RATCHETING UP THE ART OF BRAND COMMUNICATION
ABOUT THE WORK OF RATCHET
Ratchet – the branding and communications studio for Thad DeVassie – has a straight-forward purpose: to help brands and organizations effectively articulate their mission critical messages to the right audience. Determining how best to develop key messages and tell compelling stories is what ratchet does best.
Prior to and as part of ratchet, Thad has been instrumental in guiding change management decisions for companies and helping local startups launch at home as well as Silicon Valley. He has worked with major fashion retailers and strapped on plastic boots to interview and film America's poultry, hog and dairy farmers in their barns. He has articulated a higher education vision and value proposition to students and their parents. He has named, branded and rebranded companies, led organizations to better express their value and articulate their values, and carefully selected the words to help small and large organizations alike tell stories that give audiences a reason to take notice and care.
Collectively this begins to represent the kind of strategic communication initiatives that ratchet thrives on.
ABOUT THAD
After 16 years of focusing on and telling the stories of others, Thad refocused his efforts toward stories he wanted to tell and the ones he had neglected. In 2012, he and his wife adopted their youngest son from China. In 2014, Thad and his oldest son traveled to Cambodia and later embarked on a fundraising and building campaign of a family-style home for 22 orphaned children through Asia's Hope that opened nine months later. He has become an advocate for orphan care, traditional and special needs adoption, and the plight of orphans around the world with his wife and three children.
In 2016, he and co-founder Jeremy Slagle launched Joy Venture – a platform for sharing stories of dreamers and doers who are actively discovering, developing and spreading their joy with the world.
Thad’s lifelong appreciation of arts and letters continues to inform his own creative practice. He has been published widely in literary magazines, academic journals, and is the author of four small books, including Domesticated Creatures, which arrives in summer 2026. He also is an avid artist/painter with work appearing regularly in juried exhibitions, galleries and private collections.