Yin needs Yang - Your visual and verbal brands in powerful harmony : Simon Tandy and Justin Ballantine, Shaped By

In this episode of The Changemakers, recorded as part of our Bring Your Own Bold series, Simon, Design Director, and Justin, Associate Creative Director of Messaging, discuss the importance of visual and verbal branding working together. Two complementary forces essential for a brand’s harmony, balance, and effectiveness.

They look at the whole from their two professional perspectives. That essential balance and interplay between visual identity and verbal identity. They explore how powerful brands use design, logos, and visuals in perfect harmony with their voice, tone, messaging, and storytelling.

Because harmonious, balanced brands better connect with their audiences to win hearts and minds, trust and loyalty.

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Timestamps:

02:45 – The Yin and Yang analogy: why visual and verbal identity are inseparable forces.

04:30 – Beyond the box: creating agile visual systems that evolve with culture.

06:40 – More than a logo: how brand systems should cover every touchpoint.

08:30 – The "Feeling" piece: why humans are feeling creatures who think.

10:30 – Verbal branding: giving life and breath to brand strategy through language.

12:30 – The organising thought: using a succinct brand story to kick off ideation.

15:40 – Case study (Shaped By): why we use "Shapelings" and "Studios" to stay human.

20:00 – Point of view: standing for (and against) something to avoid being "wallpaper".

23:10 – Bold examples: how Monzo changed banking with a single color and no photography.

31:00 – Deep dive: positioning Censys as the "map of the internet".

40:19 – Closing thoughts: why bold brands should be more “Yoda".

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