JUST™ Creative

[Podcast] 10 Design Industry Beliefs That Might Be Complete Bullshit with Massimo Zefferino

Jacob Cass — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 03:22:42 +0000

What if everything you’ve been told about succeeding as a graphic designer isn’t actually true?

Massimo Zefferino from The Angry Designer join Jacob Cass & Matt Davies on JUST Branding to challenge 10 deeply ingrained design industry beliefs.

Does good design speak for itself?
Are designers paid to make things?
Should every designer become a strategist?
Do you need thousands of followers to attract clients?
And will AI actually replace graphic designers?

Drawing on decades of agency and design experience, we unpack what’s true, what’s outdated and what’s complete BS.

In this episode:

Selling the value of design and strategic thinking
Why more concepts don’t necessarily mean more value
Creating distinctive brands rather than following competitors
Moving beyond deliverables into brand stewardship
The truth about becoming a brand strategist
Building a creative business without a huge audience
The difference between knowledge and practical judgement
AI, design careers and the future of creative work
Building a reputation through your own point of view

About this guest:

Massimo Zefferino is the co-host of The Angry Designer, a no-bullshit podcast that challenges conventional design advice and explores the realities of building a successful career and business in the creative industry. With over 25 years of experience and a seven-figure design agency under his belt, Massimo brings hard-earned insights, strong opinions and a willingness to challenge industry norms.

Listen Here

Love the show? Please review us on Apple.

Play Now

Watch on YouTube

Learn Brand Strategy

Brand Master Secrets helps you become a brand strategist and earn specialist fees. And in my opinion, this is the most comprehensive brand strategy course on the market.

The course gave me all the techniques and processes and more importantly… all the systems and tools I needed to build brand strategies for my clients.

This is the consolidated “fast-track” version to becoming a brand strategist.

I wholeheartedly endorse this course for any designer who wants to become a brand strategist and earn specialist fees.

Check out the 15-minute video about the course, which lays out exactly what you get in the Brand Master Secrets.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to JUST Branding. Today, we are putting the design industry on trial. Our guests are Massimo Zefferino and Sean Carlisle, the outspoken voices behind The Angry Designer, a no-bullshit podcast that challenges the advice, assumptions, and industry norms holding designers and brand builders back. Massimo is a creative director and entrepreneur who’s built a seven-figure design agency over 25 years.

While Sean brings the perspective of a practicing designer who’s lived through the everyday realities of clients, careers, and creative work. You may realize that Sean actually isn’t here if you’re watching the video. He was, but he disappeared. Some tech issues, but we are pushing on with Massimo here. Thank you for sticking with us.

I do worry that he is living the brand of The Angry Designer and just went like, he’s fuming right now.

I’m done.

You know what, for those people who know Sean, if he is angry, it would last for about 30 seconds and then he moves on. So he had whiskey in his hand, so he’s doing good. He’s probably sitting in my office right now drinking all the whiskeys.

We’re good. He’ll probably pop in a bit later, folks. Hopefully he will.

Then he might not be the angry designer. Maybe he’ll be the jovial, slightly buzzing, intoxicated designer. Well, that said, cheers, boys.

All right. So what these guys are known for? They’re known for saying what many creatives are thinking, but may be too polite to say out loud. So this conversation today was partly inspired by the recent Brand Builders Summit where I analyze 44 hours of content from 48 different speakers to understand what makes a brand builder irreplaceable in this age of AI. And again and again, the same theme surfaced, that execution is becoming easier while judgment, strategic thinking, distinctiveness and leadership are becoming more valuable. But the design industry is still full of advice that gets repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact. So today we’re putting in 10 popular design beliefs on trial. For each one, Massimo and the Sean that’s not here must decide whether it’s true, whether it depends, or whether it might be complete BS. So Massimo and Sean, welcome to JUST Branding.

Thank you, sir. I know Sean is in spirit. In spirit, yes. We did elude them due to technical issues. Thank you.

This is the weirdest podcast I’ve ever been on. Just carry on.

All right. It really does happen, right? Thank you, though. Honestly, Matt, you’re pretty cool. But Jacob, I followed you for like 10 years online. Me too. Just creative. I mean, again, I was watching you way before we had the podcast. And again, you were kind of like a celebrity in the office. So when your name popped up, some people in the office were like, I remember that guy back when I was in design school. So thank you for having me. This is kind of really cool.

