Delve into my compilation of branding resources.
Books
Emily Heyward
“Obsessed”, written by the co-founder of branding agency Red Antler, is a truly inspiring book. The simple language and detailed examples make “Obsessed” the perfect book for anyone new to branding.
Jenni Romaniuk
Jenni Romaniuk is a researcher at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science. In “Building Distinctive Brand Assets”, Jenni provides an evidence-based perspective on what makes brand assets distinctive and why rebranding is hardly ever a good idea.
Byron Sharp
Byron Sharp is also a researcher at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. His book “How brands grow” is based on decades of research. It reveals scientific laws about the buying and marketing performance of brands.
Michael Johnson
In “Branding in Five and a Half Steps”, Michael Johnson elaborates on his five-step branding process (Investigation, Strategy and Narrative, Design, Implementation, and Engagement). He offers a lot of examples along the way.
Marty Neumeier
All of Marty Neumeier’s books make a good starting point for designers that want to get into branding.
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman is a trained psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics. His book is a must-read to understand how we think and make decisions.
Rory Sutherland
“Alchemy” is not a classic branding book, but I recommend it to anyone building brands. Alchemy offers many insights into behavioural science and Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, makes it a delight to read.
I wrote a blog post featuring four books that aren’t technically about branding but offer a wealth of inspiration and insights on brand-building and storytelling.
Podcasts
Fergus O’Carroll
The “On Strategy Showcase” podcast offers an insight into the strategies behind some of the most-known campaigns and brands.
Mark Pollard
Mark Pollard talks strategy with some of the biggest—and smaller—names in the advertising industry.
Stef Hamerlinck
Stef talks to many interesting people about branding. He interviewed Rory Sutherland, Jenni Romaniuk and many more.
Jacob Cass & Matt Davies
“Just Branding” is the ideal podcast for anyone new to branding. It explores branding approaches, tools and more.
Community
Mark Pollard
“Sweathead” offers a fantastic community of strategists of all levels, sharing ideas, resources, experience and even jobs.
Ana Andjelic
Not a community in the traditional sense, but you should subscribe to Ana’s newsletter. Her background in sociology gives her an interesting perspective on topics such as brand, business or culture.
Trends
LSN Global offers a bunch of free articles on their website, or you can become a member for access to the full site.
I get the Wunderman Thomson newsletter directly to my inbox. They also share a bunch of free (and paid) content on their website. I especially value their annual The Future 100 trend report.
TrendWatching offers trend reports, case studies, and a newsletter on emerging trends, consumer behaviours, and market dynamics.
Watch out for Interbrand’s annual Best global brands ranking.
Training
Mark Pollard
This was such a great course. I learned a lot about strategy and about myself. The therapist I never knew I needed.
Chris Do & team
The Futur offers courses in business and design. I can recommend their Typography and Lettering classes.
Typewolf
Not a course, but the “Flawless Typography Checklist” is my favourite resource for typography. The Typewolf website also curates web typography examples for font and font-pairing inspiration.
Skillshare offers courses on everything from copywriting to strategy. It helped me get into freelancing and branding.
Domestika offers a range of very affordable classes. I took some of them and found them really inspiring. My favourite course so far is Tatabi Studio’s course on sustainable packaging.
Tools
Management & Organisation
Having everything in one place keeps my freelancer life organised. Notion has also helped me organise my thoughts on brand strategy work.
Writing
I check most of my texts with Grammarly. It’s like having a native speaker check on my English.
Writing
I often get my texts checked through Hemingway, too, to make sure they are easy enough to read.
Ideation & Research
I’ve started using Chat GPT for a range of things, be it to get a quick overview of new topics or to check my spelling.
I’m doing my best to keep this compilation of branding resources up to date. If you have suggestions or feedback, don’t be shy to get in touch.
