Beyond logos: Building brands that breathe
Gabriel Collins, head of innovation at Boundless Brand Design, discusses how the relationship between brands and consumers has changed over time, and why his agency’s ‘Living Brand’ ethos helps to unlock the bigger picture.
What does the average consumer-brand interaction look like today, compared to 1990? Cast your minds back (if you can) to that era, where print media dominated. We flicked through magazines, gazed up at billboards, checked the classifieds, scanned the TV guide; some of us even read books, imagine. Later-to-be film directors like Ridley and Tony Scott made long-form commercials. An exciting piece of storytelling, beamed directly into our living rooms and enjoyed by pretty much everyone.
It was at this time that brand agencies, known more humbly as design studios, came to the fore. Industry legends like Lewis Moberly, Wolff Olins and Pentagram were in their pomp and the stars of the show were all graphic designers. Which, given the importance of print, made sense. The world of advertising sat apart, a distinct discipline for people who liked to work in creative duos.
Cut to 2025, we have things like smart phones, streaming, hyper segmentation and targeted propositions. But we still, by and large, have the same agency models. The same print/film mindset, with brand agencies dominated by creative directors, graphic design degrees tucked into their Carhartts. It’s a similar story in adland. But while that has been sluggish to change, the consumer landscape is wildly different. We just don’t consume brands in the same way anymore.
That’s something that never made sense to us at Boundless Brand Design. Named to evoke the idea of a borderless creative world, where instead of being confined by the idea of a discipline, at Boundless we worship at the altar of ideas. At the heart of the ethos, sits Living Brand. Because a brand is more than just a logo, a 6 sheet or a 30 second clip, it’s something that lives and breathes, that reacts to the world around it and evolves constantly.
The Living Brand way of thinking is a bigger picture approach. It’s about considering how a brand works wherever it shows up. Not artificially separating touchpoints according to our industry delineation, but flexing them to work for the way a consumer experiences a brand. That means thinking about how a brand behaves, talks, moves, even dreams. Whatever the point of consumer interaction, from packaging to pop ups, social media posts, animations, ads, airport experiences, lifestyle photography and beyond – it all should work cohesively together.
Take the world of beauty for example, and then think back about those ‘90s heyday brands that felt so at home in the glossy pages of Vogue and Tatler. You might have Lancôme, MAC, Revlon pop into your head. Then consider the behaviour of brands in the same category that have grasped the ethos of Living Brand. Glossier, for one, stands out as a perfect counterweight. Built for the modern age, it thrives on community engagement, real-time consumer feedback and a brand presence that shifts seamlessly across social, experiential and e-commerce platforms. However and wherever you consume the brand, it’s completely joined up, with every channel working to its unique strengths.
In a world where consumer interactions are fluid, dynamic and ever-evolving, brands can’t afford to be static. The old models, built for a bygone era, no longer serve the complexity of modern engagement. That’s why, at Boundless Brand Design, we champion the Living Brand – an approach that breaks down industry silos and embraces the full spectrum of brand expression. Because in 2025, a brand isn’t just seen, it’s experienced. And those that adapt, evolve and breathe with their audience will be the ones that thrive.
