section's motion graphic - from scratch.)

I also ran my own coaching consultancy for a decade: ~100 clients a year, a 15,000+ LinkedIn following, and a LinkedIn Learning course.

These days I work at the intersection of brand strategy, systems alignment, and AI-optimized workflows. I'm looking for senior strategy work inside a shop that takes craft seriously.

Every project starts with listening.

I lean on interviews, then pair them with competitive research and brand audits to build the full picture.

From there I build positioning, messaging, and creative direction as one connected system — designing, writing, and shipping, with AI woven through to scale output without losing quality.

Launch isn't the finish line. I think through to adoption, so the work actually gets used, understood, and carried forward by the people who inherit it.

Outcomes
I can point to.

  • Drove 35% profit growth solo, with national and regional recognition for content quality.
  • Built a senior content-and-brand role at a national member org from scratch, then led the rebrand that followed.
  • Authored a strategy deck on reputation risks from operational fragmentation; escalated to the CAO and shared at VP level.
  • Led a nonprofit's homepage overhaul end-to-end, from strategy to shipped pages.

I spot what's missing, build it from scratch, and ship it — proactively and end-to-end.

Lezlie Garr
AI-Native · Concept → Design → Build

Lezlie Garr Portfolio

The portfolio’s design system: Space Grotesk type specimen, the indigo/magenta/mint palette, and the CSS tokens behind the build.

The brief

A self-directed, open-ended personal brand portfolio. Strategy, design, copy, and code, developed end-to-end through a modern, AI-assisted workflow. Everything underneath is documented and systematized, so the whole site stays consistent, maintainable, and ready to grow.

Approach

01

Start with position

Everything starts from one line: brand strategy that ships, framed as Discovery → Strategy → Execution → Launch.

02

Commit to a system

A deep-indigo world with magenta and mint as accents, a confident grotesk against a serif counterpoint, consistent from hero to fine print.

03

Shape the experience

The whole portfolio sits on one page, with nowhere to navigate away to. It keeps the reading continuous, rather than scattered across separate pages.

04

Build it modern

Concept, art direction, design, copy, and code, all with AI as part of the production. It’s what kept a one-person build moving at this pace while keeping craft and quality.

Decisions worth a closer look

01

Proof before paragraphs

The hero opens on the work itself in motion, showing proof ahead of any claims.

02

Craft in the details

The work turns on a slow rotating drum with a running 01–09 count; each case opens in place and sets the reader back exactly where they left off.

03

A single, unbroken thread

No menu, no sub-pages, no dead ends. The whole portfolio reads as one continuous scroll, so attention builds instead of resetting.

04

A bio that’s paced

The about section moves one idea at a time, so the bio unfolds at a readable pace instead of arriving all at once.

05

Designed to be handed off

Underneath, the case studies share one content model, so new work drops in without a redesign, built to be maintained and extended, not shipped once and left.

See it in motion

Outcome

A working sample, kept current.

It’s live and still changing; new work and refinements go in against the same system underneath, as they come. So it stays the most current sample in the set, rather than a snapshot frozen at launch.

Strategy, design, copy & code, by one person
Modern, AI-assisted workflow
Documented & systematized to grow
Healthcare Education · Strategy → Design → Build

Throughline

Throughline workspace entry screen titled “Where Courses Come Together”: the Meridian Health Education (MHE) partnership workspace for developing courses with university faculty, with MHE Specialist and University Faculty sign-in cards.

The brief

On paper this was course development. In practice it was reconciling the same content across three documents that had no idea the others existed.

The deeper read: this was a brand problem. Since the university partners worked inside the same system, it was causing major friction that went beyond internal annoyance, reaching exactly the people it shouldn’t.

So I treated internal execution as a brand surface. Content is entered once and flows through the entire build, read-only downstream, labeled by source. Nothing gets re-keyed, nothing drifts, and the throughline that names the project is the one partners actually feel.

Approach

01

Enter once, flow down

The whole platform rests on one move: content is entered a single time in the Syllabus, then propagates down through the Course Map into every module. Inherited values stay read-only and labeled by source: one source of truth, nothing to re-key, nothing left to drift.

