JOURNAL /01
Explore our latest thinking on brand, business and creativity, from deeper Studio Papers and original perspectives to observations, stories and ideas from inside the studio.
Hashtags have quickly become a “must-have” for social media and digital marketing. With the rapid evolution of the hashtag, the importance of understanding their fundamentals has grown just as quick. There is a lot of the hashtag world that many
While it’s not as trendy, youthful or quirky as Instagram or TikTok, LinkedIn has a lot of value to offer, especially when it comes to benefiting your business, brand, or personal profile. LinkedIn used to be viewed as the ideal
The number of social media followers one has is often recognised as a popularity status or source of credibility. However, there is much more to followers than you think. Value, engagement, reach, following count and influencers are all important to
If you’re looking at your Instagram insights right now and feel like you’re not seeing the same results as you used to, don’t fret! Humans can be very fickle about a lot of things, and what we see on our
“Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touchpoints.” – Jonah Sachs Most people have some knowledge of what branding is. In this day and age, we are told that even we as individuals are ‘brands’, each telling our
Some might call it the resurrection of Pinterest and others might say it never really left, but what we do know is that the creative search engine platform is steadily on the rise. We’ve collated all the information you need
Influencers have a big part to play when it comes to the merging of word-of-mouth marketing and traditional paid ads. This hybrid of paid brand awareness may not always be given the best wrap, but if you get it right
If you’re a business owner, we’re sure you would have considered customer retention strategies and asked yourself, “how do I keep my customer’s coming back for more once I have sold them a product or service?”. On the same note,
If you’ve been keeping up with our blogs, as much as I do the Kardashians, you would know by now that we’ve been really into talking about what branding is and why it plays such a vital part in a
We put AI to the test, giving it the exact same brand identity brief we received.
The challenge was to create a welcoming, inclusive LEGO community for adults, built around creativity, connection and giving preloved bricks a second life.
Heres where our strategy made the difference:
🧱 The concept: Our identity centres around a character thats quite literally a social brick, giving the brand personality, expression and a recognisable face.
🎨 The colours: Inspired by LEGO’s iconic palette, but reimagined with a more contemporary, distinctive twist. Playful and nostalgic without feeling childish.
🔠 The typography: The bold, expressive letterforms of the primary typeface brings personality and confidence to the identity, while reinforcing its playful nature.
🧩 The logo system: The primary wordmark sits within a three-dimensional brick form, connecting the name to the concept. A complementary circular motif creates a flexible visual asset for social media, merchandise and responsive applications.
✏️ The details: Hand-drawn illustrations and expressive graphic elements introduce a sense of freedom, creativity and spontaneity. Tying into the fact that it’s a space where there are no rules for how you play.
Every element has a purpose, connecting back to the people, experience and values behind the brand.
In contrast, AI created a fairly predictable interpretation of LEGO branding. Bright primary colours, familiar brick graphics, generic typography and the kind of busy, information-heavy flyer we’ve come to associate with AI-generated design.
The AI imagery also highlights another challenge. While visually polished at first glance, the artificial people and environments lack the authenticity and consistency needed to build a believable, human-centred brand.
AI understood the category, but it didn’t understand the brand.
That’s the distinction we’re exploring. AI can generate a visual response to a brief in seconds, but brand strategy requires questioning, interpreting, making deliberate creative decisions and understanding why those decisions matter.
Which direction would you choose, and why? 👇
The brief: Create a logo and brand identity for a welcomi
How well do we really recognise brands without their names? 👀
Jess put my brand recognition skills to the test with a series of logos, taglines and imagery, stripped of any additional context.
Some were instantly recognisable. Others took a little more convincing. 😂
It’s a fun reminder of how powerful distinctive visual identities can be, and how much we associate certain shapes, colours and symbols with the brands behind them.
How many did you recognise? Let us know your score below! 👇
What business owners say and what brand strategists hear can be two very different things.
When a business says its marketing isn`t working, the instinct is often to do more. More content, more advertising, more visibility.
But sometimes, the real problem sits beneath the surface.
That`s where brand strategy comes in. It`s about asking better questions, challenging assumptions and understanding what`s actually holding your brand back before investing in the next solution.
And we believe that kind of strategic thinking should be more accessible.
We`ve taken the strategic questions, frameworks and insights behind nearly two decades of brand strategy work and built them into our Brand Builder Map and Brand Oracle.
📖 Brand Builder Map: A guided workbook that takes you through our Eight Brand Marks™ methodology, helping you explore and define the foundations of your brand.
💬 Brand Oracle: Your AI-powered strategic guide, designed to challenge your thinking, ask the questions you might not think to ask and help you turn your insights into a clearer brand strategy.
Build your brand strategy for just $60 + GST.
This includes the Brand Builder Map and one month of Brand Oracle access, with no ongoing commitment required. Subscription options are available if you`d like to continue exploring.
Download your Brand Map and access Oracle via the link in our bio.
#BrandOracle #EightBrandMarks #BrandStrategy #BrandPositioning #BrandBuilding
Good work starts with good relationships.
One of our favourite parts of what we do is getting to know the people behind the businesses we work with. Understanding their stories, sharing ideas, challenging each other`s thinking and seeing those ideas come to life.
Joanna Photography is a perfect example of that. We`ve had the pleasure of working with Jo on her brand, and more recently, the tables turned when we stepped in front of her camera for our own branding shoot.
Jo embraced our creative direction, brought her own ideas and perspective to the shoot, and captured our team in a way that felt genuinely us.
There`s something pretty special about being able to support each other`s businesses, collaborate creatively and share a few laughs along the way.
Thanks for being such a wonderful part of our Oraco community, Jo! 🖤
Content is easy to make, but content that actually feels like your brand is a little harder.
It`s why we don`t think content should begin with, “What should we post this week?”
It should begin much further back.
What do we want to be known for? What does our audience actually care about? What stories are worth telling? And how can we tell them in a way that could only really come from us?
Because when those things are clear, content stops being a constant search for something to say. You have a much stronger foundation to keep coming back to.
And that`s exactly why we created the Brand Builder Map and Brand Oracle.
Built on our Eight Brand Marks™ methodolgy, the Brand Builder Map and Oracle helps you explore the foundations of your brand, uncover what makes you distinctive and develop the clarity to guide everything that comes next, including your content.
Because knowing what to say starts with understanding who you are, what you stand for and why people should care.
Here`s Kannika behind the scenes capturing some of the content that brings those ideas to life.
Strategy gives you the story and content gives you somewhere to tell it.
Want to build a stronger foundation for your own brand? Explore Brand Oracle and the Brand Builder Map through the link in our bio.
Imagine what you could build with real brand clarity.
What if you could articulate exactly what makes your brand worth choosing? Know what you stand for, who you’re here for, where you’re going and what makes your perspective different?
Imagine making decisions with confidence. Communicating your value clearly. Creating work that feels unmistakably yours. Building a brand that people recognise, connect with and remember.
For nearly two decades, we’ve helped businesses explore these questions and turn their answers into meaningful brand strategies.
Now, we’ve brought that thinking together into the Eight Brand Marks™, a framework designed to uncover what makes every brand distinctive.
And we’ve created a new way for you to explore it yourself.
Something new is coming…
Comment ‘Imagine’ to find your Mark.
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