Brand Revealer #11: "It is often a return to simplicity" with Emmanuel Guiho
Brand Revealer #11: "It is often a return to simplicity" with Emmanuel Guiho
🎙Short Q&A with Emmanuel Guiho, our new brand strategist + new series ''Creative Insights on Branding''.
👋 Hello brand enthusiast, how are you doing today?
The mission of YBL is to demystify the ''big word'' branding so that anyone can understand its paradoxes and implement their version of branding. By collecting an eclectic panel of definitions and visions of what branding is and implies. Showcasing those who do, use, and expand branding: Brand Revealers.
Let's discover our new Brand Revealer of the month!
Short Q&A - Brand Revealer #11
Emmanuel Guiho is a French art director and graphic designer. I discovered him thanks to my LinkedIn feed. I liked his straightforward and minimal approach to design and decided to invite him to join the conversation. As a former creative within the cultural sector, much of what he shares resonates with me. A set of past experiences that served as stepping stones to my current wisdom on branding.
Grab some tea or coffee and let’s go!
🇫🇷 Let’s be bilingual!
I am trying to bridge the gap of language as I evolve with this letter. For some French guests, we will listen to their voices in French and read them in English. Enjoy!
🇬🇧🇺🇸 Here is the translation for my English readers
Who are you?
My name is Emmanuel Guiho, I am an art director and graphic designer.
I work as an independent freelancer. I collaborate with various companies aiming to redefine or rebuild their brands. These companies range from very small businesses like freelancers, artists, or even groups. I can start with their current branding or work on a complete rebranding.
Your agency/studio
Where are you located?
Bordeaux, France.
What is your definition of Branding?
It is still very, very, very broad for me. Branding is everything that will be perceived about a brand. Whether it's related to the product, the communication, or the quality of service. It all contributes to the brand's reputation within its area of expertise. So, it goes beyond just the logo, iconography and color choices.
Emmanuel
Branding is made of trial and error. The positioning takes effort, time and dedication. How can entrepreneurs recover from a branding that doesn't resonate yet with their audience?
How can a brand improve its positioning? There are many things to consider. I believe that one very important aspect would be to listen to customer feedback regarding their products or positioning. Also, analyze intentionally customer feedback and the competition. Trying to understand what mistakes have been made to produce errors.
Following this, I think we can redefine the brand's positioning or even reconstruct it, creating a true identity. In any case, revisiting an identity—even revising the visual identity by reimagining a logo, color scheme, and iconographic elements—basically, everything that contributes to the visual understanding of the brand based on what we have learned from various feedback sources.
Afterwards, we can go further and imagine a reflection on the customer experience because the customer remains at the center of our thinking and positioning. Then, based on that, readjust the communication strategy; all of this flows from reflection. In essence, revisiting the wording, the tone, and how we present products. How should the brand now communicate with its customers?
Emmanuel
What are the repeated words you hear about your Brand and Branding from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
Simplicity • Colorful • Sur-mesure
It's often a return to simplicity. I focus a lot on meaning. For me, it is important to go through the entire thought process to create identities that are simple and, above all, very understandable. So, colorful simplicity as well. I truly incorporate the consideration of color into my work. Then, there is the word ‘‘Sur-mesure."
or tailor-fit. It really resonates with me. Each project, each collaboration with a specific field, leads me to deepen my reflection and understand the domain I will be working on.
Emmanuel
What is your best branding story from clients, yourself or an iconic brand you look up to?
For me, it is more about, let's say, the moment. It's when I listened to myself as a creative, as an independent, and decided not to do things like everyone else in my way of working.
The issue has always been that, typically, in France, we produce a first response that aligns with the brief. Then there is a second proposal that is extremely different from the first and challenges it, but in an opposing manner. And usually, we struggle to come up with a third proposal, which might be produced too quickly. As a result, I realized, having done it and being forced to do it, that very often, clients choose the path that involves the least reflection or the least risk-taking. One that is the least creative, marketing-wise, or even in terms of meaning. They tend to choose the one that will be a shortcut, that will be the prettiest, or that will cater more to their immediate desires.
