Rachel Simms, RGD

Creative Director

Rachel Simms is the founder and Creative Director of Broadbent Studio, a brand and website design studio based in Hamilton, Ontario. With over a decade of experience and Canada's highest professional design designation — Registered Graphic Designer (RGD) — Rachel works at the intersection of strategy, identity, and trust to help health and wellness practitioners and professional service firms build brands that reflect the true depth of their expertise.
 
Strategy Before Aesthetics
At the heart of Rachel's work is the Diamond Blueprint, a proprietary brand strategy methodology that ensures every project begins with clarity, not creativity for creativity's sake. Before a single logo concept is explored, clients work through a deep discovery process to define their ideal client, their competitive position, and the specific problems they exist to solve. The result is a brand that doesn't just look right; it feels right to the people it's built to attract.
 
Designing for High-Trust Professionals
Rachel specializes in two distinct groups: health and wellness practitioners, therapists, naturopaths, chiropractors, and physiotherapists, and professional service firms, including lawyers, HR consultants, and accountants. What these clients share is an earned expertise that their brand often fails to communicate. Rachel's work closes that gap, transforming practitioners and firm owners from best-kept secrets into recognizable, trusted authorities in their field.
 
Community, Education, and Legacy
Rachel's impact extends well beyond client work. As a professor of graphic design, she equips the next generation of designers with both the craft and the business literacy to build sustainable careers. She has also contributed her skills to organizations, including Brave Beginnings, an initiative supporting survivors of gender-based violence. For Rachel, design has always been about more than aesthetics. It’s a tool for visibility, equity, and meaningful connection.
 
Her belief is straightforward: when high-trust professionals show up with the brand they deserve, the right clients find them.