Who are your biggest inspirations for branding?
As a successful graphic designer, I spent years creating and building a growing studio, producing work that I was proud of. However, around 2013, I felt for the first time that in order to truly understand the art of branding in depth, I needed the "why". Why this colour, why this font, why this shape?
That's when I started looking, researching how others create real visual communication. I have always loved books and collected them.
My ever-expanding professional library already contained a lot of publications. I will never forget my first book on branding, which I found in a bookstore in Manhattan and brought home from there. That book was Michael Johnson's "Branding. In Five and a Half Steps". It was exactly what I needed: deep enough to get me started on my journey, yet light and illustrative enough to get you excited about the subject. I tried out the methods I learned in the book in a couple of projects, and then looked for more tools and methods.
This led to the 3-hour brand sprint developed by Google Ventures. The sprint consists of six different exercises to help you plan your branding from the ground up. I quickly realised that this method was extremely effective and incorporated it into our everyday work. In fact, I feel that I have become a kind of evangelist in Hungary in promoting this method.
Meanwhile, I started listening to Chris Do's podcasts. I listened to the weekly material while running. His work inspired me to work and create in the same way I heard stories in his podcasts. Thanks to Chris! (I have since had the pleasure of meeting him in person and attending one of his workshops.)
By the way, I had planned to take Marty Neumeier's "Level C" course, but due to Covid they had to switch to online courses. I am still planning to attend as Mart's books and podcasts have been a great influence on me and my branding knowledge.
In 2021, I managed to gather all the knowledge I had acquired until then and wrote a book about it, which was a great success in Hungary. It is being distributed abroad and I have received good feedback on the book „Branding and the visual response”.
How a brand turns into visual identity
Ready to elevate your design strategy? Get this must-have book in ebook or print format. Packed with practical advice, it’s your roadmap to becoming an elite designer who thinks strategically and builds unforgettable brands.
This year I was very impressed by Wanda Grimsgaard's book "Design and Strategy", a 600+ page publication that really covers everything. It has detailed and textbook-like explanations. I can only recommend it, as I came across the Danish version years ago, but regretted that there was no English version. This year it was finally published and I bought it immediately.
Perhaps you can see from the details above that we have been very much influenced over the past decade. I've tried to learn from everyone, and the examples I've listed are just the tip of the iceberg of the hundreds of books and thousands of hours of listening to podcasts, reading newsletters and gaining professional knowledge.
This accumulated knowledge has been put into practice in my studio. We have constantly refined and developed our own methods and models. In this way, we have gained a wealth of experience, which we have now brought together under one name: zwoelf sprint. zwoelf sprint is the way we do branding work in the zwoelf studio.
We have captured our collective knowledge in a book and, together with zwoelf strategist Orsi Kumli, we have developed a TOOLBOX (in Hungarian for now). The TOOLBOX offers methods, models and techniques for brand building in the zwoelf sprint.
Tell me your story! I'm happy to read and answer! - mail to peter@brandguide.me
How a brand turns into visual identity
Ready to elevate your design strategy? Get this must-have book in ebook or print format. Packed with practical advice, it’s your roadmap to becoming an elite designer who thinks strategically and builds unforgettable brands.