02

Replace pain, not process

Faculty already live in SharePoint, so I asked them to migrate nothing. The design swaps one painful workflow for a lighter one and leaves the rest of the habit intact, built for how people already work, not how a new tool wishes they would.

03

Nudge, don’t gate

Accessibility is a behavior problem before it’s a compliance one. Checks surface inline as the work happens and roll up to a leadership dashboard instead of blocking a module, because gates breed resentment and nudges get it done. The severity model sits in code, ready to tighten when the org is.

04

Restraint = Responsible Default

It runs entirely in the browser, makes zero external calls, and is fully deterministic. For partner course content, that restraint is the point: AI stays an optional, org-governed choice layered on later, not an unaccountable foundation underneath.

The design language

01

Three-tier text

Trust starts with legibility. Three kinds of text (chrome labels, inherited values, and direct input) each read differently, so a user knows at a glance what carried over and what they’re typing in fresh.

02

Source-labeled pills

Provenance is shown, not assumed. Every inherited value wears a pill naming where it came from (Syllabus or Course Map), so the data earns trust by saying where it’s from.

03

Role-gated, not role-hidden

Status controls disable by role instead of disappearing. Everyone sees the whole workflow; only the right person can advance it, which keeps the process legible to all sides, and one of those sides is the client.

04

A matrix that deep-links

The outcome-alignment grid is clickable: a cell jumps straight to the module it describes, with the relevant outcome highlighted. The analysis and the work sit one click apart, not two screens apart.

05

Comments, scoped

Feedback lands where it belongs. A comment attaches to the document it’s about, so a note on the Syllabus never clutters a module three steps downstream.

06

One export, whole course

A single chooser exports any one document, or packages the entire course (cover, syllabus, map, and every built module) as one file. And the platform never pretends to be the system of record; SharePoint stays that, by design.

Inside the build

In focus
The Build Reference pop-out for a Doctor of Physical Therapy course, listing the CAPTE accreditor and build preferences scoped to the school and discipline.
Build Reference, on demand (IA + design):Guidance meets the work. A per-course pop-out surfaces the school, discipline, and live accreditation mapping (CAPTE, ACOTE, CAA, ARC-PA) without leaving the page.
The Outcome Alignment view: a grid mapping each course learning outcome to where it is introduced, practiced, and assessed across modules M1 to M8, with coverage-summary tiles above.
Outcome alignment matrix:Outcomes by module, with every cell a link to where it’s addressed: analysis you can act on, not just read.
A Throughline module build doc with an
Accessibility, in the flow (interaction + systems design):“Needs alt text” and “Needs transcript” flags surface inline and roll up to a leadership dashboard, advisory, never a blocker. Fixing gaps as you build saves a separate remediation pass at the end.
Also inside
Three-tier text system: What “labeled by source” looks like in practice: chrome, inherited, and direct input, each styled to read at a glance.
Full-course export: Cover doc, syllabus, course map, and every built module, packaged as a single, clean handoff.
Craft in the dense views: Where the data gets wide, the design keeps up: matrices fade at their edges and pin the first column with a soft shadow, so nothing reads as clipped on macOS.

Outcome

Working where it’s used, honest about what hasn’t shipped yet.

The propagation, exports, dashboards, and Meridian-side workflows are real and running. The faculty experience is a high-fidelity prototype (designed, not yet tested with real users), so the honest next step is a pilot with one partner program before I claim more. The part I’m surest of is the reframe: internal execution is how partners experience the brand, and that’s worth designing for.

One source of truth, nothing re-keyed
Browser-local, zero external calls
Strategy and design mine; built with an AI pair
Brand Identity · Resume & Career Coaching

Resume Lezlie

Resume Lezlie homepage: “Your Career Can Make You Happy,” with founder portrait, the Best Dallas Resume Service badge, and Featured-By logos (LinkedIn News, Jobscan, TMA).

The brief

Resume Lezlie was my own brand, created from a blank page and grown over 7 years. Building it meant going deep on every discipline at once: branding, color psychology, font pairing, graphic and web design, SEO, copywriting, and social media marketing.

I led the full brand identity lifecycle, then kept evolving it.

