Sure, you can vibe-code your website.

But you can't 'vibe-brand' your company.

Don't outsource thinking to the robots,
you silly meatbag.

I offer brand strategy, design, and creative direction for founders and startups.


WORK

unimo

UNIMO

Making a technical AI product in a traditionally unsexy industry feel warm, human, and impossible to ignore.

Driller Queens

DRILLER QUEENS

Proving a strong brand can save you six figures in marketing. National press, TV, an ARTE documentary reaching 70M households. Zero paid spend.

Other Nature

OTHER NATURE

A brand positioning and strategy workshop for a beloved 15-year Berlin sex shop.


FORMERLY IN-HOUSE AT

Blacklane
GetYourGuide
National Express
Mondelez
Hell yes

If you'd like to poke around the archives, you can find them here. (I wrapped a plane once. It's pretty cool, you should probably go and have a look.)


ABOUT

Charly Machin

Most brand strategists haven't founded a company. Most founders don't come from a brand strategy background.

I've done both. I ran Driller Queens for six years, which taught me exactly what it feels like to build the plane while flying it.

Originally from the UK, based in Berlin for the last ten years. Twenty years of experience across brand strategy, design, and creative direction.

Hire me for project-based work, or get me in fractionally if you want me hanging out in your Slack channels.

When I'm not doing this, I run a shared creative space in Oberschöneweide, consult for small businesses, and still install the occasional kitchen when I feel like it.


HIRE ME

What I do:

  • Brand creation and strategy
  • Brand positioning and messaging
  • Content strategy and copywriting
  • Design and illustration
  • Agentic development (not vibe coding, I don't outsource thinking to the robots)
  • Strong AI skills, I build my own tools

What I'm like to work with:

  • Direct but warm feedback. No lip service.
  • Once described as "boringly organised for a creative person"
  • Systems-oriented thinker
  • ADHD myself, so I work well with neurodivergent founders
  • I write my own briefs, no Google Forms in sight
  • Will answer your incessant Slack messages, and only be mildly annoyed
Oh, go on then