Most of the team is in today and we had a bit too much chocolate cake to celebrate Sam’s BA in Graphic Design from the University of East London, James’s completion of his IT course at Amersham & Wycombe College, and our work experience Fraser’s GCSEs. All of this led to some silly photo taking! … Read more

We simply cannot stop talking about them. You already heard about Newland College when we announced the launch of its website. But now we are another step closer to the dream that kids from the age of 12 years upwards can enjoy this fantastic new school. Grain has created the identity, website, uniforms and now … Read more

Does London have enough coffee shops nowadays? Maybe. Does London have enough exquisite coffee shops? Certainly not. Competition is getting pretty tough though. This is why our friends Sarah and Charlie came to us to ask for some help to create their new coffee shop. Grain helped shaping the new brand experience and creating a … Read more

A recent article in The New Yorker has reminded us of how fragile brands are nowadays. Journalist James Surowiecki starts the article talking about the PR disaster of Lululemon Athletica. Once praised “They’re more than apparel. They’re a life style,” Lululemon Athletica’s reputation went downhill when people found out the quality of their products were … Read more

A year and a half ago we launched the shiny new website for Devotion, a New York based engagement jewellery brand, after creating the brand strategy, visual identity, packaging, print collateral and storefront design. The collaboration is still flourishing and our role has evolved into brand guardians, looking after Devotion’s social media — Facebook, Pinterest … Read more

A lovely, whimsical bunch of colour characters to brighten up your day! Explanation and comments are here.  

Recently we asked a group of entrepreneurs what is most important to them. The results were interesting and also surprising — who would have guessed that money is last? Success at first place, on the other hand, is not a surprise at all. They also told us what they look for when working with a … Read more

In two weeks I’ll be leaving the team here at Grain to go to M&C Saatchi. Although there’s a great deal of excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm coursing through my creative synapses, I can’t help but feel a little sad to be leaving the Grain family behind. Other than working as a designer, I’m currently completing … Read more

We recently came across this thread on Reddit about building a brand, from the founder of Beardbrand. Beardbrand is a very distinctive business, which focuses on promoting and selling beard care products. Though it is a niche market, the advantages and disadvantages of brand building as set out by Beardbrand founder Eric Bandholz are universal … Read more

From Daniel, our second IT intern from Amersham & Wycombe College about his time with us last week: “The week has been interesting and I learned lots of new things about website design that I did not know you could do. Also I have learned what Grain do. I have enjoyed the week at Grain … Read more

Exactly sixteen years ago, Madelyn Postman, Creative Director of Grain, started her career as a designer at one of the world’s most famous fashion companies: Gucci. Within five years, she became an influential creative director and production specialist at Gucci Group, where her key projects included art directing the first ever Gucci and Sergio Rossi … Read more

You may have come across our recent survey on entrepreneurs, what’s important to them and how they work with branding and design agencies. To thank people for completing the survey we had a prize draw for a £50 Amazon gift voucher. The lucky winner is Stephen McCue who founded and runs Dyslexia Pathways. An interesting … Read more

From our computing intern: “Hello, I’m James. For the last week I’ve been coming to Grain for work experience. Usually I’d go to Amersham & Wycome College, where I study IT. Over the week I worked on a few different projects using web technologies such as JavaScript and Python. One project I worked on was … Read more

After six years of recession the tide is turning and everyone is more optimistic. Businesses are starting to thrive again. But when it’s not ‘business as usual’, how does a recession affect the rate of starting up new businesses? It’s a positive effect: one factor being that people who have lost their jobs decide to … Read more

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with Innocent’s copywriting. Initially we are drawn in and grin at it and then quickly it feels like it’s trying to hard, we see it everywhere and we start to get sick of it. Our clients often brief us on creating a tone of voice which is friendly … Read more