Approach

01

Build from the ground up

Name, logo, color, type, web content, and a social strategy: a complete identity created from scratch and documented as it grew.

02

Listen, then name the pain

Clients kept describing their “soul-sucking” jobs. I made that the through-line of the marketing (site, LinkedIn, blog, and visual content), and it resonated hard.

03

Evolve with the market

As palettes trended (navy/yellow → navy, seafoam & salmon → purple, turquoise & fuchsia), I moved the brand ahead of the curve, the same direction my portfolio carries today.

Brand identity

The Resume Lezlie script wordmark logo
LogoThe Resume Lezlie script wordmark.
Resume Lezlie brand evolution, from the Professional Progressions mark to the refined Resume Lezlie wordmark
Brand evolutionFrom Professional Progressions to the refined Resume Lezlie mark.
The Resume Lezlie brand color palette
Brand colorsA trend-ahead palette grounded in color psychology.
The Resume Lezlie brand type system: Playfair Display, Raleway, and Great Vibes
Brand fontsPlayfair Display, Raleway, and Great Vibes: warmth and authority.

Brand voice

Bold branding: “Soul-sucking”

I listened closely to what clients told me: the jobs they were stuck in, the careers they wanted, and how they felt about both. One phrase kept surfacing: their work was “soul-sucking.” I heard it often enough that I made it the through-line of the brand, woven across the site, LinkedIn, and the blog and visual content.

And it resonated with the audience in a big way:

Brand in use

The system, applied

Logo, color, and type carried across every touchpoint (website, social, and client deliverables), so the brand stayed consistent and recognizable wherever it showed up.

Website in Motion
Social Media
LinkedIn live overlay
LinkedIn Live Overlay
Series Marketing
YouTube cover
YouTube Cover
Client deliverables

Individual Branding (Clients)

Senior Manager / Executive

Client needs & objectives

Targeting operations-leadership roles (SVP, VP, Director), the client had a track record of transforming struggling operations into thriving ones. Their strengths: leading turnarounds, structuring for high growth, and continuously improving processes, efficiency, and revenue.

Strategy & rationale

Their career ran through market shocks from 9/11 to the 2008 downturn, so the resume told the story of growth and success through each one. It foregrounded their signature value (taking a struggling asset and turning it into a performer) and their grasp of how the human-capital side can make or break operations. Every visual element carried one theme: consistent success in the face of struggle.

Senior operations executive resume designed by Resume Lezlie, page 1
Page 1
Senior operations executive resume designed by Resume Lezlie, page 2
Page 2

Program & Project Management

Client needs & objectives

Targeting healthcare roles in strategy, solution design, and implementation. Their strengths: financial and data analysis, business-case development, vendor negotiation, sharp presentation skills, and data-driven thinking that still works comfortably in the “gray,” taking limited information and building structure and a plan around it.

Strategy & rationale

An effective leader and coach for teams of every size, their rare value was being able to both strategize a plan and implement and improve it. They were coming off the most successful role of their career, so the resume gave that room to breathe. Rather than charting individual achievements, I threaded the story together with visuals throughout: vision and strategy, big impact through continuous improvement, and a multi-faceted approach spanning program direction, executive support, solution design, and integration strategy.

Program and project management resume designed by Resume Lezlie, page 1
Page 1
Program and project management resume designed by Resume Lezlie, page 2
Page 2

How every resume is built

01

Built for both readers

Written to succeed in online applicant tracking systems and with the human reader on the other side.

02

Visual storytelling

Graphics thread each client’s career story together rather than just decorating the page.

03

ATS-compatible graphics

Every visual is invisible to applicant tracking systems, so design never costs a client the screen.

04

Nothing hidden in pixels

All content inside a graphic is also written in the resume body, readable by machines and humans alike.

05

Color with intent

Palettes chosen from color psychology, client industry, client preferences, and resume best practices.

Outcome

A brand that resonated and kept evolving.

The “soul-sucking job” positioning struck a nerve with the audience and drove real engagement, while the identity itself proved durable enough to evolve across 7 years without losing its center.

