deisgn/leader: Conran Design Group’s Lee Hoddy

Lee Hoddy is creative partner at Conran Design Group. The global brand and design agency works with clients like Reckitt, Sofitel and Peugeot.

Design

What would your monograph be called?

Brand EVangelist: How EV sparked a new era in experience design.

We’re seeing the EV revolution redefine the automotive sector – brands like Tesla, Polestar and Rivian are showing up with innovative, immersive brand ecosystems and demonstrating a really progressive use of film and digital. And experience design is playing a leading role.

What recent design work made you a bit jealous?

The recent Heinz work by JKR and Wieden+Kennedy, with Studio DRAMA’s typographic refresh. They called it a “quiet evolution” – it’s anything but. They’ve modernised a classic without losing its iconic edge.

The latest It has to be… campaign is pure class: restrained, confident, and unmistakably Heinz. It’s such a joy to see iconic, crafted creativity in play – stripping things back to bold ideas and beautifully executed brand assets.

Distinctive, memorable and totally ownable – a welcome standout in a sea of inauthentic, AI-infused noise.

Studio DRAMA’s type work for Heinz

What’s an unusual place you get inspiration from?

It’s not really a place – it’s more of a balance between two opposing states. On one side, there’s sociability – the buzz of a good chat in the studio, ideas bouncing around and growing into something bigger. A democratic, energising atmosphere where everyone’s in it together. Feels electric. I love that.

Then there’s solitude. Not so much a physical space, more a headspace. It usually shows up in the in-between moments – on the Tube, during a quiet 15 outside the office, in the middle of a mindless chore.

It’s when the day’s noise fades, and the background distractions become oddly welcome. It’s a different kind of clarity.

Both are inspiring in their own way. One’s loud and collaborative, the other quiet and personal. And somewhere between the two is where the good stuff lives.

Name something that is brilliantly designed but overlooked.

Automotive infotainment UX is a bit of a masterclass in clarity and utility. At its best, it’s invisible. The design isn’t shouting for attention – it’s whispering just loudly enough.

An elegantly designed map, intuitive iconography, minimal design distractions. It balances real-time data with calm, intuitive, thoughtful design – always adapting, never overwhelming.

It’s a good reminder that simplicity isn’t about taking everything away – it’s about making sure that what’s there actually matters.

What object in your studio best sums up your taste?

Michael Sodeau’s Bob stool, an elegant little perch made from wine cork waste. It’s a reminder that good design balances function, personality and responsibility.

I also love our own brand’s playful illustrations, dotted around the studio. They’re a visual reminder that design doesn’t always have to take itself too seriously, and that sometimes a bit of wit can go a long way.

The Bob Stool. Photo courtesy Modus Furniture. Photo by Jake Curtis.

Leadership

What feedback felt brutal at the time, but turned out to be useful?

Back in the days of Apple Macs, I remember showing some early concepts to my creative director. I was deep into that David Carson, rule-breaking, West Coast design anarchy phase.

He looked at my work, took a drag on his Marlboro Red, and said, “Style over substance. Get back to making ideas.”

At the time, it felt harsh. But it was exactly what I needed to hear. He wasn’t knocking the energy or the experimentation – he was reminding me that it only matters if it’s in service of the idea. That style without substance is just noise. And that good design starts with the idea – you can’t post-rationalise after the fact.

It stuck with me. Still does. Creativity should always be rooted in the brief, shaped by the problem, and driven by the desire to make something that connects.

That moment taught me to strip it back and keep it simple. And it’s something I’ve carried with me – stay curious, embrace the new – but always come back to the central idea.

What’s an underappreciated skill that design leaders need?

For me, it’s the ability to balance confidence with humility – and to recognise that both are needed, often at the same time.

It’s a delicate balance, and it’s easy to tip too far in either direction.

As leaders, we’re expected to provide clarity, make the tough calls and navigate uncertainty. That kind of confidence can be incredibly reassuring for a team. But it can harden into overconfidence, and lead to rigidity, blind spots, and a resistance to change.

The truth is, we don’t always have the answers. We make mistakes. And that’s ok. What matters is being open about those moments, sharing what we’ve learned and creating space for others to do the same.

In a nutshell, lead with confidence but keep your ego in check…

What keeps you up at night?

The shape of the future studio – not in a “recurring nightmare” kind of way, but in a way that keeps me alert, engaged, and creatively restless.

We all know that traditional agency models and structures are under the spotlight. And with that comes a healthy dose of self-reflection.

What do clients actually need? What will facilitate, accelerate and inspire the best possible creative work in the future?

Curiosity, collaboration and beautifully crafted ideas are still everything. But the way we create, connect and bring those ideas to life has definitely evolved.

What trait is non-negotiable in new hires?

Genuine curiosity and the energy needed to chase down an idea.

Skills evolve, and tools change, but that hunger is non-negotiable – it’s the metronome of a creative career. It’s what leads to the best work, builds trust with clients, and keeps the job exciting.

Complete this sentence, “I wish more clients…”

… appreciated the power of bespoke typography – and more face-to-face time with their agencies!

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Tomorrowism’s new brand reasserts Heal’s design credentials

Heal’s has been a cornerstone of British interiors for more than two centuries. The heritage retailer is best known for bringing contemporary furniture, lighting, and design into British homes, introducing audiences to new styles and ideas long before they became mainstream.

To grasp just how deep its roots run, CEO Hamish Mansbridge offers a quick history lesson. “Heal’s has always been about bringing new ideas to Britain. It was the first to bring proper mattresses to the UK. Before that, you would have been sleeping on a bag of straw, if you were lucky. Otherwise, just the straw.”

The brand, which has moved and evolved with the times, has undergone its biggest repositioning in over a decade, led by independent agency Tomorrowism. The result is a refreshed visual identity, brand position, and tone of voice, brought together under a new campaign, Where Design Lives.

The project was built as a response to the “great flattening” of British interiors, a powerful cultural tension that served as an opportunity for Heal’s to reassert their position as the leading voice in the industry.

“Over time, the interiors market has grown quite homogenised and, frankly, a bit boring,” says Mansbridge. “In that context, we felt people needed a reminder of what Heal’s stands for – that we are the authority on design.”

Tomorrowism’s brand reset for Heal’s

With interiors at risk of losing character and charm, the team noticed a crisis in how we decorate our homes and our spaces, a timely backdrop for reintroducing Heal’s as a heritage name with sharp cultural fluency and the capacity to challenge that conformity.

