After a period of steady momentum — where we’ve seen businesses and organisations responding to an expectation around their impact on people and planet — there has been justifiable backlash on authenticity and genuine commitment vs. purpose-washing. Build an authentic, impactful brand around tangible core business purpose and avoid looking red-faced under a shallow marketing facade…

‘The boardroom’ is not a sterile, inanimate, emotionless vacuum. It’s not the humourless hum of an underground server stack, endlessly streaming through ones and zeros (not yet anyway, AI). Communicating with decision-makers needs to be done with head and heart just like everybody else. Speaking the right language and striking the right tone is essential to cutting through the noise.

The psychology of communication design is about understanding emotional responses to stimuli. I’m reviving this essay – originally penned in 2012 – looking at examples in East Asian culture and […]

Citizen Designer: Perspectives on design responsibility edited by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne I often dip back into this anthology when I’m in need of reassurance about the value of […]

The Beat Kit ‘Remover Installer’ appeared on shelves in 1984. It was a fake product created by Sean Wolfe as a nose-thumb to the then solidifying cult of consumerism. The product itself was a […]

This is a reflection on an old lecture I delivered, discussing the conventions in signified ‘meaning’ behind visual media, art direction, and communication in general. What do you see? What […]

I don’t often gush. But I love this piece. It has been replicated around the globe, and honestly I can’t track down where it first appeared, but certainly the tiles […]

Lovely chap. Always so polite, always courteous, loves having the neighbours round, always willing to lend a hand. A true gent, honest to a fault, progressive, and with such a […]

Brand activism, or belief-driven value marketing to use the adverspeak, where a company positions itself as taking a stand on hot socio-political topics, is not a new phenomenon but is dominating PR […]

“As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when […]