Built & evolved for 7 years
Resonant “soul-sucking” positioning
ATS- + human-optimized craft
Rebrand · Web Design · Audience Segmentation

RVer Job Exchange

RVer Job Exchange key art: the redesigned self-segmenting employer page (“What Type of Job Are You Hiring For?” — Remote Work vs Campground or RV Industry) shown on an iMac, set against a sunset-over-mountains scene that echoes the project’s brand world.

The brief

The RVer Job Exchange connected RV travelers with on-site, travel-based, and remote work. The mandate was to grow every vertical, with a particular push into remote work. The catch: the brand was familiar and loved in the RVing world but struggled to resonate with the corporate remote-work employers we needed to reach next.

Approach

01

Segment the room

A single page was trying to court three very different employer types. I split it into a selection page feeding two tailored flows for two distinct audiences.

02

Propose a bridge brand

I developed a new name and identity, NomadWrx, designed to speak to RVers and corporate employers at once.

03

Build and reprice per type

Targeted employer pages and separate, market-researched pricing for each employer type, addressing each audience’s pain points directly.

Homepage

Before
RVer Job Exchange homepage, original version: navigation and “Have Talent, Will Travel” hero serving candidates and three employer types at once.
  • Served four very different audiences at once: candidates plus three employer types.
  • Messaging went broad, and the experience lost focus.
After
Redesigned RVer Job Exchange homepage: candidate-focused, with a highlighted “For Employers” button in the top right.
  • Refocused on candidates alone, with a “For Employers” entry top-right (on-trend at the time).
  • That button routed employers to a dedicated page (below).

Employer page

Before
Original RVer Job Exchange employer page (“Looking to Hire”): a single page addressing three different employer types.
  • One page trying to serve three different customer types.
  • Unfocused again, so many employers left instead of engaging.
After
Redesigned employer type page: an animated, self-segmenting split screen (“Remote Work” vs “Campground or RV Industry”) with dark hover overlays.
  • Split into two tailored flows, each with its own page.
  • A self-segmentation page sent each type to a more targeted page (below).
  • Added interactivity: a dark overlay on each half responded to cursor position.

Rebrand: from → to

FromRVer Job Exchange
Stacked logo
Horizontal logo
ToNomadWrx
Stacked logo
Horizontal logo

The rebrand: NomadWrx

01

The problem

Beloved by RVers, the brand wasn’t landing with the corporate remote-work employers we needed next.

02

“Nomad” bridges both worlds

A term already known corporately (“digital nomad”) and native to the RVing world.

03

“Wrx,” not “Works”

Shortening Works to Wrx aligned the name with an available URL and popular naming trends of the time.

04

The hidden X

That X nods to the parent group, Xscapers, and its X-with-a-compass mark.

05

Received, then shelved

A company-wide restructuring and budget cuts paused the rebrand, but leadership received it well and took it seriously.

Outcome

Two clear paths where there was one fuzzy one.

Segmenting the employer audience into two tailored flows, each with its own page and pricing, gave very different customers an experience built for them. The NomadWrx rebrand was ultimately shelved amid a larger restructuring, but it was well received and seriously considered by leadership.

1 → 2 targeted employer flows
Per-type, market-researched pricing
Rebrand championed to leadership
Homepage Redesign · Brand Experience Refresh

Future is Now Coalition (FiNC)

FiNC project hero: the redesigned “We’re Building a New One” homepage shown in a browser window, with the real flip-card section (Digital Politics, Citizen Architects, Digital Democracy) and an interactive-timeline motif floating on the coalition’s indigo-to-magenta brand gradient.

The brief

The Future is Now Coalition had a massive mission and an outdated homepage buried under bloated copy. Historically, the org struggled to dole out its message in ways that didn’t visually or mentally overload visitors, and to reach modern, tech-savvy users without alienating less tech-savvy ones. As Senior Web Designer, I led the strategy and handled the full redesign: an interactive, highly usable landing page that delivers complex content in digestible pieces and keeps people engaged longer.

Approach

01

Discovery & research

Stakeholder interviews, a competitive analysis of peer organizations, and a read of existing user feedback to ground the redesign in real needs.

02

Strategy & definition

A UX-focused content strategy, a clear set of site requirements tied to user needs and business goals, and a map of the existing flows to expose every pain point.