Well, thank you for that insight. I did not know that. That’s cool. And let’s talk about…

Just to pump up your ego a bit.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

And then bring it back down, surely. That’s my job.

I’m glad that you acknowledged Matt is cool too. All right, let’s start. Look at his beard.

I know. But I’ve got beard envy here. For those of you watching on video, Massimo’s beard is absolutely on point, literally.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Part of the brand.

All right, let’s start with one of the oldest beliefs in design. Are you ready?

Oh, I’m ready, buddy. I’m ready.

All right. Good design speaks for itself.

Wow. You have to just start right with that. Well, you know what? It’s a myth, I think, because again, you know, these days, I think there’s a misconception of what good design actually is. And, oh, jeez, I think I just kind of contradicted myself here, because if it was actually good design and did what it’s supposed to, then yeah, absolutely, it will make you act, it will make you, it’ll motivate you to take that next step, it’ll actually solve a problem for business. So I think this is almost like a double answer here. You know, it almost depends on what version of design people actually believe. That was a really complicated answer for just a simple question, wasn’t it?

It’s a depends, is it? It’s a depends answer.

Wow, it depends on which version of design you are actually playing. So good design should speak for itself because that’s what design actually is. But unfortunately, past couple decades, people have been obsessed tying design in with just the making side, just the executable, in which that case, sadly, most of those don’t even work on their own. But good design, traditional design, back, forefathers, the Paul Rands of the world and what they were creating, yeah, that stuff works.

I want to jump in. Can I jump in?

Yeah.

You’re right. It does depend on what we’re talking about here. I guess from my experience, I’ve run studios and stuff and I always think, particularly when you’re working with a client and you have to walk a client through work, I think that’s a fairly standard thing, particularly when you’re creating brand identities and stuff. My view is, for what it’s worth, is that it doesn’t just speak on its own, particularly when you’re trying to sell it in and get it adopted. For example, a designer has to justify the decisions. If they can’t, it’s so hard to get work, even if it’s technically good creative work, if they can’t explain why it’s good. I feel like it flops and I work with designers all the time. Sometimes, if I’m being completely honest, I’ve worked with designers who are average, but they can sell the concept, they can walk the client through it, they can explain the brand codes, why it helps the client stand out, why it’s distinctive in the market, why it will support the strategy. It might be an average design. But I’ve also worked with exceptional designers who are terrible at just communicating. I know that they’ve got an awesome concept there and it’s really clever and it’s really smart and it would work in market. But because they can’t sell it, it falls flat. I feel like my position for it is worth, seeing as other show owners are not here, I’m going to just jump in and be controversial. I feel like it’s a joke.

But it’s almost like a joke. If you have to actually explain the joke, is it a good joke? I’m not saying you have to present or pitch your idea, because pitching is part of what we do, and pitching the design isn’t the same as defending the design. So I figure if somebody puts something up there and the clients are like, huh? Then all of a sudden it’s like, no, no, no, hear me out, hear me out. Okay, the reason why you thought that is because of this and this and this. And if you have to do a little bit of convincing, well, that’s great that you can convince the client, but out in the wild, up on a billboard, up in a magazine spread, you don’t have that opportunity to explain. So then going back to that, kind of like the joke analogy, if you have to explain it, is it actually good? So I totally hear you though, I totally hear you.

I think that the difference is the context is internally, you have the brief and you have the problem that you’re trying to solve, but externally, it’s just the communication side of things. So I guess we’re talking about good design speaking for itself. The point that came out of the summit of the analysis, is that a word? Analyzation? That when production…

Sounds good to me.

When production becomes easier, the ability to choose and defend the right direction becomes more valuable. So that was kind of one of the insights from the videos. So it is being able to stand behind your work and talk about it and justify some of it to actually get it across the line with the clients to make sure that it can get out into the world and communicate the right things based on the brief problem that it was solving. So maybe the answer is somewhere in between.

Somewhere in between.

Yeah.

Okay. I’ll live with that.

Okay. All right. It depends. All right. Next one. Designers are paid to make things.

