After years of operating under the name CZYK Design, creative professional Anna Wanczyk has completely rebranded her studio with a much simpler moniker: Anna. The rebrand represents more than just a name change, reflecting her commitment to collaboration with clients, creative partners, and the broader design community while addressing practical issues that had plagued her original business name since 2019.

Wanczyk established her design studio in 2019, initially using the CZYK Design name without much consideration. The name had carried over from previous side projects, but she quickly discovered it created numerous challenges in her professional interactions. "No one could spell CZYK Design. No one knew how to say it. No one ever tagged me with the right business name. I hated saying it, and it didn't sit right with me," Wanczyk explained. She admitted that she never truly intended for it to serve as her primary company name, having simply adopted it by default from earlier freelance work.

Beyond pronunciation difficulties, the CZYK Design name failed to capture the essence of Wanczyk's actual business approach, which has always centered on collaborative partnerships. Her work involves various forms of cooperation – sometimes directly with clients, other times with networks of fellow creatives, and occasionally in partnership with established agencies. This collaborative philosophy became the driving force behind her decision to rebrand and find a name that better represented her values and working style.

The inspiration for the new "Anna" identity came during an informal conversation with friend Eleanor Calsy-Harrison, who also works as a strategist and writer. While many agencies invest countless hours in strategic workshops and naming exercises, Wanczyk's breakthrough moment happened over a casual drink. She had been debating whether to remove her surname from the brand entirely or position herself as a "collective," but Calsy-Harrison cut through the complexity by suggesting simply "Anna" – a name that offered simplicity, flexibility, and open-ended possibilities.

The emotional impact of hearing this suggestion was immediate and powerful for Wanczyk. "My eyes filled with tears. I was like, 'That's it!' and realized it was my new name," she recalled. The simplicity of the solution provided instant clarity after months of overthinking more complicated alternatives. This reaction confirmed that she had found the right direction for her brand's evolution.

Wanczyk's reasoning for choosing her first name reflects her understanding of how clients perceive and engage with her business. "People are very much buying into me – the people I work with," she explained. Rather than creating an artificial sense of scale or hiding behind a corporate-sounding name, she wanted to maintain the personal connection that drives her client relationships. "I didn't want to take myself out of the situation and come up with something that felt meaningless, so I could look like a bigger studio or whatever."

The rebrand also serves as a platform to promote collaborative working models within the creative industry. Wanczyk sees value in demonstrating how independent professionals can come together to deliver high-quality projects, offering clients an alternative to traditional agency structures. "I really wanted to champion and celebrate collective working, independents coming together to deliver projects, to show people it is an option," she stated.

Although the initial idea emerged in 2022, the rebrand timeline extended when Wanczyk discovered she was expecting her second child. Rather than rushing the process, she used her maternity leave as an opportunity for deeper reflection and proper planning. "Knowing I couldn't get it all done before my maternity leave forced me to think it through properly and gave me time to launch the right thing," she noted. This extended timeline ultimately benefited the project, allowing for a more thoughtful and comprehensive approach to the new brand identity.

The visual identity development process embraced the same collaborative principles that inspired the name change. Wanczyk initially experimented with pattern-based designs but quickly abandoned this direction when she realized it felt too trend-driven and temporary. Instead, she discovered a more meaningful approach through typography, recognizing that mixing and matching different typefaces could serve as a visual metaphor for various forms of creative partnership.

"Every project is different. Every client has different needs. The combination could be different for any project," Wanczyk explained, describing how the typographic flexibility mirrors her adaptable working style. This concept led her to explore fonts from Kyiv Type Foundry, a resource she had bookmarked years earlier but never had the opportunity to use professionally.

The choice of Ukrainian typography carries deep personal significance for Wanczyk, who has Ukrainian heritage on both sides of her family. Many of the selected fonts come from the Kyiv Metro collection, created by students who drew inspiration from letterforms found throughout the metro system during the early months of the ongoing war. The foundry directs sales proceeds toward supporting Ukrainian refugees, adding a humanitarian dimension to the design choice.

"It's incredible what they're doing," Wanczyk said of the foundry's work. "Using those fonts was an opportunity to celebrate what they're doing and bring some of my heritage into my brand." The ampersands featured in the identity are deliberately unconventional, derived from typefaces rooted in Cyrillic signage and newspaper design. "It just all looks a bit different and I'm a bit like that – a bit untraditional," she added.

The communication strategy accompanying the rebrand reflects Wanczyk's commitment to authenticity and directness. Her public announcement of the name change was notably candid, featuring humor and straightforward language while avoiding the industry jargon that often clutters design-focused social media posts. This approach was entirely intentional and reflects her broader philosophy about professional communication.

"I've always been like that, really – a little bit too honest, sometimes. I value honesty," Wanczyk acknowledged. She expressed frustration with what she perceives as widespread pretension within the design industry, dating back to when she first entered the field in 2006. "There's a lot of bullshit in the industry, and I don't think any more needs adding to it. I want to change some things."

Working alongside her husband, copywriter Mark Johnson, Wanczyk developed a brand voice that translates her natural communication style into professional content. "I am a human and I'm trying to speak to other humans. I think in a sea of AI-generated posts and LinkedIn slop, it's even more important to sound like a human, even (or especially) if that means letting a few rough edges show. We ain't selling to robots!" This approach prioritizes genuine connection over polished perfection.

The "Anna" name deliberately maintains an open-ended quality, providing flexibility for future growth and diversification. Wanczyk envisions the brand accommodating various types of projects, whether digital-first rebrands, comprehensive campaigns, or exhibition work. "I think the options are endless! I'm not afraid of a challenge, I love learning new things, and I could partner with anyone with any expertise to produce whatever the project needs," she explained.

For clients, the new brand promises a more inclusive and collaborative experience. Rather than feeling like passive recipients of design services, Wanczyk wants clients to feel actively involved in the creative process. "I want people to feel like Anna is open, like they are part of the process and the project. This isn't something that's being done to them, it's a collaboration with me, or with me and other experts."

Beyond immediate business goals, Wanczyk has longer-term aspirations for using her platform to address diversity and accessibility issues within the creative industry. She particularly wants to create opportunities for creatives from working-class backgrounds, drawing from her own experience navigating industry barriers. "At some point, and this is a way off, I would like to be able to help them with the barriers into the industry and provide them with the opportunities that you don't always get if you've been brought up in the north, with the wrong accent, by a welder and an NHS admin worker, without the right connections and lots of money," she explained.

This social mission builds on previous work Wanczyk did with Eve Warren on the Yorkshire chapter of Kerning the Gap, an organization focused on increasing diversity in design. While these plans remain in early development, they represent a clear intention to use her professional success as a vehicle for broader positive change within the creative community.

The rebrand from CZYK Design to Anna represents more than a simple name change – it embodies a comprehensive reimagining of how a design studio can operate, communicate, and contribute to its industry. Through embracing simplicity, authenticity, and collaboration, Wanczyk has created not just a new brand identity, but a platform for the kind of creative work and professional relationships she believes the industry needs more of.