03

Design & development

A new user flow and a fully responsive WordPress landing page in Elementor, built on the established brand style guide, with gradient-led coloring reinforcing the org’s nonpartisan positioning, SEO-minded copy edits, and original visual and motion content.

Homepage

The old homepage carried a sprawling mission in dense, copy-heavy bands that overloaded visitors. The redesign meters that same complexity out in digestible, interactive pieces: modern, motion-driven sections that hold attention longer without leaving less tech-savvy users behind.

Before
Original Future is Now Coalition homepage, top half: a long, copy-heavy single-column page with dense text bands.
old homepage (full page)
Original Future is Now Coalition homepage, bottom half: more dense text sections continuing down the page.
old homepage (continued)
After
Redesigned Future is Now Coalition homepage, first section: a hero film, gradient headline, and engagement buttons.
redesigned homepage (full page)
Redesigned Future is Now Coalition homepage, middle section: interactive, scroll-driven content with motion and flip cards.
redesigned homepage (continued)
Redesigned Future is Now Coalition homepage, final section: interactive timeline, social proof, and calls to action.
redesigned homepage (continued)
Strategy
A UI and flow built so visitors could absorb a large, complex mission without feeling overwhelmed: modern, interactive elements meter the content out and keep people moving down the page.
Brand continuity
Built on the established brand style guide, putting previously unused brand assets to work and reinforcing the org’s nonpartisan positioning through gradient-led coloring.

Sections in action

Inside the redesign

01

Hero video

An above-the-fold hero film created in collaboration with AI.

02

Smart top bar

Transparency increases as the user scrolls, keeping the hero immersive.

03

Always-on actions

Join & Donate buttons sit in the top bar for one-click access.

04

Compelling messaging

Headlines and copy driven by user research and SEO.

05

Interactive sticky section

Sticky-to-top scene with scrollable images, text, and a color-changing background.

06

Motion design

Continuous-loop Lottie animations add visual intrigue throughout.

07

Scroll-triggered text

Copy reveals on scroll inside a sticky-to-top container.

08

Flip-cards

Concepts presented in a user-friendly, easy-to-understand flip-card layout.

09

Stacking cards

Scroll-triggered stacks deliver dense, complex content without overwhelming the reader.

10

Interactive timeline

A scroll-triggered timeline in a sticky-to-top section for high user delight.

11

Social proof

Videos and appearances add conceptual depth and credibility.

12

Actionable content

A free, actionable resource paired with an invitation to join the movement.

13

Support options

A clear path to donate alongside the invitation to join.

Outcome

A mission made legible, and a page that earns the scroll.

Almost immediately, the redesigned user flows and targeted content strategy lifted engagement from a wider audience segment and supported the organization’s growth, all while staying fully responsive across mobile.

↑ Click-through rate
↑ Engagement & time on page
↓ Bounce rate
Research · Interviewing · Insight Synthesis · 2017–2025

Discovery & Synthesis

The discipline

Every strong piece of brand and creative strategy starts the same way: someone has to pull the real story out of the people who hold it: the executive who can’t see their own value, the founder buried in their own mission, the expert who assumes everyone already knows what they know. That extraction is its own discipline. Across 700+ interviews, I built a repeatable way to get people to open up, find the signal in what they say, and turn it into branding and marketing content that actually resonates with the audience it’s meant for.

The method

A repeatable interview-to-insight method, structured enough to scale, flexible enough to stay human.

01

Structured guiding questions

A consistent question framework gives every interview the same backbone, so I capture what I need and the output stays comparable across hundreds of subjects.

02

Room to tell the story

Inside that structure, I leave space for each person to go where the energy is. The unexpected tangent is usually where the real positioning hides.

03

Distill to targeted content

I synthesize each conversation down to the few things that matter, then translate them into branding and marketing content aimed squarely at the intended audience.

700+subject-matter experts interviewed
98%client success rate
3-stagerepeatable interview method
Section 02

Discovery Interviews

The same method, applied across very different subjects, from one-on-one client work to on-camera interview series built to shift how an audience thinks.

