Every lesson

The thinking before the drawing. What a brand is, who it is for, how it is positioned, and what makes its logo its own.

Watch · How to build a strong brandEhrenberg-Bass InstituteIPA Effectiveness case studies

For a founder building a small Indian consumer brand alone, on little money. What to pay for first, a one-page brief, a free trademark check on IP India, a homemade wordmark and an eight-page brand book, ending with No. 4 worked through and then your own.

How brands live online now. How memes move and when to join in, Indian brands online, creators, community and mistakes made in public, a reference diet and a teardown method, ending with No. 4's first month online planned and then yours.

Getting to a name that is available, sayable and yours. Types of name, screening, trademark classes, and the checks that kill most candidates.

Watch · How to create a great brand nameWIPO Global Brand DatabaseEUIPO trade mark search

Everything an identity is besides the logo. Marks, lockups, clear space, responsive behaviour, and the rules that hold a system together.

Watch · Brand Visual Identity Guide in 20 minutes | branding theory ep.3, visual identity, brand guidelinesBrand New, Under ConsiderationIdentity Designed

Colour as an owned asset. Primary, secondary and extended palettes, ratios, accessibility, and what it takes to trademark a colour.

Watch · How to Choose The RIGHT Brand Colors? 🤷‍♂️Pantone ConnectCadbury purple, the trademark judgment

Choosing and licensing type for a brand that has to set everything from a billboard to a legal footnote.

Watch · Choosing the perfect logo fontTypotheque articlesGoogle Fonts

How a brand sounds. Voice against tone, vocabulary, taglines, product names and the small words in an interface.

Watch · The four dimensions of tone of voiceGOV.UK content style guideMailchimp content style guide

The document everybody ignores, and how to write one they do not. Structure, rules with reasons, and keeping it alive after handover.

Watch · The NASA Graphics Standards ManualNASA Graphics Standards Manual, 1975Standards Manual archive

The pack as the strongest thing a brand owns. Hierarchy front and back, dielines, substrates, legal copy, and the shelf it has to survive.

GS1 barcode specificationsEU food information to consumers

Where the identity meets the world. Signage, stationery, uniforms, vehicles, interfaces and the templates other people will use.

GOV.UK Design System componentsTransport for London standards

How the brands in a portfolio relate. House of brands, endorsement, naming a range, and what to do with the one you just bought.

What the evidence actually says. Memory, mental availability, fluency and price, with the replication problem named rather than hidden.

Everything a brand owns that is not its logo. A place, a cast, a vocabulary, a ritual, a smell, and the worlds that collapsed.

The words, grouped by where you will hear them. On a brief, in a print quote, in a contract, and the ones agencies use that mean nothing.

Watch · 65 design terms you should knowFontology, the type glossaryPrinting industry glossary, PrintWiki

Five changes with the arguments attached, including the ones that were reverted and the ones nobody noticed.

Brand New reviewsGap's 2010 logo reversal

Running the work. Briefs, discovery, presenting, feedback, pricing, handover, and clients who do not agree with you.

AIGA standard form of agreementDesign Council, the double diamond