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THE CORE PHILOSOPHY

Strategy and craft are one discipline. But the audit always comes first.

We don’t believe in redesigns for the sake of new wallpaper. Tearing down the house when you only need to fix the foundation is expensive, exhausting, and usually unnecessary.

At Noise 13, we believe in Diagnosis before Design.

For over 26 years, we’ve worked with founder-led brands where the sensory experience is important to the product — brands you taste, touch, and walk into. Food is our home base: it’s where the deepest expertise, community, and credibility live. But the methodology applies wherever the brand has to work in the real world — on a shelf, in a space, in someone’s hands.

We’ve watched these brands hit the same wall. Momentum outpaces the story. The brand drifts from its original vision. The physical experience no longer matches the digital promise. And as more of business moves to screens, the brands that live in physical space need more strategic clarity, not less.

You can’t design your way out of a strategic gap. You have to audit the reality, distill the truth, and then—and only then—amplify it through design and messaging.

The Principal

Dava Guthmiller
The Strategist in the Room Noise 13 was founded and is led by Dava Guthmiller.
Dava Guthmiller

Noise 13 was founded and is led by Dava Guthmiller.

Dava isn't just an agency executive; she is a practitioner, tastemaker, and community builder deeply embedded in the food and sustainability ecosystems. With over two decades of experience diagnosing brand systems and building resilient architectures, she developed the Brand Pantry™ methodology to give founders clarity before they spend a dime on execution.

When you partner with Noise 13, you are hiring a seasoned strategist to look under the hood of your business. You get hands-on access, intimate collaboration, and the unvarnished truth about where your brand is leaking value.
Speaking & Press
Featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Communication Arts, Print, The Dieline, Creative Boom. Podcast guest on How Brands Are Built, Just Branding, The Empathy Edge, and others.
Community
B-Corp aligned. Board Chair Les Dames d'Escoffier SF. Judge for Good Food Awards. Founder and Curator for In/Visible Talks Conference. Former Board Member of Slow Food SF and Slow Food California, Instructor at the Academy of Art University.

A lean core. A massive capability.

Noise 13’s creative execution is handled by a curated team. You pay for overhead you don’t need. Our tight, full-time core team anchored by Dava and our lead designer, supported by a long-standing network of specialized consultants, copywriters, and developers.

We scale up for any phase when the strategy demands it, and scale down when it doesn’t. You only pay for the exact execution expertise your strategic roadmap requires.

We are makers, thinkers, and problem solvers dedicated to sensory, physical, and founder-driven brands.

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