In practice

executive resume, p.1
executive resume, p.2

Senior Operations Executive

Targeting SVP / VP / Director of Operations

A leader whose career ran straight through every modern downturn, from 9/11 to the 2008 crash. The discovery interview surfaced a through-line they couldn’t quite name on their own: they take struggling assets and turn them into performing parts of the business, and they understand that the human-capital piece can make or break an operation. Synthesis meant committing to that single theme, consistent success in the face of struggle, and distilling everything else down until it carried the whole story.

healthcare resume, p.1
healthcare resume, p.2

Healthcare Program & Project Management

Targeting strategy & solution-design roles

A data-driven thinker just as comfortable in the “gray,” taking limited information and putting structure and a plan around it. The interview pulled out the signal that mattered more than any single accomplishment: a repeatable arc where they set vision and strategy, drive continuous improvement, then actually implement, across program direction, executive support, solution design, and integration. Synthesis was threading those moves into one continuous story instead of a list of wins, so the pattern did the talking.

On-camera interview series

Behind Hiring live series promo: host Lezlie Garr with guest Diana YK Chan and co-host Nii Ato

Behind Hiring

Live series · Restream + LinkedIn Live · Canva

A live, on-camera interview series I produced and hosted, bringing on a different hiring insider each month to show how job search, recruiting, and hiring really work. Live and unscripted is the harder version of the craft: asking the questions that get a guest talking candidly in the moment, then steering toward the takeaways the audience came for.

  • Nii-Ato Bentsi-Enchill, Career Coach
  • Greg Leos, Sr. VP & Hiring Mgr
  • Amy Garr, VP of HR
  • Carrie Burd, HR & DEI Leader
  • Madison Butler, HR Change-Maker
  • Ricklyn Woods, 4x Certified HR Pro
  • Teegan Bartos, Former Recruiter
  • Chelsea Jay, Career Coach
  • Jasmine Escalera, Career Coach
  • Shauna Cole, Diversity Job Board Founder
Ask Working RVers feature: Michelle, Head of Customer Success Management

Ask Working RVers

Video series · iPhone + iMovie · YouTube

A video interview series built to dismantle one specific objection: that you can’t rely on people who work from the road. I owned it end to end, from question design and sourcing through interviewing, filming, and the edit. The synthesis was the unlock, recutting the footage so a single question is answered by everyone in turn, which made the case land with the target audience far faster than any one full interview could.

Case study in progress

AI · Brand Identity

More Brand

The wider brand practice behind the headline projects: AI-built identities, hands-on craft and motion, research-driven copy, and decks that win the room.

Years
2019–2025
Role
Brand, Visual & Content Designer
More Brand preview

What’s inside

  • AI in Brand & Visual
  • GoodMaker Designs
  • Loma Paloma RV Park
  • Unknown Normal

Selected outcomes

3 brand identities in ~75 min with AI
Full brand lifecycles, name to launch
Brand work that grew a business
Coming soon

The full, detailed case studies are being compiled. Check back soon.

Case study in progress

Web & UX Design · Builds · AI

More Web

End-to-end web work: a real client build that turned a business around, an AI-driven UX process, and motion-rich landing pages across modern builders.

Years
2018–2025
Role
Web & UX Designer · Front-end Builder
More Web preview

What’s inside

  • AI for Web & UX
  • Immersive landing pages

Selected outcomes

AI-driven UX, ethics included
Concept to working demo in hours
New builder learned in 3 days
Coming soon

The full, detailed case studies are being compiled. Check back soon.

Case study in progress

Illustration · Motion & Video · Social · Writing

More Multimedia

Hands-on multimedia: original illustration and applied graphic systems, immersive web motion, and video I scripted, produced, and hosted end to end.

Years
2019–2025
Role
Multimedia, Motion & Video Designer
More Multimedia preview

What’s inside

  • Visual & Graphic Design
  • Motion & Video
  • Social Media
  • Writing & Copywriting
  • Presentation Design

Selected outcomes

Named a Top LinkedIn Job-Search Expert, 2 years running
Top posts at 144,000+ impressions
Pitched a new role into existence, and was hired into it
Coming soon

The full, detailed case studies are being compiled. Check back soon.