Now, I work in stages and with keywords. In fact, my best story comes from my first experience with a client with whom I implemented this process.
So, I gather three keywords from my client. I will work through various stages with different creative themes that I will explore and challenge in my mind, so to speak.Initially, I work on paper. Actually, I always work on paper. I only experiment with a digital design or creative tool at the very end of my process. For my first proposal, I will check how it aligns with the three keywords. If it doesn't align, I move on to the second idea. If it still doesn't align with the three keywords, I move on to proposition three, and so on until I arrive at a proposal that aligns with all the keywords. One that is simple and minimalist enough to be quickly understood. It is at that moment that I really design and create the logo in Illustrator, whether it's typography, a pictogram, or a combination of many other elements.
In fact, when I received the client's brief, she told me, "I would like a tree in my logo, and I don't like yellow, I hate yellow." However, in the end, when I envisioned and designed her logo, I arrived at the decision that she would have yellow and there would be no tree. In the end, she absolutely loved the proposal. It went beyond what she had in mind, it challenged and strengthened her in her work. But most importantly, the image she projected for her company and even how well her company's image was understood.
Anyway, it was extremely positive. She bought it almost immediately, even though she was, in quotation marks, ‘‘shocked’’, in the sense of being shaken by this risk-taking. That was my best branding experience.
Emmanuel
What is the collective DNA of French artisan branding?
The sign and the symbol must be extremely understandable. For me, there are many things that are no longer French. And if there is something very French, it will be very artistic with a true manual approach, like that of an artisan with handmade work. A handmade typography, an illustration or a pictogram that is handmade. But in any case, the essence will remain, let's say, generalized about a very simplified Western reflection. I think that if there's something very French, it might be more related to the history of art in France or the history of brands in France. How great illustrators or artists still inspire us, how great poets or a way of writing or conceiving a project inspire us. However, it will really be extremely specific to a niche.
Emmanuel
According to you, what is one of the philosophical purposes of branding?
There is truly something for me that connects to meaning and values. The brand's values must inform the branding choices. Additionally, a deep exploration of meaning will enrich the mental connections of customers and people who own the brand. Added to those who talk about the brand or work on the brand.
In any case, the ultimate goal and philosophy of branding are to create very strong connections. Bonds that allow us to promote brands without them being fake or shaky. It is for us to be proud of endorsing brands. Whether we are proud to discuss brands, exchange ideas, or promote brands, what matters is that they are brands that we like. Brands that will have an extremely rich, robust, and consistent brand image. So for me, it all revolves around meaning.
Emmanuel
You can discover his work and mindset at @Emmanuel Guiho.
💡 Creative Insights on Branding
I started on LinkedIn a new post series inspired and prompted by the Led by Community. A series that will explore the power of carousels, a format I rarely use on LinkedIn. It is called Creative Insights on Branding. Using my creative and branding journey to shed light on some of the questions I am frequently asked, but also on dots I want to connect.
✅ The first edition: Is visual storytelling enough to build your brand?
🤩 Bright, they are!
The Joyconomy (What a great inspiration! Joy and play are setting the tone in businesses. If you missed my Play Brand series you can read it here).
Community everywhere (Summit for evolving Community Leaders).
How to increase your brand's perceived value (Wise words from Frontera).
Send newsletters directly to your Kindle (Such a smart tool).
🎈 Fun Brand(ING) prompt / 019
What is for you, the philosophical purpose of branding?
Branding and philosophy are such a mix I would like to explore in this letter. Months ago, I started introducing such ideas with Alain De Botton and The School of Life. I am sure interesting links on how philosophers embody SELF and become memorable and timeless ‘‘brands’’ could emerge.
Video, words, illustration, animation… you choose. Short and sweet.
To be a brand, to grow a brand.
Happy branding.
Keva.