No myth. I mean, again, this is this fight that we’ve been fighting for the past two decades. So when I started in this, it was kind of before this crazy, the crazy online world that we’re living in. Right? And we’ve experienced. And when you had a design project, you know, they didn’t generally come to you and be like, hey, you know, we just need a new logo, make it, make it look great. We, you know, they came to us and said, hey, you know what? Our brand’s lacking. You know, our sales are dropping. People aren’t looking to us anymore for the coolest tech. You know, what’s going on? There were problems that we had to solve. And the value that we bring as designers is all the preparation, the process leading up to the thing that we make, that final executable. I think that if anything, we’re diminishing what we actually do if we just focus on that end result. Problem is, you know, nobody really sees the process before that. Designers these days aren’t selling it that much and they’re not putting value in it. And some of them aren’t even really going down that road. So I think that what a designer brings is deeper than just that end result.

Oh, I 100% agree with that, Massimo. I don’t really do execution work anymore. I’m more sort of strategy-based. But I still, I wouldn’t say this to a client of mine, but like in my head, I’m a designer, right? Like, and I think I’ve thought about this quite a bit. And I think personally, what does a designer have to give the world? Right. And I’ll tell you, I think it’s many things, but mainly this, that we are happy to mentally step into the unknown, right? And visualize things that are not yet a thing, right? So I don’t design like logos and graphic design much anymore, although that’s my background, but I design the companies, I design value, I design experiences, I design, I even design solutions to problems that the company has in their ops team, for example, or in their HR team. But I’m good at going, right, like, you want to solve this problem here, we’re going to produce this new thing here, and here’s the steps that lead up to it. None of which exists right now, but let’s do it together. Let’s work the detail through. I think that’s what designers can and always will bring to the party, a way of creative, imagining a future that’s not there right now.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s the benefit of being a designer. It’s that bigger picture thinking. Customers come to us because we think differently. We approach problems differently. Just like you, we’re not just solving visual problems. When they have a messaging issue, when they have a positioning issue. To your point, the HR issue. Right now, we did a whole campaign for a customer because they’re having HR issues trying to find global talent. So again, it’s like trying to define what that problem is first before we even touch the creative. So it is, it kind of falls in line with that whole people’s misconception of what a designer actually is.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up, Massimo. The misconception is like brand, right? Most people think of brand as the visuals. And when you say designers, you get put in this box. And I agree with Matt, like we design all these things, like experiences and all the things you said. However, when you say designer to someone else externally, they just think of you like a graphics designer. So we have to position ourselves like a consultant or a strategist or whatever crazy term is of the day to communicate that we do more than just design graphics. And that’s why I’m kind of leaning into the idea of brand builder, as in you’re building brands and businesses for others versus just saying you’re a designer. At my heart, I’m also a designer and that’s how I think of myself. But we have to step up and show that we do more than design. And unfortunately, that’s where the definition is right now. Like you’re in that box. It is. It is.

Let’s rebrand that term, gentlemen.

Yes, totally. So the summit insight from this was that we need to make decisions and not just deliverables. So that was the final insight. All right, next one. Great brands should fit their category.

Oh, wow. That’s a tricky one. I’m going to disagree with that because a great brand tends to evolve and a brand generally, you know, it cements an image in somebody’s mind, but based on their experiences, based on what they see, you know, their own, their own relationship with that brand. And then all of a sudden, if that brand, I mean, everybody always says Nike goes from running shoes to now embracing athletic wear, sure, right? I mean, it can carry it on. So again, I think, I think the strength is in the brand, but great brands are also very careful on how far they stray from outside of what they do. So I don’t know. I mean, you said great brand. So I don’t think Nike is going to be slapping their logo on a blender next week.

Yeah, but Nike is going down the toilet at the moment.

Fair enough. Their brand is still worth billions, but I think their operations, you know, the global economy, it’s tanking. So you have a really good point there, of course, you know, but then going over to Apple, going over to Under Armour, who is taking some of Nike’s piece of the market, or Eddie Daz, how did we get on this, this athletics brand topic? I don’t know, but I think it’s the easy one.

It goes from Skinny Sean first.