“Our spaces are becoming generic and less characterful, shaped by algorithms that feed us endless versions of what we already like,” says Beth Bentley, founder and strategy partner at Tomorrowism.

“The result is a worrying sameness – across homes, cities, even continents – compounded by the Instagrammified ‘get the look’ culture, which fuels copycats, dupes and pastiche.”

This homogenisation is fuelled by a race to replicate surface-level aesthetics – the drive to look like everyone else. But good design has always been about more than just appearances; it has the power to shape how we work, play, and live.

“This was the central idea behind the project – the life-changing power of good design,” says Bentley.

“We wanted to position Heal’s as an institution that truly understands what design is for, and what it can do for us in everyday life.” That thinking crystallised in the brand idea – “Where Design Lives.”

The new Heal’s logo lockup

The brand line is seen in the new visual identity, locked up with Heal’s existing wordmark. It is rendered in a free-flowing, handwritten script, which was lifted from the sketchbook explorations by Mark Thompson, creative partner at Tomorrowism.

“The energetic hand-drawn mark evokes the spirit of the design process. Unapologetically real, it’s graceful in its form yet nuanced and full of character,” says Thompson. “It cues the annotation style you may see in the preliminary sketches of a design process.”

Its gestural form creates a point of tension against the structured wordmark, while embodying the human touch and creativity that sit behind every piece of great design.

While Tomorrowism inherited the Heal’s wordmark – and kept it unchanged – it leaned into bolder art direction, felt in how the logo shows up across the brand world.

The wordmark is tweaked and enlarged, taking up space in a way, “this brand has never done before,” says Bentley. “So while we haven’t changed the logo, we’ve very much changed how it behaves.”

A still from the five-episode shoppable documentary series featuring the handwritten typeface

This comes through in the art direction of a five-episode shoppable documentary series featuring leading British tastemakers, which anchors the campaign. The logo, paired with hand-scrawled typography, lends the films a distinctive character while commanding presence on screen.

Running through the project was a clear intention to shed the “polite” signals of heritage branding in favour of a more confident, provocative stance.

That shift is evident not only in the logo lockup, but also in the colour palette, which reimagines Heal’s blue alongside brighter shades of yellow and green, grounded by a parchment tone.

“When you put them all together, you get a palette that feels quite divergent and unusual – particularly for a heritage brand,” says Bentley.

The witty, self-assured spirit of the repositioning comes through most strongly in the brand’s tone of voice. With memorable, sharp taglines like “There’s a reason why all the best chairs are always taken”, “One day your grandchildren will thank you,” and “You can stop blurring your background now,” Heal’s now speaks in a language that draws strength from its heritage while signalling a spirited, forward-looking outlook.

Tomorrowism’s brand reset for Heal’s

For Tomorrowism, striking that balance was key – to define Heal’s not only by its history, but by its appetite for growth and evolution.

“We wanted to highlight the idea that this is a brand not held back by its heritage, but is ever-changing, curious, and progressive,” says Bentley.

With the campaign now live both online and out in the world, Mansbridge hopes it will grab attention and prompt people to think. “Our audience already knows Heal’s, but if the brand has slipped from the centre of their minds, I want this campaign to put it back there,” he says.

“The goal is for people to be talking about Heal’s – not just when they’re shopping, but more broadly, so that whenever anyone is discussing design for the home, Heal’s is the first name that comes up.”

Tomorrowism’s brand reset for Heal’s
The refreshed colour palette
A still from the five-episode shoppable documentary series featuring the handwritten typeface
Tomorrowism’s brand reset for Heal’s

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Angel & Anchor’s multi-mark system for WELD shows more is more

WELD, a US-based apparel supplier, has carved a niche for itself by producing distinctive caps and socks, offering both customisable blanks and its own branded pieces for leading independent labels.

As WELD’s reputation expanded, the team set out to update its website and turned to Belfast-based studio Angel & Anchor for support. But what started as a straightforward digital brief soon exposed deeper issues, revealing a brand that felt fragmented and inconsistent.

“We came into the project originally wanting a proper website, but after coming to Angel & Anchor with a ton of odds and ends, it was painfully obvious that we had a pretty scatterbrained graphic system that needed to be sorted before putting together a website,” says Stephen Thompson, partner at WELD.

This called for a comprehensive rebrand, but before Angel & Anchor could get to work, there was a lot they had to consider.

WELD’s monogram by Angel & Anchor

WELD’s visual identity is shaped as much by the brands it chooses to work with as by its own products. Its blanks and branded apparel act as a canvas for independent labels, and the style and personality of those brands are reflected back onto WELD itself.

“In a roundabout way, WELD’s brand is almost like the accumulation of the identities of every brand they work with,” says Ben Connolly, founder and creative director of Angel & Anchor.

These collaborations subtly define WELD’s identity. At the same time, WELD required a brand world strong enough to hold its own among the distinctive personalities of its collaborators, while positioning itself as a cut above its competition.

“The WELD brand itself is still significant, so it was important to have something that stood out amongst a lot of legacy brands offering something similar,” says Thompson.

As a result of a patchwork of influences, WELD’s identity already had a strong, eclectic character. This was palpable in their old website, which “felt like a collage of images and clippings,” says Connolly.

Instead of smoothing over that roughness, the studio chose to harness it, building a multi-mark identity system – a custom logotype and monogram, along with a toolkit of emblems, symbols, and taglines – that could flex across contexts.

Angel & Anchor’s rebrand for WELD

Workshops with WELD confirmed that its values lie in creativity, craftsmanship, and community – qualities better expressed through variety than uniformity.

“The goal was to create a whole brand world,” Connolly explains. “That meant developing loads of marks, taglines, and colours rather than leaning on a single logo, set in stone. We wanted an identity that felt irreverent, flexible, and more like an anti-traditional approach to branding – something that could live in different places without ever being pinned down to just one mark.”

That flexibility also allowed Angel & Anchor to capture the duality at the core of WELD – the grit of its industrial, manufacturing roots and the laid-back, free-spirited personality that runs through its culture.

The new identity holds those opposites in tension. A custom logotype and monogram that draws on stitching and structure is contrasted with playful taglines and nostalgic symbols like the galloping horse, which embodies both the hard-working “workhorse” and the freedom of the open road.

WELD’s multi-mark system

“The horse logo really stood out to us,” says Thompson. “It felt unexpected, but it conveyed strength, reliability, and a sense of timeless forward motion – a true representation of WELD without even having to use the name.”

