The Elastic Brand Elizabeth Elcoate

In this episode Liz chats to modern day polymath and all round incredible person Gavin Strange. Gavin is a designer and director at Aardman Animations by day and prolific passion project creator by night.

In the show Gavin and Liz talk about:

- Gavin’s roots in the design industry
- Gavin’s recent passion projects
- Branding passion projects
- Where he finds inspiration
- His processes for different projects
- Working on multiple passion projects at once
- Connecting with subject matter
- Finding fearlessness in your work
- Films, music and art inspiration
- The complexities of creativity

In this episode Liz chats to brand designer, creative director, and speaker extraordinaire Naomi White of Branded by Naomi. Branded by Naomi is a Newcastle based branding agency that works with social-good organisations.

In the show Naomi and Liz talk about:

- Redesigning the Branded by Naomi website
- What makes a social-good business
- Challenges working with charities and social-good organisations
- Naomi’s brand design process
- Branded by Naomi’s most recent projects
- Favourite projects that Naomi has worked on
- Naomi’s favourite brands

In this episode Liz chats to the amazing Hillary Weiss. Hillary is a New York based Consultant, Speaker, Strategist and Copywriter. She runs the company Statement Piece Studio and she co-hosts a brilliantly funny series on YouTube called HamYaw which stands for Hillary and Margot Yell at Websites.

In the show Hillary and Liz talk about:

- Branding ourselves and our own companies
- Becoming a company as opposed to a freelancer
- Naming our companies and trading under a business name
- Defining our own brand strategy
- How creating a strong, individual brand and voice can set us apart from other designers and creatives
- How having professional photography is vital for your website and assets
- How to find the time to properly brand ourselves
- Finding our niche market
- How we’re both a little bit in love with Steve Folland from Being Freelance

In this episode Liz chats to the hugely talented Lizzie Benton. Lizzie is a Culture Consultant & Founder of Liberty Mind. Through Liberty Mind Lizzie works with SMEs to improve their company culture.

In the show Lizzie and Liz discuss:

- What a good company culture looks like
- How company culture influences customer perception
- Employer branding
- At what stage startups should begin to establish their company culture
- What processes companies can put in place from conception to create a positive company culture
- How can established companies realign their culture with their brand
- Does transparency have a place when addressing cultural challenges
- Lizzie’s favourite brands

In this episode Liz chats to Max Ottignon.

Max is the co-founder of Ragged Edge a branding agency based in London. They help their clients achieve the improbable by creating innovative and game changing brands.

They work with industry leaders such as Grey Goose and Google as well as fast scaling companies such as Bulb Energy and the e-scooter company Wind.

In the show Max and Liz discuss:

- How Ragged Edge came into being
- The naming of Bulb
- The process behind the Bulb brand design
- Bulb’s brand vision and values
- The importance of a consistent, simple and clear brand for launching successful businesses.
- Creating brand values that reflect your company culture
- The power of colour when creating brands
- How as an industry we need to be using the correct terminology
- Some of Max's favourite brands

In the first episode of Season 3, I’m delighted to be joined by Chiara Aliotta.

Chiara is the mind and the face behind Until Sunday. She is an Italian award-winning designer with many years of experience as a graphic designer, art director and brand consultant. Her work is creative, emotionally involving and detail-obsessed.

Chiara describes herself as a typography addict, a lover of colours and a brand keeper. She blogs about the beauty of typography, the importance of good design and how as a designer, she feels committed to creating meaningful experiences for her clients.

She is also a public speaker and always thinking up new ways to grab the audience’s attention with her unique style.

When she is not busy designing innovative products for her clients, you can find her waiting for a flight to some sunny destination, swimming in the Aegean Sea, capturing typography and patterns in the city with her camera, or spending her free time at home with a book, snuggling with her cat, Kissa.

In the show we discuss the Medium article Chiara wrote called A Brilliant Idea is Not Enough and the lessons that she shares within it, including:

-Why getting brand strategy right is so important
-Defining your market
-Exercises we can do to help define brand strategy
-Brand storytelling
-Defining assets for growth