About this case study
Stillwater is a fictional brand created as a portfolio project to demonstrate the full range of my content strategy and editorial services.
My Role
Content Strategy
Website Copywriting
Brand Voice & Messaging
Editorial Planning
Editorial Writing
Copy and Line Editing
AI Content Editing
The Engagement
A founder came to me with scattered notes, a vague sense of what her brand should feel like, and AI-generated copy that sounded nothing like her. No voice. No strategy. No content plan. Just a launch date on the calendar and a clear picture in her head that she couldn't put into words.
That's where we started.
What followed was a full content strategy engagement built in five phases, from brand foundation to a launch-ready website. Every deliverable below is available as a standalone service. Together they show what it looks like when content is built on a foundation rather than assembled after the fact.
"I had someone try to help me draft a few things using AI and it came out sounding like a spa menu. Not what I want at all."
— Claire Navarro, Stillwater
PHASE 1 • Content Strategy
Before a word of content was written, the brand needed a foundation. I built three documents that established everything a writer needs to stay consistent: the voice, the strategic direction, and the long-term plan.
Brand Foundation Document
Voice, tone, positioning, audience, and visual direction, built from the founder's scattered notes into a usable north star.
Content Strategy Memo
A strategic recommendation for the first Journal piece: topic, angle, and the rationale behind every decision.
3-Month Content Roadmap
Twelve pieces mapped across the launch quarter, sequenced to build voice and trust before introducing product.
"The goal in the first quarter is not conversion. It’s recognition."
PHASE 2 • Editorial Writing
With the strategy in place, I wrote the first Stillwater Journal entry from scratch. Research-informed, voice-led, and built to execute the strategy memo brief exactly.
The Last Hour
An 808-word Journal essay on why the end of the day deserves as much intention as the start of it. Opens with the brand's core observation, develops the insight, closes with a quiet invitation.
“It's not about being more productive tomorrow by sleeping better tonight (though that tends to happen anyway). The goal is something simpler yet more radical: the last hour of your day treated as if it matters.”
PHASE 3 • Editing & AI-to-Human Voice
To demonstrate editing and AI-to-human voice work as separate services, I used a second article — an unguided AI draft on the science of scent as a sleep cue — as source material. The result is three proof points built from real AI output: the annotated edit, the side-by-side transformation, and the finished article.
Annotated Edit
The AI draft reviewed with a color-coded editorial comment framework. Voice flags, structure notes, and full rewrites called out with reasoning.
AI-TO-HUMAN voice TRANSFORMATION
A side-by-side before and after showing the full voice overhaul: key passages compared, an article excerpt, and a table explaining every change.
Why Scent Works
The finished Journal article: the AI draft taken through the full edit and published in Stillwater’s voice.
PHASE 4 • Website Copy
With the voice proven in editorial, the last test was the hardest one: a page where people decide whether to buy. I wrote the homepage and the product page for Stillwater’s best-selling candle, keeping every brand rule intact, including the promise never to claim the products fix sleep.
website copy deck
A homepage and a product page written as a copy deck: headlines, product descriptions, calls to action, SEO titles, navigation, and the small messages most writers skip, like signup confirmations and stock alerts. Each section includes the reasoning behind it.
“None of this will fix your sleep on its own.”
From the Stillwater homepage: the honest promise that makes the rest of the page believable.
The Takeaway
A finished article only tells you part of the story. This project documents the full chain, from a founder’s scattered notes to a launch-ready website, and shows every step along the way. The same voice runs from a strategy memo all the way to a cart message, and it never once promises to fix anyone’s sleep.
Each deliverable above is also available as a standalone service. You don't need the full engagement to work with me. If you need one thing, that's where we start.