About me
I am a Director level Brand Strategist who delivers solid strategic direction, guiding and articulating brand positioning, brand personality, brand architecture, tone of voice and naming strategies.
I help client Brand Marketing teams and Designers to develop Creative Strategies that truly build brands.
I facilitate and moderate creative workshops.
My clients range in size from small start-ups and SMEs to global multi-nationals.
I am a practised collaborator, helping others to grow and achieve their goals.
Projects
- Mentoring: Project OliveSeoGyeong Kim, Olive, is a Brunel University London Design Strategy and Innovation MA student from Korea. I met her after being invited to attend the Design Masters Industry Student Review on the 8th March 2017. What was involved? "During the event you will be an active participant, hearing first hand from the students and seeing their research ideas. During the review, students will display their projects and early concepts using art boards and artefacts in an exhibition style-format...hearing first hand from students about their research proposals. There will be 48 students exhibiting their projects during the evening, we would like you to speak to as many students as possible. Our aim is to build student self-esteem through your constructive comments and bring professional/practical perspectives to their project direction...and will ultimately help to drive forward the innovative and entrepreneurial culture of our students." Amanda Baker, Project Manager I was lucky to spend a few minutes with around seven students at the event and offer a perspective on how developing a brand could influence their proposals. Olive and I had a long discussion about the definition of 'lifestyle' and I challenged her to see beyond fashion brands. Our discussions continued after the Review and I was one of four experts who were interviewed in-depth as part of her research. This is her response to my final suggestions for developing her project: "Lifestyle-driven design can change the future of startups". Apologies to her, I have taken the liberty of tweaking her grammar. "The moment I read your email I was so impressed, your deep analysis and sincere consideration towards my work was more detailed than I could have expected. It's easy to understand each clear point, step by step. This feedback inspired me a lot and I've learned more things from your opinions and have gained meaningful direction. Your advice has allowed me to satisfy my desire to deliver a clear concept and I am now going to develop my work further based on your direction. You are the person who gave the most instructive lessons and fully aided me in my studies. Thank you so much and best wishes every moment." SeoGyeong Kim I can't claim that Olive was my 'project'. The results of her work will be assessed by more qualified people than myself, but her response to my comments made me feel pretty good and I couldn't ask for a better testimonial. Thanks Olive. Lauren Jones is another alumnus of the Brunel University, who studied the Masters Design Futures course. She now runs her own consultancy, Box Creative. I caught up with her recently at a workshop for one of her clients and she told me, “Your talk really did stick with me and inspired beyond the course.” Thanks Lauren. And thanks Brunel.
- Magnum Seven SinsThe Unilever Ice Cream Innovation Centre in Rome wanted to 'put a sensual buzz into every adult's day' through the pan-European launch of Magnum Seven Deadly Sins, already successfully launched with different graphics and positioning in Australia. The challenge was how to communicate Seven Deadly Sins to the European market. Ben Pearman, European Brand Manager on Magnum said, "I needed to crack the particular problem we had in communicating such a potentially controversial concept, Sin. So what was needed was excellent creative thinking as well as beautiful visuals". Post launch, Magnum Seven Deadly Sins was considered by Unilever to be a "proud innovation" and was used as a case study by their Innovation Process Management team in a global roadshow for all Unilever companies and employees. The initial brief was to look at alternative launch platforms which also resulted in Magnum 'The Five Senses' concept.
- KP Space Raiders KP Space Raiders was one of the highlights of my career, an opportunity to revamp ‘KP Space Invaders’ with illustrators Alex Machin and the late Brett Ewins (a legendary graphic novel illustrator and creator famous for his work with 2000AD) for BDFS Limited. I was lucky enough to take the characters created by Alex and work with Brett to develop the characters and scenes that featured on the final packaging.
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Work history
Strategy Director1HQ
Maidenhead, United KingdomFull Time
A creative craft cooperative, developing collaborations with a network of craftspeople, designers, artists, thinkers and makers to produce collections of original limited edition prints and merchandise.
Senior Brand StrategistDesign Bridge and Partners
- London, United KingdomFull Time
Leading the strategic thinking on projects, understanding the role that creative strategy played in visual and verbal identities, packaging design and brand assets; simplifying, clarifying and inspiring for clients and internal creative teams.
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Skills
- Brand Architecture
- Brand Positioning
- Brand Naming
- Creative Workshops
- Brand Vision
- Copywriting
- Brand Creation
- Brand Creative Strategy
- Design Thinking
- Brand Stories
Education
B
B
Dip SIADBarnfield College
- United Kingdom
SIAD-accredited, 3 year course in Graphic Design
(Society of Illustrators, Artists & Designers - later The Chartered Society of Designers)
A brilliant, vocationally-focused course. Ian Dury put the college on the map by teaching there.