In 2005, Fairholme Capital founder Bruce Berkowitz—later named Morningstar’s “Domestic Equity Fund Manager of the Decade”—entrusted Lanzara Studio with reconceptualizing and producing the websites for Fairholme Capital and the Fairholme Fund. The success of this initiative sparked a close, decade-long partnership that spanned every aspect of Fairholme’s creative marketing and branding.
Beyond the early websites and their subsequent evolutions, we developed a new logo, tagline, and corporate identity while crafting a compelling narrative around Fairholme’s value investing philosophy. Our challenge was to distill complex investment principles into clear, accessible messaging that would inspire confidence among everyday investors.
From 2005 to 2011, the Fairholme Fund’s assets surged from a few hundred million dollars to over $20 billion—growth driven largely by new investor inflows rather than capital gains. While Fairholme’s exceptional performance was the primary catalyst, we believe our unconventional, highly creative branding (especially by Wall Street standards) played a pivotal role. With its irreverent tone and bold positioning, our work helped Fairholme cut through Wall Street’s traditional image, attracting a devoted following of 500,000 investors committed to “Ignoring the Crowd.”
Over the years, we led or contributed to hundreds of brand-defining projects, including:
Fund prospectus design and production
Corporate identity and stationery
Private investor presentations (print and digital)
Design and development of Bruce Berkowitz’s personal blog
Print advertising campaigns, digital advertising banners
Trade show booth design and production
Copywriting and editing of investor relations communications to 500,000 shareholders
Investment application design
Concept and development of websites showcasing investment theses for specific investments (Sears, Imperial Metals)
Oversight of third-party service administrators (such as BNY Mellon) on backend design, UX/UI, and development for client account interfaces
Business strategy consulting and crisis management slide decks for the St Joe Company, a lead holding
Lanzara Studio stands ready to help nascent financial firms and asset managers exceed their marketing goals. We can’t guarantee Fairholme’s success, but we’ll try.
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Fairholme entities AUM exceeded $20 billion at their 2011 peak