JUST Branding

Bill Gardner joins Jacob Cass and Matt Davies to discuss the differences between logos and brands, Jennifer Aawker’s brand personality framework, the discovery process with clients, objectivity VS subjectivity, establishing design briefs, how to sell the value of branding, logo design trends and magic. Yes, magic! Bill Gardner is the owner and president of Gardner Design, where he and his team have produced effective and award winning results for such industry leaders as NFL, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Kroger, Hallmark, SeaWorld, and others. He understands the nuances of brand practicalities better than anyone in the business and leads his team to always first consider the business that the design is supporting. As the founder of LogoLounge.com – the international, searchable compendium of logos – Bill authored the affiliated bestselling LogoLounge book series, volumes 1-12, and is the author of the annual LogoLounge Logo Trend Report. 2013 marked the release of the highly anticipated Logo Creed, a foundation textbook for students, educators and professionals alike. Bill is also the author and presenter of LinkedIn Learning’s series of online courses concentrating on branding and identity design. In 2014, Bill became an AIGA Fellow Award recipient for his contributions to the local, national and international creative community. Bill also judges design competitions and speaks nationally and internationally on identity trends and logo development. In his spare time, he serves on several community boards and has completed a six-year term as the Territorial Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Nathan Hendricks believes there is no excuse for a lousy brand. As chief creative officer at LPK, he challenges the organization’s creative teams to uphold the vision that every brand should make a powerful and positive difference for the people it serves. A candid cultural commentator, he’s never afraid to tell it like it is. In this episode, we explore primal human desires and how we can use that to create stronger brands. Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from The Ohio State University, where he majored in visual communications and cultivated an affection for industrial beer. ABOUT LPK LPK is a brand, innovation and customer experience consultancy, helping organizations build enduring brands that thrive in the emergent culture. Merging trends, insights, strategy and creativity, we create the now, near and next for B2Bs and B2Cs, startups and Fortune 50s.

Learn what NOT to do when it comes to developing your brand. Listen in as we discuss with brand strategist, Jacquelin Lieberman, the most common mistakes brands make as they grow & market their brand. This is a juicy episode, where we discuss the brand purpose, core values, uncovering brand truths, brand management, creating value and so much more. If you want to learn how to create an enduring brand that matters, this episode is for you! Jacquelin Lieberman is the founder of the brand strategy consultancy, BrandCrudo. She’s honed her no-B.S.-approach to marketing strategy over the years guided by one belief – when you make brands more human, you connect them to more people. Throughout her career, she has developed a narrative-based approach to traditional strategic planning to uncover the brand truth that resonates with audiences. She has worked with many brands, most notably for many of Unilever's iconic brands, Beech-Nut, General Mills, and most recently with Happy Family Brands and fintech disrupter, the Alternative Investment Exchange. Jacqueline applies both art and science to understanding human insight and interpreting findings in order to unearth the real reason people should care about your brand. For Jacqueline, it’s all about finding a brand's raw truth and making it matter.

David Benjamin is the author of CRACKING COMPLEXITY: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything Fast (Nicholas Brealey; 2019). He is the co-founder of Syntegrity and the Chief Architect behind its implementation of the Complexity Formula as laid out in Cracking Complexity. David regularly guides leaders and their teams through their application of the formula, helping them get to decisions and action in days, no matter the industry, type of challenge, or nature of the organization. In this capacity, David has become a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies and government leaders on how to organize for complexity and find traction in the face of the intractable. He frequently speaks on a wide range of topics related to complexity, effective and efficient problem-solving, and human dynamics in systems. David spends most of the rest of his time and energy on writing, family, long-distance running and cracking cryptic crosswords. David and his wife, Angie, live near Toronto and have three incredibly talented daughters whom he loves equally.

Natalie Nixon is the author of The Creativity Leap and in this episode, she shares her techniques to helping brands through the power of creativity. We tuck into some big ideas like how creativity leads to innovation, why a business needs more creative ideas, anthropology, design thinking and how being curious and how asking more of the "why", "what if" and "how" questions create more value for organisations. Take the leap with us and Natalie Nixon in this value-packed episode.

Lisa Hasting is an independent Creative Director, a brand strategist and an unorthodox solver of problems. She's experienced working all over the world including the far east. In this episode, we dig into coming up with ideas and being brave. Lisa shares her techniques and ideas in this space and shows how asking the right questions and digging into problems in a deeper way can lead to the solutions that add real value. Along the way she gives live examples from some of her work and inspires us with fresh ways of thinking. If you want ideas this is the episode for you.

Denise Lee Yohn is the go-to expert on brand leadership for national media outlets, an in-demand keynote speaker and consultant, and an influential writer. She is the author of the bestselling book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest and the new book FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies. In this episode, you will learn exactly that - how to integrate brand & culture into your company for massive success!

Kevin Duncan is a business consultant and best selling author - known for his snappy no-nonsense wisdom packed books on business strategy. In this episode we dig into Kevin's approach and his overview of 7 strategies businesses need to create to be successful from his book "The Smart Strategy Book". The seven strategies we touch on are: Commercial, Brand, Customer, Sales, People, Innovation and Communication. We especially dig into brand strategy, discover how this fits into the other six strategies and Kevin shares some of the techniques and concepts he uses to create effective strategies with his clients. Recommended listening for all brand builders.

Listen in as we reveal our favourite outtakes from Season 1 of the JUST Branding Podcast in 2020, including branding insights from creative minds such as Marty Neumeier, Chris Do, Michael Johnson, Melinda Livsey, Michael Janda, Tom Ross, Rob Meyerson, Stephen Houraghan, Stef Hamnerlink, Tobias Dahlberg, Valerie Jacobs, Motto and more. Don't miss this one!

Dolphins, Donuts and Condoms. What do these three things have in common? Nothing. However, we do touch on these topics through the lens of brand strategy. Our guest today is Peter Wilken, who is a brand strategy consultant, author and professional speaker. He’s the founder of Dolphin Brand Strategy, as well as the former Head of BBDO Asia Pacific. He has run agencies for Leo Burnett and Ogilvy too, working for numerous Fortune 100 companies during this time. His book ‘Dim Sum Strategy’ is packed with bite-sized tools you need to build stronger brands, which is what we explore in this episode… building stronger brands.