Naming brands, whether company, service or product, is not an every day part of the marketing mix. Most companies and brands only do it once and established companies don’t have to think about it much unless they are part of a merger or an acquisition. With start-ups being the new way and only about 1 … Read more

Have a look at our top 10 favourite design books. You’ll find Amazon links below the infographic. Do you have any books to add to the list?   1. Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler 2. Branding: From Brief to Finished Solution by Mono Design 3. Package Design by daab 4. Why Fonts Matter by … Read more

TEDxLondon “Throw those curtains wide. One day like this a year will See me right,” we sing. Hugh Montgomery The Earth will survive But we, foolish humankind Have hit self-destruct. Emily Milan Rea Iron willed teenager Leaves behind a hundred no’s To find the one yes. Ndidi Okezie Teach First: achieving equality for children in … Read more

Square. Slack. Sea. These words could soon mean a lot more to you than their literal meaning. They are all on Interbrand’s 2017 list of Breakthrough Brands, the companies that are rising head and shoulders above their peers and breaking through to the level where they are soon to become household names. The 40 companies … Read more

Brand Architecture – Maximising Synergies from Complex Portfolios Brand architecture may at first sight seem like the tediously dull end of the otherwise exciting area of new brand development with its creative naming, cutting edge logo design and glitzy launches.  But look at the detail and you’ll see that this is the world of brand strategy … Read more

Mégane Osio is Grain’s intern this summer and is enjoying putting her design skills to use whilst rapidly improving her English. She is a student of graphic design at ECV Creative Schools & Community in Bordeaux, France. She particularly likes all aspects of corporate design and print, including the visual identity of a brand, packaging, … Read more

Changing a well-established and well-known brand with all its existing brand attributes, brand promises and emotional ties can be like the clichéd oil tanker which needs a very long time to change course. There are still people who call a Snickers bar “Marathon”! It can be a challenge to say the least. But to rebrand the biggest … Read more

It was ironic to read Cal Newport’s Deep Work on the Kindle app on my iPhone, considering that the device is full of alluring distractions. The first part of the book argues why deep, focused and uninterrupted work is valuable, with section titles including: Deep work helps you quickly learn hard things Deep work helps you produce at an … Read more

When I’m not in the Grain office, I spend quite a lot of time painting and illustrating as well as working on self-initiated graphic design projects. My illustrations are mainly inspired by nature, people and fantasy fiction. Watercolour and chalk pastels are my favourite mediums to work with, as you’ll see. I find painting and illustrating … Read more

The other evening at RIBA to celebrate the launch of the new book from the Twentieth Century Society, 50 Architects 50 Buildings, four architects spoke about buildings which influenced their career. Sarah Featherstone, Cany Ash, Peter Barber and Niall McLaughlin treated us to insights on the buildings themselves, and details of how these echo in their own work. The … Read more

Driving Positive Change Sponsoring F1 gives brands huge exposure in Europe, Latin America and Asia combined with important (and relatively unique) access to growth markets in the developing world. The associations with speed, glamour and excitement are tempting for any global company and for FMCG brands these associations can be promoted through branding around the … Read more

This was the thought-provoking invitation the Grain team and I received from our Directors, prior to our summer team day out. As puzzled as I was, I knew it was going to be a lot of fun – it always is! “Meet at the V&A” was a big clue within the riddle, but I managed to refrain from looking … Read more

For the past 9 months I have been attempting to juggle a my job as Project & Studio Manager at Grain whilst studying a part-time Graphic Design course at Shillington College in London. It has been intense, hard work and slightly emotional, but having just graduated and still being allowed through the door at Grain, I can proudly … Read more

A New and Augmented Reality for Location Based Marketing. In its first few weeks, Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm. Tens of millions of users, impressive initial revenues and huge uplifts in share price. Marketers are keen to jump on the bandwagon and the opportunities go well beyond the traditional sponsorship business models. … Read more