Yeah, he was looking good, wasn’t he? But I mean, again, you know, you’re right. I mean, but that’s a whole other issue, right? Cause you could be a great brand, but have horrible accounting, have horrible operations. But if you, I mean, look at Zappos. Do you remember Zappos? Did you guys have Zappos down there? I mean, you know, their brand above everything else was customer service first, the best customer service. That’s what they wanted everybody to know. And, oh, we also sell shoes. And so the company unfortunately kind of, you know, dive bombed after a little while, but man, were they known for what they did really well. So I think that’s a different conversation though, between operations and brand. Hmm. Is brand part of operations? I don’t know.

I’d argue it’s all brand, right?

It’s all, yeah.

Unpacking that, it’s, you’re kind of getting that differentiation in a way that, you know, creating difference in a meaningful way is relevant, you know, it’s recognizable. It’s difficult for competitors to kind of replicate, you know, Zappos and the customer service or Amazon and the convenience and, you know, Nike and the, you know, however you want to slice that.

Yeah, the thing is, if you’re positioning yourself on customer service, right, as the best, okay, and that’s your, that’s what you’re hanging your hat on, so to speak, you got to deliver on that every single time. And when you’re not, you need to take it super seriously. And the problem with something like that is that other people can up their game in the market so that your, I guess, distinctive position can become less relevant because others are like, yeah, well, we do the same, right? We do next day delivery, you know, we do multiple options for you or whatever it might be. So when you sort of secure a market position, you need to kind of keep pushing it. It’s like I often think of like Volvo, right? Like they’re like, hey, we are the safest car ever. Like they dominated in the 90s, 2000s. Like, I’m not sure they’re sort of dominating that now. But like, why not? Why not keep pushing further? Right. Like, we’re going to create the craziest, safest cars ever. Like, and, you know, they’ve kind of, I think what happens is you stake your claim and then the competitors sort of swarm up and around you. But your job is not to be like sitting back going, well, hey, we’re the safest. Yeah, you’re the safest today, tomorrow, next year. But what will make you the safest in 10 years time, in 20 years time? Like, what does that take? And that’s the bit I think brands kind of miss because that isn’t just then a marketing slogan. That is an innovation, a product question, an operations question, to your point, Massimo. So yeah, that’s my view anyway. But hey.

Do you think it’s possible for a company like Volvo, like to keep that brand going above everything else? I don’t know.

I mean, I think-

Or is it just marketing from that point forward?

I mean, I’d argue it is, but I’d also argue that if you want to continue to leverage that position, it’s not just marketing, right? Because marketing is the end offer that you’re giving to the market, right? So the marketing is the communication and the perception and the communication of that value, and at the moment that they went, say, 90s, 2000s, they were the safest. They could test it, they could absolutely hands down, lock that in, everyone was like, yeah, they are the safest, the numbers of the thing. But what’s happened is that the competition have come alongside that in terms of the stats for Toyota, Land Rover and BMW and Chevron and all the others. So it’s like, okay, so if Volvo wanted to push on and continue to dominate on the safest, I don’t know what the answer is, I’m not in that space, but it’s like that’s what their executive team should be obsessed about, right? How can we make our vehicles, our offering, the safest? Is it seatbelt innovation? Is it car chassis design? I don’t know what it could be. It could be just untold things, but that’s the thing. If they want to… That’s when brand… This is my humble opinion anyway. That’s when brand should be dictating what the business focuses on, rather than the business say, right, brand kind of just be a veneer at the end, right? Do you know what I mean? The two have got to go hand in hand.

100%. So here’s… Let me throw a wrench into this. Do they actually have to be the safest, or do they just have to be known for being a safe vehicle? And what I mean by that is BMW always focused on performance. There are many other cars that, you know, performance, you know, and they’re known for performance, but they obsess over making sure everybody hears performance. They think of them. Mercedes was doing that for luxury. Volvo was doing that for safety, but they’ve stopped talking about the safety part. Do they actually have to be the safest or just own safety in the mind of the people out in the space?

I mean, this is a big question, isn’t it? This is a big question. My humble opinion, because I work with leadership teams, is the two should go hand in hand. However, I take your underscored point, which is maybe not, right? Like maybe we can fudge it a bit for a while, but I think eventually, you know, it catches up.