Accompanying the horse symbol is a suite of marks – from a jagged sun that balances imperfection and structure to flags and patches that evoke nostalgia and Americana pride.

“WELD’s story really began with our trademark Field Trip Hat, an unstructured hat in colours and fabrics that are inspired by the hats we remember our dads wearing when we were young,” says Thompson. “So it made sense to have a visual language that called upon some nostalgia and Americana.”

That sense of heritage was paired with a focus on craft in the custom logotype, inspired by machine stitching, which directly nods to WELD’s embroidery and customisation services.

“We wanted it to carry that same offbeat spirit of the brand,” Connolly explains, “so we flipped the expected rules of a serif – making the thick parts thin and the thin parts thick – to give it a subtle, unexpected twist.”

Angel & Anchor’s rebrand for WELD

The ‘W’ from the logotype doubles as a visual motif, expanding into striking patterns and accents across the identity.

The logotype, and the monogram with the wonky ‘W,’ are paired with Activ Grotesk, chosen as the primary typeface. “We wanted something straightforward and utilitarian – the kind of type you’d see on a stitching machine manual or control panel,” says Connolly.

“It didn’t need much personality, because the brand’s character was already being expressed in so many other ways.” Meanwhile, Klim Type Foundry’s Pitch lends a typewriter flavour, functional at its core, but with subtle quirks that give it a mid-century, mechanical quality.

While the visual language was crafted to ground WELD in its industrial roots – structured, functional, tied to the act of making – the brand language gave Angel & Anchor space to mirror the irreverent, free-spirited nature of the brand.

Angel & Anchor’s rebrand for WELD

Taglines like “Garage Goofin’” embody a laid-back tone, while phrases like “WELD, dammit!” – held within the graphic of a waving flag – highlight the brand’s confidence and attitude.

To develop these tagline lockups, the team dug into mid-Century references to make sure the language felt authentic to WELD’s world.

“We looked at how manufacturers used to apply phrases on machinery, packaging, and steel badges,” Connolly explains. “Even small details, like how words were arched or set inside a mark, helped us create lockups that felt rooted in that world while still giving them a playful, modern edge.”

And the response to the new look has been immediate. “We’re already getting requests for retail products that feature our new marks,” says Thompson.

Angel & Anchor’s rebrand for WELD
Angel & Anchor’s rebrand for WELD
The ‘W’ from the logotype holds the ‘MFG’ mark

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“More jungle less zoo” – why we need to hear more client voices

The eclectic range of presentations at Frontify’s brand experience conference covered everything from Marcus Aurelius’ wisdom to surrealist Italian brainrot memes.

Nike was the conference’s recurring cautionary tale. Several speakers showed its precipitous share price decline since 2021 – the parable of the brand who forgot who it was.

(For the record, Builders Club co-founder Jonas Hegi shared a succession of innovative Nike projects in his talk, suggesting reports of the brand’s creative demise were perhaps overblown).

It was hard to see one major theme across the two days. But having let the dust settle, perhaps the lesson lies in how we talk about design, rather than what was said.

Tom Beckman, Weber Shandwick’s global chief creative officer, shared perhaps my favourite stat of the conference – that 66% of people believe brands try too hard.

You can see why. When Taylor Swift launched her new album with an orange-forward visual campaign, brands rushed to embrace the colour across their social feeds. This led to a rash of posts that looked incredibly similar, and an outpouring of ennui from everyone else.

“It’s very important for both sides to deliver their expertise to the table.”

Beckman was the PR jury president for this year’s Cannes Lions, and he shared an interesting insight into that judging process. Every idea they analysed, he said, had to work in the jungle, not just the zoo.

Zoos are safe. Controlled. Predictable. Animals are fed at regular intervals and kept away from predators. But jungles are a free-for-all.

His point was that we need to set our creative ideas free and see how they get on in the real world. Only the best ideas thrive in this messy, risky, sometimes frustratingly disengaged environment.

So we need to break out of our echo chambers, to be honest about the role design plays in the wider world, and to measure brands’ success using real impact metrics, rather than being seduced by slick case studies.

Tom Beckman on stage at Paradigms

To live up to that, I think the whole industry needs to shift the way we discuss design. While there will always be a place for craft, by focusing too intently on the creative details, we risk judging it by the “zoo” standard.

Rather, we need to better understand, and share, how design work gets made, gets implemented, and gets measured in the real world.

A good start would be to bring more client voices into our media, onto our stages and podcasts and magazines.

It was refreshing that several talks at Paradigms brought the design agency and the client on stage together to talk about their work. This seemingly simple thing actually felt really significant.

Too often, we only get half the story.

Every aspect of design work can be better understood when it’s presented by the client and the studio together – from the context, to the strategy, to the delivery, to the reception.

Apparently this set-up is more common at marketing conferences, but I still think it’s the exception rather than the rule in the design world. And it shouldn’t be.

Mutabor’s work for Kleinanzeigen

Iskra Velichkova, senior director of marketing at Paypal, joined Mutabor’s chief design officer Burkhard Müller on stage to discuss their work on both Paypal and German classifieds site, Kleinanzeigen.

Speaking afterwards, Velichkova pointed out that any big rebrand project has to be a genuine collaboration.

“These projects are massively complex, and so it’s super-important that both sides work as one,” she said.

To ensure the right kind of partnership, you need to select an agency that will work in this way, rather than “two entities working in parallel.”

Some of that comes down to discussing how the process will work, but Velichkova and her team also keenly observe the dynamics within the agency team.

“Observing how the people in the room interact with each other and how they interact with you is very important,” she says.

Iskra Velichkova and Burkhard Müller on stage at Paradigms

For the Kleinanzeigen project, which involved 164 million pages of content, and tens of thousands of digital assets, they needed a design team with a flat structure, where decision-making is decentralised.

“So when we were doing the pitch, we were actually observing how the people in the room were behaving – who gets what airtime, and who gets what say,” she says. Did one person dominate and interrupt others? And might that cause problems down the line?

“In the Mutabor case, you couldn’t tell who was the trainee and who was the general manager. Everyone had something smart to say.”

Given this incredibly collaborative nature, it wouldn’t make sense for the work to be presented only by the designers – or only by the client for that matter.

“It’s very important for both sides to deliver their expertise to the table,” she says. “I wouldn’t be a good person to talk about the specifics of the design and how they were developed.

