Everyone's trying to define the next phase of branding, I think we're shifting into a new phase. I always think, is what branding always is, and should be, is thinking about the entire customer experience, whether that's their actual customers, or not customers, you've got to think about the whole picture.

Branding, I hope will always provide a bit of a north star for a business. Some businesses don't actually want north stars because they don't like being put into little boxes. I'm seeing more of that, which is really fascinating. Branding gives a business a sense of purpose, and helps them figure out their values, why they exist.

However, what's to say that shouldn't be changing every two or three years, because the landscape is changing so fast, and advertising is great, and it moves, and it shape shifts, and there's new things coming out, and that's shifting. Context is changing, the world is changing, and branding is going to have to adapt and evolve. Quite often I like with clients to show them today, tomorrow, and the future, just so they get a sense of how their brand can adapt visually, verbally, but also strategically.

I think if you just boil it down, our job as designers is to help businesses attract customers, or retain customers, grow, communicate their products and services to customers, and build products and services that's relevant and that there's a need for. There needs to be something in place when you've got a global business, that is now running people around cities, that keeps them in check, and gives them a unified voice so they can expect the same service all over the world, and the same effortless experience, but also, the same troubleshooting, the same campaigns, look and feel, there's a familiarity with that. Which is what it comes back down to, maintaining a level of stability, but being flexible and dynamic enough to change with the times, we've got to find that balance now.