The promise, like if you break the promise, you lose trust, and that’s what branding is about.

Right.

Building that trust.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think what’s important here is the relevance, because, you know, maybe in the 90s, being safe was much more relevant, but these days it’s less so.

Yeah, maybe.

Interesting.

Yeah, with like automated cars and stuff like this coming along and all the tech we have nowadays. I just bought a new car and I was like, oh my days, like the thing virtually drives itself. Like itself.

It’s bizarre.

Like it kind of stays behind the car in front. I don’t even have to like, I can’t even change lanes.

Without it reminding you.

I’m like, whoa, I just want to overtake.

Just let me have a damage.

Just get me drive.

All right.

Let’s move on to the next one, guys. The insight from the summit on that one was, you know, it kind of came from AI, that AI is particularly good at reproducing familiar patterns. However, the opportunity as brand builders is to create difference that’s relevant and recognizable and difficult for competitors to claim. All right. The next one, more concepts give the client more value.

I’m going to have to disagree on that one. Now, don’t get me wrong. If it’s part of your process or process or however the world says it, again, Alan Peters is a friend of mine and he presents 12 to 15 different concepts. I think that’s ludicrous. I mean, again, and I joke with them, that’s a lot. But I do something similar in my process where I guide them through just to see where I catch them. But the problem is, they’re not the experts in identifying this, okay? So I think, now, I’m also not a fan of one concept, here you go, take it, I’m the designer, I’m the pro, because then that almost removes any sort of accountability on their side and they want to be part of this process. But too many concepts, I think, if anything, hurt the process, not help, in my opinion. Matt, what do you think?

That’s a tough one, man. It depends on the team you’re working with, in my humble opinion. But I tend to agree with you, too many options. There’s a thing that I came across years ago called Hicks Law, right? And some bloke called Hicks.

Exactly, yep.

If you give people too many options, they can’t choose anything, right? That’s it. So in my work, from a strategist perspective, sometimes I will work with a client and I’ll present three, what I call potential futures, right?

Yep.

So I go, hey, from all the stuff that we’ve learned through our discovery phase and our strategy phase, it seems to me there are three directions we could take you in. We could do it like this and this is the outcome that we could expect. This is experiences that we could create for customers, we could do it like that and so on. Three seems to me to be a good vibe, but I’m not doing the execution creative stuff. When it gets down to that stuff, my personal view is you should leave it to the experts. Because if you’ve got a good strong strategy and you’ve done your research, you know that the brand codes that you need to create are not what everybody else is doing. And it’s sort of, I don’t know, let’s say you’re in an industry and it’s a sea of blue, we know it’s not blue. We know it’s not pictures of white, stale, pale, male men shaking hands. And we know it’s like vibrant, a direct messaging. We know we’ve got to go down that road. So within that, and we know we want to show up as a, I mean, I don’t know, let’s say a disruptive rebel brand aimed at young people or whatever, but the strategy helps us to do. And we know the unique value that we’re going to be bringing to market. These are all key components of a good strategy. Once you’ve got that in place, it’s like I work with a lot of creative teams. I’m like, over to you guys, right? Give us the best possible solution that your brains can work on within these constraints that you can link back to the strategy. So in that regard, sometimes they’ll come up with an awesome idea and we don’t need anything else. Then we just go talk to the client and say, look, this is it. In other times, it’s sometimes a bit tricky as you say, you need the client to be on board with it. So it’s difficult, different clients, different industries, different contexts. I don’t know if there’s one rule for this. What do you think, Jacob? Because I know you do a bit of execution work from time to time. Like, do you do multiple concepts?

Throughout my career, I’ve gone from lots to less and less and now just one. So, because I found even if I was presenting three, if I was presenting three, I’d always have like a recommendation.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I was like, this is why I choose this one, based on the brief that we’ve created, based on the strategy that we agreed on. And this is the one. Sure, you can tweak things and you can probably explore different variations and that is the context that I bring into the conversation. It’s like, this is the strongest based on where we’re at. However, we can change certain things, tweak them. So that’s how I approach it these days. Where this kind of conversation came from is that, you know, right now, AI can produce countless options, like so many on the fly. And the value for us as brand builders is helping them choose and identify and recommend the right options. So that’s where the value of brand builders are right now. And that’s kind of like the insight from the summit is that we have to be the ones recommending, defending our options to help sift through the countless, infinite number of results that that can be. So we really need to come back to that brief, the strategic thinking that we do as humans to the work. So that’s where I align.