“But to tell the complete story, we need to talk about the context, the business case, the go-to market and the results.”

And telling stories in this way benefits everyone, Velichkova believes.

Tom Gilbert and Jamie Lillywhite on stage at Paradigms

Design Bridge and Partners’ Tom Gilbert agrees. He was joined on stage by their client, HSBC’s group brand design lead, Jamie Lillywhite.

“Most design presentations are still very agency centric,” Gilbert says. “We talk about the work in isolation. Yet the truth, the best brands are built in partnership.

In their talk, Gilbert and Lilywhite shared some detailed nuts and bolts around how the HSBC brand lives in real life. This, Gilbert says, helps bring to life how brand building is an “iterative” process where things are constantly being refined.

But this way of presenting work also shifts the focus.

“Many presentations lean into the why and the what. But when clients and agencies share a stage, the conversation often becomes about the how. That is what really seems to resonate with audiences. It is the part people are most curious about, the part they can learn from and apply themselves.”

Velichkova says something very similar – that these talks can provide rich insights which those on both sides of the table can learn from.

“For me, co-presenting is about showing the partnership, the process, and the progress,” Gilbert explains. “It reflects how brands are really built, and as a brand design industry, we should be doing much more of it.”

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Sofology and BAE Systems Digital Intelligence named best in-house teams

The winners of this year’s Inside Out awards for in-house creative teams have been announced. Now in their 12th year, the awards, “identify and celebrate creative excellence, stand-out work and in-house talent.”

They are run by the Inside Out community, whose mission is to give, “in-house creative leaders the connections, insights, knowledge and recognition that will get them to the highest levels of influence and persuasion within the brands they are a part of.”

At the awards ceremony in London, Sofology was named in-house team of the year, while BAE Systems Digital Intelligence won the best small in-house team, given to entrants with 10 people or fewer.

It was one of two awards given to the defence and security technology firm, which also scooped the prize for best brand transformation, which is “awarded to teams that have successfully redefined or revitalised a brand, demonstrating measurable shifts in brand perception.”

In 2022, BAE Systems consolidated various units into a new Data Intelligence business, which aims to “deliver a greater range of digital capabilities alongside leading cyber, intelligence and security expertise to an extensive portfolio of government, defence and commercial customers around the globe.”

BAE Systems is the largest manufacturer in the UK, and the biggest defence contractor in Europe, but has attracted controversy. In the past couple of years, its factories have been targeted by protests against its contracts with the Israeli armed forces, due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Emma Sexton, founder of the Inside Out community, said the awards focus only on the creative merits of the entries.

“Inside Out exists to celebrate creativity and the people who make it happen,” she said. “Our awards recognise the talent, craft, and dedication of in-house creative teams – not the wider business activities of their employers.

“We believe that creative professionals deserve recognition for their work, wherever they are, and we keep our focus firmly on individuals and their achievements, not company politics.”

Another multiple winners on the night included:

Merlin Entertainments, whose Nemesis Reborn rebrand at Alton Towers won best visual design. Candy Holland, executive creative director at LEGOLAND Resorts and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres was also named in-house creative leader of the year.
Maintenance and repair company Johnson Controls, which won best motion graphics and animation, best campaign, and whose creative resources manager, Cait McEnery, won creative champion of the year.
Accounting software Xero, which won best video production and best implementation of technology within creative operations for its collaboration with Canva.
Mobile provider Three UK, which won best use of technology in creative execution and best collaboration with an external specialist for its AI-powered interview with trailblazing footballer Lily Parr, who died in 1978.

Addressing the ceremony, Sexton said that the awards reflected the ongoing rise of in-house creative excellence.

“Looking back at my opening speech from last year, there was a theme of in-house going from strength to strength, from being a whisper to a roar,” she said. “Even in the past 12 months, it is very clear that in-house creative teams have fully arrived and are taking up the space in the creative industry that you have always deserved.”

She said four main themes had emerged from the judging process, which characterised the best in-house work around. These were measurable business impact and ROI, innovation and strategic use of technology, high-quality craftsmanship, and collaboration.

And Sexton said that while AI is still “largely restricted for the majority of in-house creative teams,” it is starting to “impact creative execution” and is most impressive when it’s used as “an enabler, not a gimmick.”

Deloitte’s Pride postcards

Other awards went to Deloitte’s 368 team, which won best photography/illustration for its Pride postcards, Canva-owned Flourish, which won best ROI/results on a limited-budget project,and Checkout.com, which won best creative collaboration with marketing.

The NSPCC’s Leng or Liar video, which challenged influencers The Charvas to work out which online people they spoke to were real, and which were fake, was highly commended in two categories.

Sky Creative designer Amber Skipper won the rising star award, Sainsbury’s studio director Emily Morris won the outstanding contribution award, while the Inside Out special recognition award went to Phil Hobday.

A key figure in the UK Government’s communication service design centre, Design102, Hobday passed away last year.

“Phil Hobday was the creative force behind many of the UK Government’s most trusted and recognisable communications,” the Inside Out tribute said.

“With over 30 years as a designer and creative director, he transformed public sector design through leadership, innovation and unwavering standards. Phil helped to set the standards for creativity in government communications.”

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Continuous’ identity for the World Boxing Championships packs a punch

Earlier this month, Liverpool hosted the inaugural World Boxing Championships.

The event, which drew athletes and fans from across the world, marks the first elite-level global championships staged by World Boxing, a federation formed in 2023 after the International Olympic Committee suspended recognition of the previous governing body.

With the future of Olympic boxing under scrutiny, the Championships are designed to provide a credible international stage for amateur athletes, ensuring the sport retains its Olympic status. Simultaneously, the tournament positions amateur boxing as a discipline focused on skill and fairness, distinct from the showmanship of pro boxing.

To bring it to life, World Boxing turned to Continuous to build a brand that could carry the weight of a prestigious global competition, while blending the character of the host city as well as the international appeal of the event.

“One of our main asks was to ensure the brand represented Liverpool and the values of the city, while also introducing the event as something new, clean, and different from what’s gone before,” says John Muddeman, event director at World Boxing.

As a Liverpool-based agency, Continuous was well placed to tap into the city’s spirit. This local insight helped them land on the cultural truth that anchors the brand and its central message – “Welcome to our corner.”

Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships

“Liverpool gives a welcome like no other city. You do get that real sense of community when you come here,” says Mike Walsh, design director at Continuous. “We wanted to make sure that was translated into the visual and the verbal identity.”

