The Elastic Brand

In this episode Liz chats to modern day polymath and all round incredible person Gavin Strange. Gavin is a designer and director at Aardman Animations by day and prolific passion project creator by night. In the show Gavin and Liz talk about: - Gavin's roots in the design industry - Gavin's recent passion projects - Branding passion projects - Where he finds inspiration - His processes for different projects - Working on multiple passion projects at once - Connecting with subject matter - Finding fearlessness in your work - Films, music and art inspiration - The complexities of creativity

In this episode Liz chats to brand designer, creative director, and speaker extraordinaire Naomi White of Branded by Naomi. Branded by Naomi is a Newcastle based branding agency that works with social-good organisations. In the show Naomi and Liz talk about: - Redesigning the Branded by Naomi website - What makes a social-good business - Challenges working with charities and social-good organisations - Naomi's brand design process - Branded by Naomi's most recent projects - Favourite projects that Naomi has worked on - Naomi's favourite brands

In this episode Liz chats to the amazing Hillary Weiss. Hillary is a New York based Consultant, Speaker, Strategist and Copywriter. She runs the company Statement Piece Studio and she co-hosts a brilliantly funny series on YouTube called HamYaw which stands for Hillary and Margot Yell at Websites. In the show Hillary and Liz talk about: - Branding ourselves and our own companies - Becoming a company as opposed to a freelancer - Naming our companies and trading under a business name - Defining our own brand strategy - How creating a strong, individual brand and voice can set us apart from other designers and creatives - How having professional photography is vital for your website and assets - How to find the time to properly brand ourselves - Finding our niche market - How we're both a little bit in love with Steve Folland from Being Freelance

In this episode Liz chats to the hugely talented Lizzie Benton. Lizzie is a Culture Consultant & Founder of Liberty Mind. Through Liberty Mind Lizzie works with SMEs to improve their company culture. In the show Lizzie and Liz discuss: - What a good company culture looks like - How company culture influences customer perception - Employer branding - At what stage startups should begin to establish their company culture - What processes companies can put in place from conception to create a positive company culture - How can established companies realign their culture with their brand - Does transparency have a place when addressing cultural challenges - Lizzie's favourite brands

In this episode Liz chats to Max Ottignon. Max is the co-founder of Ragged Edge a branding agency based in London. They help their clients achieve the improbable by creating innovative and game changing brands. They work with industry leaders such as Grey Goose and Google as well as fast scaling companies such as Bulb Energy and the e-scooter company Wind. In the show Max and Liz discuss: - How Ragged Edge came into being - The naming of Bulb - The process behind the Bulb brand design - Bulb's brand vision and values - The importance of a consistent, simple and clear brand for launching successful businesses. - Creating brand values that reflect your company culture - The power of colour when creating brands - How as an industry we need to be using the correct terminology - Some of Max's favourite brands

In the first episode of Season 3, I'm delighted to be joined by Chiara Aliotta. Chiara is the mind and the face behind Until Sunday. She is an Italian award-winning designer with many years of experience as a graphic designer, art director and brand consultant. Her work is creative, emotionally involving and detail-obsessed. Chiara describes herself as a typography addict, a lover of colours and a brand keeper. She blogs about the beauty of typography, the importance of good design and how as a designer, she feels committed to creating meaningful experiences for her clients. She is also a public speaker and always thinking up new ways to grab the audience's attention with her unique style. When she is not busy designing innovative products for her clients, you can find her waiting for a flight to some sunny destination, swimming in the Aegean Sea, capturing typography and patterns in the city with her camera, or spending her free time at home with a book, snuggling with her cat, Kissa. In the show we discuss the Medium article Chiara wrote called A Brilliant Idea is Not Enough and the lessons that she shares within it, including: -Why getting brand strategy right is so important -Defining your market -Exercises we can do to help define brand strategy -Brand storytelling -Defining assets for growth

