A series of self-initiated projects using tasteful brands adding a fresh perspective from real insights and experience. Good creative work that delivers upon a strong insight to strengthen a brand perception is work that resonates.

Purpose, Positioning, Identity, Experience, and Culture all contribute to the brand’s masterplan & voice; this is what consumers really hear, digest, and circulate. Consumers decide the fate of a brand’s execution of essence.

Izzy Symes.

I’m a London-based Brand strategist, shaping how brands show up across culture, place, and platform. This collection is a deliberate edit — the work and thinking that reflect my taste, and how i’ve used my experience to explore and elevate engaging and fresh narratives through speculative work.

Read this and you’ll know more about me:

What I do know: I’m good at positioning and reframing things. The combination of cultural literacy and emotional intelligence (reading the room, as well as knowing how best to approach things to get a certain result, even if I don’t know specific technical details) are things I think I naturally find quite easy. Listening is a very useful tool, it arms you with knowledge - when encountering difficulty or stress, it’s usually the best immediate troubleshooting option. Ask the right questions in the right tone in the right direction.
What I do know: I actually do get a sort of yearning/satisfied physical feeling when I look at beautiful aesthetics in design. When something is visually correct or to my taste, (it may not be beautiful to others) its like an internal checkbox gets populated and I want a bit more. So naturally I look for these spaces, and do some deep dives - i’ve got a good understanding of the history of design, graphics, and to an extent, spatial design & architecture, but as always, there’s infinitely more stuff to absorb and consume. And think about.
What I do know: Insight, Idea, Execution.
What I do know: Branding itself is just everything. It’s how people see and make internal judgements about things, talk about things, showcase things, and why people act on certain things. Yes its voice, aesthetics, purpose, positioning, identity, experience, and culture, but its also just stuff around us.
What I do know: good insights come from qualitative research, quantitative research, competitor gaps, and cultural shifts. So, the stats on paper that are interesting (not just there), the general feel/what people say about the brand, what the brand has compared to its competitors (not just what it doesn’t), and what is actually taking place in the wider world.
What I do know: good strategy is really pushing insights and questioning briefs as far as they can go to squeeze out the quality ideas.
What I do know: opinions, have them, push them, defend them - more valuable than process. Honesty and authenticity will make work sing, and the more I can talk about something I believe and stretches me, the better the result will be.
I saw a post on my instagram that just simply said in wordart-type-graphics ‘you can do anything you want you idiot’ and I like it.