Case study · Connection Lab
I made the Six-Box Model clear to someone seeing it for the first time
Connection Lab reports 96% satisfaction from its agency-day program. The site had never shown it.
- Role
- What they do
- Communication training for teams
- Platform
- Webflow
- Timeline
- Sep 2025–Mar 2026
What I walked into
Connection Lab had never hired a designer, or anyone who does brand work, before I came on. There was no visual language to extend and no house style to inherit, so positioning, design, and build all happened at once.
Their whole practice is built around a trademarked framework, the Six-Box Model™. Three questions run one way: how you show up under stress, how you want to show up, what you want to get better at. Three relationships run the other: self, content, audience. Six boxes, each one standing on its own. The site had to make that grid legible to someone seeing it for the first time.
What I built
I gave the Six-Box Model™ a treatment loud and recognizable enough to use everywhere: the homepage, the Enterprise Programs page, and its own dedicated page, always the same tile and grid. It’s the model the whole practice runs on, so the site needed everyone to recognize it on sight.
Their old tagline leaned on “authentic”: “Authentic Communication, Presentation and Leadership Development.” The positioning work turned up a problem: the word itself had become a liability. “Performance” and “authenticity” both turned out to be third-rail words for this audience: they sound right, then get stuck in semantic debates the moment someone tries to define them. Same problem “empathy” has after a decade on motivational posters. Naming that trap early kept the new copy out of it.
I would be very proud to send people to this. I think it becomes a meaningful tool. I don’t think it’s ever been that.”
Russ Hamilton
Founder & CEO, Connection Lab
I think it looks fantastic. Really good. I’m not used to feeling proud.”
Russ Hamilton
Founder & CEO, Connection Lab
After: styled on the live site. Drag to compare.
For context
Connection Lab reports 96% satisfaction from its agency-day program. It’s the standard the brand had to live up to: a company that delivers like that needed a site that matched what it delivers.
Every page, whole
Seven pages, from the homepage that makes the case to the Six-Box Model page it all points back to.
Closer in
Full width, one at a time. These are the moments worth stopping on.
Straight answers. You’ll hear what the fix would cost, and if it isn’t worth the money, I’ll say so.
Or write to me: [email protected]
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