This message also spoke to where the sport of boxing wants to be right now.

“Amateur boxing, as an institution, has gone through a period of change and uncertainty. So that idea of ‘welcome’ started to work on multiple levels,” says Walsh.

The scale of the World Boxing Championships demanded a core idea that was as simple as it was powerful, and flexible enough to cut across contexts.

The message needed to appeal to many different audiences, “from die-hard boxing fans to event-goers and the people of Liverpool,” says Jen Falding, head of major sports events at Liverpool City Council. “It had to speak to the local community, while also being outward-facing enough to connect with a global audience.”

That same balancing act shaped the identity, calling for a measured mix of consistency and distinction. Continuous intentionally decided to borrow certain visual codes of World Boxing’s identity – such as the Figtree typeface used in the wordmark and the colour palette – to ensure the two brands felt part of the same family, and could sit side by side with confidence.

Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships

At the same time, they introduced a distinctive visual device, turning the word “corner” into a graphic system of four lines, a nod to the ropes that frame a boxing ring.

The lines, which are used as a recurring motif throughout the identity, were designed to be flexible. “It can allude to the ring, but then we can also flip it and hang text and graphics from it, and it turns into a medal,” says Walsh.

Building on this, the typographic palette – with Figtree, and Neighbor Bold, chosen as the headline typeface for its classic sporty aesthetic – adds character to an otherwise pared-back visual system, whose restraint is deliberate.

“We kept the system intentionally simple – literal, even – so it could flex while staying consistent across a wide range of applications,” says Walsh. “The goal was to hand over a brand that others could activate seamlessly, since we wouldn’t be running every roll-out ourselves.”

This considered approach also reflects the prestige and calibre of the Championships, giving it a refined, premium presence that reinforces its status as an elite event.

In this exercise, Continuous was able to define an entirely new visual language for amateur boxing.

Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships

“We wanted to set this event apart from what you expect to see in pro boxing, particularly around the tone and the language,” says Muddeman.

“The sport’s very adversarial. All the language revolves around ‘showdown’ or ‘knockout,’ and visually, you see images of blood going everywhere, and someone getting their head knocked off.

“That’s not what Olympic boxing is about. The brand helps us deliver that message that this is about the skill, the power, the dynamism, and the quality of the athletes.”

The identity ultimately set the tone for the event, and was adopted cohesively across touchpoints – from the arena to street banners.

According to Falding, the branding has been met with enthusiastic approval across the city. “Liverpool always has banners up for different events throughout the year, so for people to notice these and say they look brilliant is a real testament to the strength of the brand.”

Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships
Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships
Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships
Continuous’ brand for the World Boxing Championships
The identities of World Boxing and the World Boxing Championships, seen together

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How is Buck using AI?

Buck is a creative company with studios in London, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney.  It works on branding, events and design for clients like Airbnb, Samsung and YouTube.

Executive creative director and partner Vincent Lammers explains how they’re using AI, and how he feels about it.

You can see all the articles in this series here.

Broadly speaking, are you excited for how AI will change the design industry, or nervous?

That’s a layered question, so I’ll give a layered answer.

First, I think we’re piling way too much on those two letters. The hype is distorting how the industry thinks about and implements it. We need more nuance in this conversation.

AI is an incredible innovation. It opens up opportunities across so many parts of our industry, and in specific applications, it’s wildly impressive. Automating repetitive tasks, collecting and framing data in meaningful ways, those are exciting because they create more space for humans to make meaningful contributions.

There’s also potential in how the technology shows up as a product in itself. We’ve been involved in visualising different versions of AI Assistants, giving them character, form, and presence. That sparks fascinating conversations about what people connect with, how they interact, and what makes them disengage.

Where I do get nervous is around the process. There’s this narrative of, “Now you can do this at the push of a button.” And yes, technically you can. But it won’t look or move as thoughtfully or purposefully.

Focusing only on the output of generative AI is misleading. I tell clients all the time – we could give you 100 designs in a day. We have some of the best artists in the world. But that doesn’t solve your problem.

Our process is built to take complex business and communication challenges and break them down into manageable pieces. We inform ourselves, challenge both ourselves and the client, and ask the right questions to ensure every element is purposeful.

That approach creates trust, builds solid foundations, and allows us to prototype and pressure test along the way. It’s what helps the final work stand the test of culture, quality, and time. Just as importantly, it creates buy-in across every layer of a brand’s organisation. Without that, even the best creative won’t stick.

Because let’s be honest, if someone generates something quickly, puts it into the world, and it fails, who takes the blame?

They used all the test data to write the prompt, so it can’t be the human…right? That’s why I’m wary of this technology as a shortcut.

Shortcuts usually mean cutting out something vital from the process. If you’re aware of that and willing to accept the risk, fine. But don’t pretend it’s the same thing.

So yes, I’m excited about the potential. But I’m equally concerned about the shortcuts people think it will give them.

Do you have an agreed policy around AI as a business? If so, how did you create it?

We do and it’s constantly evolving and changing. Early on, we brought in legal counsel to make sure we had our ducks in a row and were informed from a business and compliance standpoint. In many ways, that was the easy part.

The trickier and ongoing work is the policy around how we use AI and what we do with it. That part is a constant work in progress, shaped by our collective knowledge, experience, and clarity of purpose.

We’ve set up global groups across the company who meet regularly to discuss AI.

Right now, we’re in a stage of exploration, inspiration, and implementation all at once. Our approach is driven by our people and informed at every level, from labelling AI-generated art during the process to making sure tools are accessible to our teams, all while maintaining a high level of security and rigour around their use.

And we’re clear with clients about how we use these tools. Some brands are excited to embrace them, while others prefer to stay away. Our policy is flexible enough to align with both.

When did you realise AI was going to have an impact on design?

It happened very quickly. When the Midjourney Experiments channel became one of the most active on our Slack within just a few weeks, I personally knew something was shifting.

We immediately created space for conversations with our staff, listening not only to their concerns but also to their excitement. We assigned people at different levels to stay informed and share knowledge.

As a company, we’ve always been deeply connected to new tools and innovations, so it came very naturally to us as a company. But we also recognised right away that this wasn’t just another plug-in or software update, it was something bigger.

Another moment that stood out was the ability to train models or Loras on our own work. Suddenly, we could generate variations within the same visual language. That really struck a chord in terms of how this technology could help us continue to create and design in new ways.

