Last September, I was honoured to present ‘Branding for the 21st century’ to the Entrepreneurial Exchange and the main thrust of my argument was that, in this the digital era, design/digital/marketing is important but it was the people themselves that made brands.

Day in, day out as our little studio continues to grow and develop, this theory becomes more true. As I look through my phone at the pictures of an incredible journey we’ve been on as a company in recent months – Our brand would be nothing without the people in it from the clients, to our partners, to our supporters, to the staff and myself.

The loft has been wonderfully enriched with the arrivals of Ruth and Alejandro; they bring so much to the table in terms of design, creativity but more importantly – personality. We have daily visitors, and we love visitors – people who come to our little messy studio in Merchant City to share a coffee and a chat, these are times I really enjoy.

But the thing I really love are the client visits.

Nothing makes us happier than working through the creative process with other people. Creating inspirational work with our clients is one of the most pleasurable bits of our job. Funnily enough, as we try to make lives easier for clients (fewer amends, less meetings, more efficient costings etc;) the more our clients want to get involved, and the process is all the richer for having them there too.

Geoff Leask, Kelly Mason, Erika Morrow and Colin Abercrombie all contributed to the design of a great brand for ‘bridge2business’ alongside Ruth, Alejandro and myself. Their ideas and their feedback made for a better brand identity.

Indeed, I was looking at the picture taken with Geoff Leask of ‘bridge2business’ on Friday, and although I look absolutely shattered and I was. He kindly gave us 2 bottles of champagne and some chocolates for our hard work; that moment there for me sums up business – great work, designers feeling inspired and a very happy client.

Brands are nothing without people and we look forward to making many more people happy in 2014.

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.

He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.