On today's show Liz welcomes the wonderful Christopher Murphy AKA Fehler. Chris describes himself as a designer, writer and speaker. But he is so much more than that as any of his followers and students will testify to. He is a latter day polymath - sharing his extensive knowledge on all things from UI/UX, writing, product storytelling, and art - to mental health, the joys of not drinking, and running a marathon. As always Chris is his authentic self - open, engaging, vulnerable and inspiring - in this the final interview of season 2. In this episode we discuss Higher Education and alternative forms of learning Teaching and inspirational teachers Product storytelling Why designers should write Brand workshopping with clients Convincing clients to hire professionals Content marketing Being vulnerable online and with clients Company Culture as part of a brand All the links we discuss will be in the show notes on our website theelasticbrand.com

On today's show Liz chats to Ben Walker of digital marketing agency Arise. Liz and Ben discuss what its like to hire in a brand designer (Liz) as a creative agency, what brand means in terms of digital marketing, strategies for discovering a client's values and tone of voice, relationship building with clients and tons more.

On today's show Liz chats to Kylie Timpani. Kylie is an outstanding designer based in San Francisco. In this episode we discuss the elements of what makes a brand, the evolution of Kylie's brand design journey, how it's important for designers to be able to code, a digital first approach to branding and creating identities on the fly, responsive logos, developing a digital brand from another designer's guidelines and tons more including our obsession with Jodie Comer and typography in film.

On today's show we have Sean Johnson. Sean is a UX Consultant and Designer, Type Designer and host of The Freelance Web (with me!). In this episode we discuss the roll UX plays in designing a brand, how end users can tell you more about a brand than the client, how to use client feedback and surveys on small projects, how to ask the right questions, good design processes, can A/B testing work in brand design?, how you should stop caring what other designers think and the age old argument for just sending the client one concept.

On today's show I am joined by Katherine Cory. Katherine is a brand and website designer based in Manchester. In this episode we discuss 'No BS' branding, working with less sexy clients, Katie's processes, not shaming clients with lower budgets, business challenges brand designers face, structuring your day and working with a chronic illness. Plus tons more!

In the first episode of Season 2 I'm delighted to be joined by Matt Hamm. Matt is an Illustrator, Art Director, Brand Designer, UI Designer and the Creative Director at Supereight Studio. In the show we discuss brand and identity design, Matt's processes, responsive logos, brand guidelines, creating identities that stand the test of time and how much we love Jon Hicks.

Today I am honoured to have as my guest Michael Bierut of Pentagram New York. Michael and I discuss Pentagram's process behind the recent redesign of Slack's identity, the reaction of the design industry, Michael's involvement in the design of Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign logo, the power and passivity of a logo and the beauty of design and symbols.

In this episode Liz and Rachel discuss taking a less traditional more entrepreneurial approach to branding for clients, about how brand values can be used as a decision making tool, creating passive income and how education and empowerment can be strong tools for attracting new clients.

In this episode Liz chats to Andy Clarke about creating interesting designs and stronger brands through storytelling, illustration and content. They discuss taking an editorial approach to design and getting to the route of a customer's visceral needs. They also ramble... quite a lot.

In this episode Laura and Liz discuss ethical brand design, toxic technology and dark patterns, the need for tech industry diversity, accessibility and inclusivity, how we can be more ethical as designers, how we need to make sure we are working with ethical companies and lots more

This week's guest needs no introduction, I'm joined by Jon Hicks one of the most well known and respected designers in the UK. In the show we discuss logo brand design, Jon's processes, responsive logos, brand guidelines, digital first logo design and our favourite comedies.

My very first guest on the Elastic Brand is none other than designer extraordinaire Mike Kus. In this interview we discuss how Mike got into designing brands for the web, his processes, best practices, inspiration, does digital brand design exist and much more.

Welcome to the Elastic Brand! Here's a quick intro from your host Liz Elcoate as to what you can expect over the coming episodes.