Have you undergone any AI training, either as a studio or individuals?

We have a natural culture of training and development at Buck. We’ve always made space for artists and staff to share new ways of working, whether it’s a process, a workflow, or a specific technique or tool used on a project.

From how we used Rive on the Notion Assistant project to an artist experimenting with different animation styles from a simple line test, these spaces quickly turned into hubs for trying out new tools, including AI.

It’s been incredibly powerful to watch our most craft-focused, traditional artists and art directors dive into these tools and share what they’re learning. They’ve shown how to experiment while keeping control and ownership of the work and that peer-to-peer exchange has had a huge impact.

One of my favourite examples of this is our TGI Friday’s education series, a crowd-sourced initiative started by our artists to share and showcase new AI workflows. It’s become a space where teams come together, swap ideas, and stay inspired as the tools keep evolving.

We think of this as a “middle-out” culture. It doesn’t just come from leadership at the top or from the newest talent coming in. It happens across every layer of the company.

How do you use AI in the studio’s creative process?

We very much believe Humans, with a capital H, should stay in the driver’s seat. Clients want and need to collaborate with people they can build trust with. That relationship can’t be automated.

That said, there are many strategic and tactical areas where we see opportunities, and where we’re already implementing new tools. From analysing audience data and research, to unpacking briefs, to prototyping and exploration. We use it during our ideation or exploration phases, quickly testing or prototyping visual ideas.

Never as a final output though – it always starts and ends with human input.

These tools have also been empowering our 3D teams by speeding up repetitive or monotonous tasks, freeing our artists to focus on the things humans do best – creativity, storytelling, and craft.

We’ve also noticed that generative tools produce better results when they’re grounded in human input, design sketches, animated line tests, things with intent baked in. But also in versioning and delivering at large scales.

We build a lot of brand design systems, and those can become ingredients for further tools. Increasingly, clients handle asset creation themselves with their internal teams. We provide the building blocks – frameworks, assets, templates. That’s something you could easily train a system on.

Instead of just a Brand Design System, you start to imagine a Brand Design Brain.

Do you think clients care if/how you use AI in your work?

Some do, some don’t. What matters is the question behind the question – why do they care?

Sometimes it’s because they want to move faster or to get to ideation and iteration quickly. Others are looking to innovate or pioneer new processes. And yes, some assume that it will make things cheaper or easier.

What matters to us is using the tools for the right reasons. Our job is to make sure the work stays successful, meaningful, and impactful, with or without AI.

Do you use AI for any non-creative aspects of running your business?

Absolutely. I think there’s a lot of tunnel vision on the generative type tools, when in fact some of the biggest opportunities are operational like finance and IT.

We’ve been building assistants in areas like talent resourcing, feeding in years of data on what kinds of projects our people have thrived on, so we can place them on the right work.

We’ve built assistants that analyse client briefs, drawing from two decades of briefs to flag similar past projects or uncover opportunities we might otherwise miss.

We’re also experimenting with Culture Assistants that track what’s happening on specific platforms, surfacing trends or cultural conversations that could be relevant for our clients. And Audience Assistants that model specific target groups, allowing us to test prototypes or creative ideas and see what resonates.

The potential here is huge. Again, these tools don’t drive our work or make decisions for us, but they give us better intelligence and keep us more informed. And that, in turn, makes us better partners to our clients.

Beyond the best known tools, what is one AI tool that you would recommend to other design studios?

We’ve always taken a fairly software-agnostic approach as a studio, meaning we don’t put all our chips on a single tool or platform. So rather than pointing to one “silver bullet,” I’d recommend approaching with curiosity and experimentation.

At this stage, the most valuable thing is simply getting your feet wet. Try different platforms, see what’s possible, and explore how they might fit into your creative process in playful, low-barrier ways.

Tools like Krea, for example, make it easy to test a variety of models for image generation, editing, or even video. They’re great for sparking ideas and opening up new directions.

Once you’re ready to move from playful exploration into production, we’ve found ComfyUI to be a powerful base tool. It lets you integrate multiple models, work with more control, and build structured workflows that can deliver production-quality results.

So my recommendation is less about a single product and more about mindset – experiment broadly, stay curious, and use these tools as a sandbox.

Then, when you’re ready, take that curiosity into more advanced frameworks like ComfyUI. That’s often where you discover the workflows and creative solutions you wouldn’t have found by locking into one tool too early.

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Impact Stories: Ten years on from FutureBrand’s radical Merck rebrand (2015)

When Merck unveiled its new identity in 2015, at a leadership summit in Berlin, more than 300 of the company’s senior managers rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

Created with FutureBrand, it was an unusually radical departure for a company of Merck’s scale and heritage, signalling its ambition to be seen not as a conservative pharmaceuticals giant, but as a modern science and technology innovator.

Ten years on, the identity has not only endured, it still feels contemporary alongside the new wave of health and biotech brands.

A singular vision

By the early 2010s, Merck faced an identity crisis. Despite pioneering breakthroughs across healthcare, life science and performance materials, its image was lost in what FutureBrand describes as a “sea of sameness.”

The company had grown globally through acquisitions, creating a patchwork of sub-brands and competing cultures, with even employees struggling to articulate what Merck stood for.

The before and after of the Merck visual identity

Clare-Louise Smith, managing director of FutureBrand New York, recalls: “There were two clear challenges. Firstly, Merck had a strong need to stand out among a sea of sameness.

“And secondly, the company had a history of doing remarkable things… but no-one really knew about those discoveries or attributed them to Merck.”

Merck’s then-CEO, Karl-Ludwig Kley, believed a radical brand could crystallise the company’s transformation into a global science and tech player. Drawing on his experience at Lufthansa, he pushed for a change that would make Merck’s shift visible, tangible and unmissable.

Designing the leap

FutureBrand’s London team were briefed to create something that would “most likely polarise opinion.” They began with an unusual approach, taking a week of ideation with no computers. During that time, they found inspiration in the microscopic world.

“If science is so incredible and vibrant and Merck does such exciting and groundbreaking work, why does it look so dull?” one strategist asked. Looking at shapes, colours and textures under the microscope gave rise to an identity built on vibrancy and movement, which was a sharp break from the clinical blues and greys of industry peers.

FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck

Simon Hill, now president of FutureBrand North America, says: “We knew that we had to create something different – a total departure from what existed – because, in order to stand out and win, they needed something radical.

