A wider view
of the problem.
Branding has a habit of being mistaken for the bit you can see.
Identity matters, of course. But so do the thinking, words, positioning, communications, publicity, advertising, marketing, media, production and countless practical decisions that determine how a brand actually meets the world.
DAREN's experience spans that wider territory. Because sometimes the answer is a new identity. And sometimes the real problem is somewhere else entirely.
Daren’s 30+ year career in the wonderful world of making things look good and selling them to people has shaped him as a multi-tasking, serial slasher.
He has been a graphic designer / bilingual copywriter / communications analyst and strategist / publicist / marketer / media buyer / digital comms consultant / advertising agent.
Luckily, he doesn’t have time for an identity crisis.
Strategy and execution
belong together.
I like being involved from the point where the problem is still slightly unclear through to the point where the identity has to survive websites, print, packaging, signage or whatever comes next.
That breadth matters because good ideas often fail in the handover between thinking and making.
Experience is useful when it changes the decision.
I have worked with one-person companies and with organisations as large as Airbus. The value is not the number of years. It is having seen what tends to matter in practice, and what usually turns out to be theatre.
The useful question is rarely what it should look like.
It is usually what does it need to do.