Insights from

FLA: FUTURE
OF BRANDING
WEEK 2018
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Future London Academy – Future of Branding Week 2018 #FLA_FOB

01
REBRANDING
BRANDING
Recently there has been a lot of discussion
around what branding actually means. Rejane
Dal Bello said she hates that people devalued
the meaning of graphic design by creating too
much slang around branding. So before everyone
jumps to a conclusion about the effectiveness
of the process or the price tag, let’s define what
branding actually is.

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“Branding is positively This definition establishes that:

influencing the collective
feeling towards a company,
product or service”
Ben Brookbanks, MultiAdaptor
— branding is not just visual design, it’s
everything from smells and sounds to
customer service and overall experience
— design agencies can’t control the brand,
they can only influence it

— good branding can change the feeling

toward the company

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02
PROCESS OR
NO PROCESS
As branding becomes more and more
complex, every agency comes up with
a process that will help them execute it
successfully.

NB Studio showed their 5-step process

called OSCAR. And I loved that they
assess ROI as a part of their process.

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MultiAdaptor took us through their process that

involved understanding the WHY (evaluating the
company, trends, market and consumers needs),
then coming up with ideas on HOW our new
brand might look and sound like and ended with
WHAT we can offer consumers that will match
one of their emotional needs.

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Although processes are truly necessary to

manage the client's expectations and control of
the outcome, some creatives find a way to stay
away from anything too restrictive. Brendan
Dawes said that processes are bullshit. It’s all
about getting from a mess to the thing you want.

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Tony Davidson from Wieden+Kennedy echoed

Brendan’s thinking, but with a remark:

"Good creativity comes out

of chaos, but for branding you
need process."
That’s why on F1 rebranding, it wasn’t only Tony
Davidson's and Richard Turley's approach of
pure craziness – they also had Trisha Comerford
and the entire team who were more process
driven and guided the project towards the end
goal. They still say that it’s wasn’t as linear
as in normal branding agencies, but it’s the
Wieden+Kennedy way.

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03
COLLABORATIVE
BRIEFING
The times of the good old fill-in briefs are over.
You can’t tell what needs to be done until you
do a thorough research. Eight Inc, for example,
dives deep into understanding everything about
the problem through a set of workshops with the
client which results in writing not one – but a set
of briefs for each opportunity uncovered. These
briefs can then be discussed with the client and
selected for further development.

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EVERYTHING STARTS
UGLY, EVEN BABIES
Brendan Dawes

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04
FLEXIBLE
BRANDS
Originally branding was used to But now brands are not owned
mark cows, so essentially it was by those who made them, they
all about ownership. are owned by everyone. We
talk about brands on social
media, celebrities wear them
to make brands look cooler.
So companies need to accept
that brands need to be much
more flexible. Like Airbnb did
it with their logo completely
eradicating the idea of
official guidelines.

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NB Studio rebranded
Ravensbourne with maximum
flexibility, so any member of
staff or a student could make
it their own.

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05
THE RISE OF
CUSTOM FONTS
It’s no news that typography is a
massive part of any brand. But in
recent years, we’ve seen big brands
starting to lose their identity in
pursuit of looking more modern.

That’s why creating a custom font became a

secret weapon of many creative agencies.
Tony Davidson with his team at
Wieden+Kennedy used this opportunity to
created a very bold, distinctive typeface for F1.

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Koto confirmed this trend with

showcasing their recent work
for Fanta and the cut-out font
they created for the rebrand.

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And Colophon showed us

a little bit more of the hard
work that goes into each
custom font, especially if it’s a
handwritten one.

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06
SONIC
BRANDING
Same as with custom fonts, sound design
right now is one of the most undervalued
assets of branding with only a few MassiveMusic also explained the architecture
companies establishing themselves in this of brand sounds, which can include the sonic
space. So whichever brand will involve logo (McDonald’s), watermarked music (James
sound in their strategy first will dominate Bond’s opening soundtracks), music curation
the space in the next 2-3 years. (Starbucks), product sound (Skype) and of
course, voice (Alexa, Siri and Cortana are really
struggling in this space).

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This is the most exciting time

ever to be a brand designer.
It can be delivered through
anything now. You can learn
everything you need to know
about Red Bull brand through
the space dive.

Dan Radley, NB Studio

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07
Brands that are
BRANDS WITH set on improving
our quality of life
A PURPOSE outperform the
stock market
by 120%
Since Simon Sinek’s ’Start with why’,
companies started to think a bit more
why they exist. But this process grew from
being a 'nice to have' to the core of any
company. Research shows that people
are more likely to buy from a brand that
is trying to make a positive impact on
the planet. And it’s good to see that
creative agencies are starting to play
a role in this during branding processes by
influencing companies to do something
good for this world.

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THERE IS NO B2B
OR B2C, THERE IS
ONLY H2H – HUMAN
TO HUMAN
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08
ANY LOGO
NEEDS TIME
When a company gets rebranded many
of the core fans get outraged by the
changes and simply hate the new logo.
During such times it’s very difficult for
the creator as well as for the client not
to panic and try to make adjustments.
You just need to take it away and live
with it for a bit. Phil Knight, founder
of Nike, didn’t like the Swoosh at the
beginning, but it grew on him eventually.

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09
GOING VIRAL
THROUGH CULTURE
Culture has always been underpinning creativity, humour
and social movements. And with the growth of social media
understanding culture became more and more important.
Alison Bracegirdle from We Are Social said "Pay attention to
what’s happening in the culture and think one step further.
Don’t imitate it." Gucci is a good example
Which means that if you saw everyone doing something on how to do it right.
Instagram – it’s probably too late for your brand to jump on
this trend. Instead, you should always be listening, watching
and collaborating with people who are shaping the culture
and come up with brave ideas that will become trends later.

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10
DESIGN
FOR GOOD
As creative people we have a
big responsibility to think where
we pour our creative energy. As
Rejane Dal Bello said “We can’t
control what will happen in the
future, but we can decide how
we can use our skills to influence
it for better” That’s why she
started her own life-long side
project that helps kids cope
with illnesses.

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11
CHOICE
BECOMES
A LUXURY
Ragged Edge highlighted the fact
that with smart algorithms we are
delegating choice more and more to
brands like Google, Netflix, Spotify
– who decide for us what we should
watch, listen and where we should
go. So very soon making your own
choice might become a luxury that
we will pay extra for.

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12
HOW TO BE
MORE CREATIVE
Do things you don't know
how to do
Say ‘yes’ first and then figure out how to do it.
Both Dines from Studio Blup and Brendan Dawes
live by this principle. Essentially, if someone offers
you a project that you really want to do but
don’t have a skill for, say ‘yes’ and use this as an
opportunity to learn the skill as fast as possible.

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Do silly projects

Brendan Dawes said he was offered a job
by the BBC after they saw a ridiculous
experiment that he did, which by the way,
did not have any purpose at all, apart from
having a bit of fun: vimeo.com/267097

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Do what you love

Don’t let your projects, clients or industry trends
control what type of work you do. Rejane Dal
Bello recommends that if at any point in your
career you realise that you really want to do
something – for example you really miss doing
hand type – go and do it.

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THE IDEA DOESN’T HAVE

TO BE BIG, IT JUST HAS TO
CHANGE THE WORLD

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