“The Merck team were phenomenal: they gave us the freedom to be bold and deliver a breakthrough look and feel that reflected their past, present and future.”

The new system, centred on “Vibrant Science and Technology,” combined an expressive visual language with the structure to unify Merck’s fragmented brand architecture.

The big reveal

Even the launch strategy was developed to match the new daring nature of the brand. Rather than opening debate across divisions, the rebrand was kept under wraps until a single reveal to the top 300 leaders.

“The reaction was incredibly strong, and many still say it was one of the most impactful events of their careers,” recalls Katrin Menne, head of brand and content marketing at Merck.

Externally though, reactions were polarised. In Germany in particular there was some early scepticism, with people balking at its unconventionality.

Competitors also mocked the look at first (though some have arguably imitated aspects of it in the years following) and Business Insider even listed Merck’s new logo among the most controversial redesigns of 2015, calling it “bizarre and off-brand”.

Built to last

Ten years on, what makes the Merck brand notable is not only its radical launch but its longevity. The identity remains intact, and stakeholders credit that endurance to both vision and flexibility.

“The brand was so visionary. If you make a bold leap forward, it lasts. Gradual changes often don’t,” says Menne. The design system was created with elasticity and the ability to dial up vibrancy for technology and dial it down for sensitive areas such as cancer care, without losing coherence.

FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck

That adaptability has supported Merck’s business strategy over the decade. The brand helped formalise its positioning as a science and tech company, underpinned M&A activities, and flexed to support business unit shifts, such as the renaming of Performance Materials to Electronics.

Menne even suggests the brand “feels like it was made for AI” despite predating the current wave of technology.

Evidence of impact

For any rebrand, proof of value lies in outcomes. In Merck’s case, both internal and external measures point to lasting impact.

In a 2019 study carried out by Merck, 80% of new hires said the brand had a strong or very strong influence on their decision to apply. Recruiters reported that candidates brought up the brand unprompted, which had never happened before.

Research conducted in 2016, and again in 2022, showed significant improvements in reputation among professionals in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Similarly, advocacy, favourability and familiarity all increased, while trust rose by 17%, according to Merck.

Financial performance has also been robust. Merck’s net sales have nearly doubled since the rebrand, reaching €21.3 billion in the 12 months ending March 2025, compared with just over €11 billion in the year before the launch.

FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck

Externally, Merck’s reputation has been reinforced by third-party rankings. The company is consistently listed among the world’s most valuable pharma brands by Brand Finance, and it ranked seventh globally in the 2024 Access to Medicine Index, performing above average in all technical areas.
Lessons in (brand) chemistry

The Merck case demonstrates three lessons for corporate branding. First, that bravery pays off – its seemingly polarising design galvanised the organisation and set it apart in saturated markets.

Secondly, adaptability matters, and systems built with flexibility can span diverse sectors, geographies and timeframes.

And thirdly, brand is culture. The most successful rebrands give people a shared language, not just a new logo.

Simon Hill says the project taught FutureBrand a lesson in conviction. “Now whenever I’m standing in front of a board with a strategy and visual identity I firmly believe in, I’m much more comfortable with saying ‘This might not be what you had in mind, but it’s what you need’.”

A vibrant legacy

A decade after its launch, Merck’s identity remains distinctive, modern and culturally resonant, which is still a rarity in corporate branding. According to Merck, employees remain proud and leaders continue to see it as transformative. There’s also no doubt the numbers support its impact.

Too often brands will err on the side of caution, yet Merck’s willingness to embrace a radical departure has become its greatest strength. Menne is confident when she says that if she were rebranding today, she would “absolutely do it the same way again.”

For FutureBrand, and for the wider design community, the Merck case shows that risky rebrands done right just might redefine the benchmark for an entire sector. Whatever Business Insider might say…

FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck
FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck
FutureBrand’s new visual identity for Merck

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“Do we still believe in purpose-driven brands?”

Back in the 2010s, purpose-driven branding was everywhere. People felt good about slipping on TOMS, believing in the one-for-one promise to give shoes to a child in need. Always turned an insult into empowerment with its #LikeAGirl campaign, scooping Cannes’ top award and headlines across the globe.

Purpose wasn’t just fashionable; it was the future of marketing.

That was then. Today, the world has become more sceptical, distrustful and uncertain. And with it comes consumer fatigue over grandiose promises. Those beacons of purpose have dimmed.

TOMS still gives back, but the impact is now hidden behind the last button on its website, and Starbucks’ Race Together campaign proved how quickly good intentions can backfire when they feel misplaced or inauthentic.

It’s not that consumers no longer care about climate change, fairness, or diversity. They absolutely do. But they’ve stopped taking brands at their word.

Purpose, once inspiring, too often feels like spin.

The Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report 2025 warns that brands are falling into the trap of “trust-washing,” making inflated claims of impact that consumers increasingly see as hollow. More than half now dismiss such claims as marketing spin, while 53% believe brands are outright dishonest about their societal contribution (Edelman 2025).

Edelman also found that 71% of global consumers trust companies less than they did a year earlier. Academic research reaches the same conclusion: authentic purpose builds credibility, but “woke-washing” does not just miss the mark, it actively destroys trust (Journal of Business Research, 2024).

People are tired of empty promises. They don’t want to be told anymore. They want the receipts.

Proof, not posture

Purpose isn’t dead, but the performance of it is.

The purpose-driven brands cutting through today aren’t the loudest, they’re the ones who are following through and willing to embrace uncomfortable truths over wishful thinking. Where the promise is tangible, pragmatic, and felt in the product, the service, or the experience. And it’s still commercially smart.

Harvard Business Review reports that 58% of organisations with a clear and strong purpose experienced more than 10% growth over three years, compared to those without.

“Purpose, once inspiring, too often feels like spin.”

Patagonia is perhaps the clearest example. Its purpose runs through every fibre of the brand, from the products it makes, to the way it runs its supply chain, to the cultural decisions it takes as a business.

The now-famous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad wasn’t a slogan. It was creative that was as bold as its message of real action to discourage overconsumption. It resonated because it was proof-led, not posture-led, delivered with confident, powerful design.

And recently, Lush showed the same kind of conviction. The retailer closed its stores for a day in protest at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a move that went far beyond marketing and into the realm of real sacrifice.

Whatever you think of the stance itself, it was a rare example of a brand acting in line with its values, not just talking about them.

This is the new reality. The old purpose branding of lofty campaigns and poetic slogans is dead. What lives is purpose you can touch, see, and believe in.

