Brands are awesome. Adaptable, resilient, meaningful plus they matter so much to people. They envoke feelings, they have lives and personalities and we trust them (well, some at least).

I admit that I might be slightly compulsive when it comes to branding. I have an ongoing affair with them. I read too much, I think too much about them, and I plan to do my Masters in brand strategy at VCU.

There’s nothing better than getting a blank slate to create a brand on. A company has its business strategy down, its organizational goals are set, and needs a little spark of brilliance to turn the tangible business services or product into intangible brands that glitter in communication.

Brands are far more that simply a logo, typography or product name.

I’m from the school of thought that they are rather the amalgamation of tangible and intangible benefits that a product or service provides. A brand is a complex web of meanings, emotions and the strongest promise that can be made to consumer.

A brand is a network of emotional input.

A company creates, develops and maintains a brand, but the real value comes from the reciprocal meanings consumers negotiate with the brand.

These brand meanings that come from all touchpoints of a brand result in a strong brand, which translates into firm and shareholder value (of course assuming that the brand actually delivers value for the consumer).

Essentially I creatively approach the development of brands with a solid branding research perspective, which undoubtedly brings about a different approach and better outcomes for my clients.

I use advanced semiological research in all brand development, and unlike commercial semiotic agencies, I don’t charge the earth for the added value it brings to brand development.

By mapping out the system of signs and defining the code movements that influence my clients’ marketplace, semiotics provides an accurate way of decoding the cultural environment their brand works within. Further, it offers a creative opportunity for informed brand development in an ever changing cultural context.

I love advertising. I’m that guy who reads ad journals for fun, and archives commercials for a hobby. After my masters I’m going to get into strategy on agency side. That’s my dream.

But for now the closest I get is doing various brand development, which I enjoy immensely.

It’s not too easy to put up a portfolio of the work I’ve done recently, as showing the research and background that went

into these brand semiotics is where the majority of work is done.

I thought long and hard about providing the qualitative and quantitative research that has gone into some of these brands, but I think that the work speaks for itself.

So, here’s a tip of the iceberg.

Proffesional Escrow Association
Professional Escrow Association was a recent brand development that I undertook in the first month of being in London. As a squarely B2B brand focusing on Escrow, the brand took form from a simple keyhole iconography in a rounded off black box. Although it looks basic, it was exactly what the client was looking for.
• Read the strategy.
• View the brand template.

WhiteShoes
Four basic illustrator shapes form the flower motif of this research company’s core business processes creating a simple plus sign in the middle intersection. Memorable and effective on the simple side.

SR Air-conditioning
Air-conditioning = the balance of hot and cold temperatures.
Air-conditioning company iconography = the mixture of hot and cold to create a logo that delicately balances the two.
In reality = easier said than done.

Hit Delete
The brief was basically make a simple and effective logo for a new web design company. Corporate, modern and cool. That’s exactly what happened. I have a soft spot for this logo; it came from a month of exuberance, over looking Cape Town, listening to Bedouin Soundclash. Isn’t it strange how work acts as a repository for good times?

HourGlass Entertainment
Nice simple clean green 3D orb with an hourglass like reflection makes all the difference when it comes to mobile entertainment. Multiple illustrator reflections and multiple masking makes this logo distinctively Web2.0.