Creativity creates belief

Creativity isn’t a replacement for proof, but it is the force that ensures proof gets noticed. Design transforms delivery into distinction, ensuring action isn’t invisible but impossible to ignore.

We’ve seen this first-hand in our recent work with Big Hug Brewing. For years, UK craft beer brand supported causes like Only A Pavement Away and YMCA DownsLink Group, but this impact risked fading into the background with a design that failed to communicate its purpose in a clear and consistent way.

JDO’s work for Big Hug Brewing

When Big Hug set its ambition to become a 100% positive impact business, it knew that good intentions weren’t enough. Getting the rebrand and messaging right was crucial.

We worked with Big Hug to articulate its promise to “brew for better, for people and planet” and create belief in that promise with a brand design that was bold, witty, and full of character, but also crystal clear. The new ‘World Hug’ logo, vibrant design world, and standout packaging didn’t just refresh the look. They made the purpose tangible.

The result is a brand that isn’t just talking about change but showing it, in a way drinkers can instantly connect with.

The new rules of purpose

If you’re a brand with purpose, here are three things that matter:

Proof over posture. Make purpose meaningful to consumers’ reality.
Creativity is your amplifier. Be confident. Be bold. Be clever.
Better by being brand-led. The stronger the link to product and positioning, the greater the belief in your promise.

In a time when the world itself feels low on purpose, brands that truly deliver social and ecological difference are the ones breaking through.

Creativity’s role is not to spin the story, but to make the proof unmistakable so people believe.

Ben Sillence is head of strategy at JDO UK.

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design/leader: Jolie founder Franky Roussell

Franky Rousell is founder and CEO of interior design studio Jolie. It has offices in London, New York and Manchester and works with clients like The Nest restaurant in Frankfurt and Victoria Riverside in Manchester.

Design

What would your monograph be called?

Common Sense. Sensory science is at the heart of what I do, as a designer and entrepreneur. The title comes from a moment of clarity I had in a coffee shop, when I realised that the way we feel in any space isn’t something we consciously control – it’s shaped by the subtle, continuous input received through all five senses.

The craft of sensory design lies in understanding and tailoring those subconscious experiences, and for me this was “common sense.”

I love that this phrase originated from Aristotle who used the Greek term koinē aisthēsis (“common perception” or “common sense”) to mean the internal faculty that pulls together input from the five senses into a single, unified experience.

Later, in medieval philosophy, thinkers like Thomas Aquinas carried this idea forward, still treating it as an inner sense that coordinated perception.

This is exactly what we do at Jolie, we awaken people’s “common sense.”

What recent design work made you a bit jealous?

Anything that Es Devlin touches, makes me quietly jealous but so inspired. Congregation really gets me though.

What’s an unusual place you get inspiration from?

I actually find a lot of my inspiration in an unusual place – my perfume drawer. If I’m having one of those flatline days where nothing seems to spark, I’ll open it up and choose a fragrance that matches what I need in that moment.

Whenever I’m conceptualising a new project or moodboarding a creative direction for a client, I’ll pick a scent that aligns with the feeling or aspiration I’m trying to evoke.

Wearing it on my body means I catch little wafts of it throughout the day, and it always seems to trigger the creative side of my brain.

I also collect fragrances from the places I’ve travelled – from New York to Marrakesh – and each one carries its own story.

Reaching for them is like instantly dipping back into those lived experiences, and it gives me a shortcut into a certain mood or energy I want to channel.

It’s an unconventional practice, but scent has become one of my most powerful tools for inspiration.

Name something that is brilliantly designed, but overlooked.

Utterly unassuming, yet remarkable – the contact lens. While not “literally” overlooked, for the millions of us who wear them daily they’ve become such a seamless part of our morning ritual that we rarely pause to consider their brilliance.

Imagine how groundbreaking they must have felt at first – almost space-age in their innovation. The idea was first sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in 1508, yet the modern soft lens only came into being in 1961.

I honestly can’t imagine life without mine, and anyone who has ever faced the panic of running out before the next supply arrives knows exactly what I mean.

What object in your studio best sums up your taste?

The melting pot table – sustainable, bold, brave, innovative and beautiful.

Franky Roussell’s melting pot table

Leadership

What feedback felt brutal at the time, but turned out to be useful?

In Jolie’s early days, I remember pitching to a mentor four different spin-off ideas we could explore. He paused, took a deep breath, and said, “I think you just need to focus on this one first.”

At the time, it felt deflating, like the wind had been knocked out of my sails-but looking back, it was the best advice I could have received. Over the years, countless shiny, “entrepreneurial” opportunities have come up that could have easily pulled me off track.

But choosing to stay focused, and putting my energy into making Jolie a stable and viable business, is exactly what’s brought me to where I am today.

What’s an underappreciated skill that design leaders need?

Vulnerability and honest emotional expression matter. Employees connect with a human story, and it’s absolutely ok to share how you feel without hiding behind rigid professional barriers.

The ability to share genuine emotion is an often overlooked yet powerful way to build trust and buy-in, both with employees and clients.

What keeps you up at night?

What keeps me up at night are the visions I hold for where I want to be in five years, and the constant questioning of whether I’m truly on the right path to get there.

What I’ve come to realise though is that you rarely know if you’re “on track” in the moment. It only becomes clear when you finally arrive at that place you once imagined, and can look back and say, “Oh, we did it.”

What trait is non-negotiable in new hires?

For me, emotional intelligence is a complete non-negotiable when it comes to new hires. One of the biggest reasons I started my own company was to create a workplace built on trust – a space where people feel safe to share ideas openly and think differently.

That kind of environment is what sparks true innovation.

But trust is fragile. Without emotional intelligence – the ability to listen, empathise, communicate clearly, and manage yourself under pressure – trust can be lost quickly.

Technical skills are important, of course, but they can be taught. Emotional intelligence is what allows people to work well together, to respect differences, and to lift each other up when things get tough.

When someone brings that level of awareness and empathy to the table, it doesn’t just make them a better colleague, it makes the whole team stronger.

Complete this sentence, “I wish more clients…”

…truly trusted the design expertise they’ve invested in and allowed us to take the lead. The best outcomes happen when clients are open to seeing something fresh and original – exactly what they asked for at the start – rather than falling back on familiar references or competitor work.

Too often, projects drift into “design by committee,” where multiple voices dilute the vision, leading to safe, predictable, and ultimately less effective results.

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