I agree. It’s funny that there never seems to have been a more value to our experience, our judgment and opinion in this case based on those two things. Now more than ever. Like five, 10 years ago, I probably would tell people that your judgment kind of lies in line with the customer’s judgment, but now with these infinite amount of options available to everybody, your value is now moving from being that execution expert to the judge, being able to identify what works for the brand, relate going back to the brief, figuring out how to push a little bit past, but not too far in different directions. So yeah, that’s a really good point. And good on you for just presenting one concept.

That’s good.

That’s confidence.

All right. Yeah. Well, I think, I think it’s, it’s, you know, with experience, you get that confidence. I didn’t do that in the beginning. I used to send some sheets of like options, and I thought that was providing more value. But I think as you go along, the deeper you understand strategy and the thinking and how you can justify your work, which is the point here, is you can stand behind it. You can communicate it. That’s the biggest thing. I didn’t have those soft skills in the beginning. So I think throughout your reps, you build that confidence, and then you can stand behind it and recommend it. And that’s where that judgment, that’s where things are going. Judgment is so important now, and you need to be able to stand behind it. If you’re serious about mastering branding and building a thriving creative business, the Brand Builders Alliance is for you. Inside, you’ll get live masterclasses, mentorship from our eight resident coaches, a stacked resource vault, and a global network of brand builders who actually get it. If you’re done winging it alone and are ready to scale with structure, support, and serious momentum, head over to joinbba.com and get on the waitlist. That’s joinbba.com. All right, guys, the next one. The project ends when the files are delivered. Oof. False. False, false, false.

I mean, again, I’m sure some people sell a job and walk away from it. They’re leaving so much money on the table. They’re leaving opportunities at the table. I mean, again, your job’s not done. I mean, it’s in your best interest to follow up. How did it perform? What were the impressions of your customers? What were your customers saying about it? You know, how has it impacted your sales? Has it? What could we tweak moving forward? I mean, I’ve been a, you know, one of my business models has been customers for life. And that means that the job is never done. You know, it just keeps evolving into the next job and to the next job. And this is how I embrace and keep some of our customers we’ve had for like 16 years. Geez, we still have a customer since we started over 20 years ago. So, no, I strongly disagree on that one.

So good. So I completely agree with that. I think that’s the philosophy, isn’t it, that I think if you want to build, if you want to be successful, it’s so hard to win new clients, right? So it’s a smart move to think about, like, once the client trusts me, which is half of it, right? Like, once the clients work with me and they trust me, it’s like, well, like, hey, I want to continue to be of service to you. I like you, you like me, like, I understand you, for you to then brief somebody else. Like, I’ve had, funny enough, I’ve recently had a couple of clients say to me, I’ve said to them, look, you know, if I’m not the right person for this, like, that’s absolutely fine. Like, they’re like, no, Matt, like, because to get someone else up to speed, because these are clients, like long-term clients, it would just take us forever. We want you to do this, like, let’s make it work, you know, in whatever things. And that’s what you want. You want that kind of mutual appreciation. And then that makes me feel great. It’s like, yeah, I do know you, and I do think I can help you here. So, you know, this is what I’d suggest. What are you thinking, right? And that is more of a partnership. So the approach, I think, Massimo that you’ve mentioned there is good. It’s a mindset game, right? It’s not a quick in, quick out scenario, right? It’s, look, if we’re going to work together, we’ll do this project fine, but like my aim is always to be long-term and to work with my clients over years, not months. So, and I tell them that sometimes in the sales pitch straight up front, like, you know, if you’re going to start a relationship with myself, like I’m not going to disappear tomorrow, I’m here for you, right? Like you’re going to have to pay for it. I want to earn this. Yeah. And I want to add value to you. That’s the way I make business. For me, I’m a solo, right? I’m on my own, right? So I’m only as good as really my last project, right? And I have clients, they come, they work with me for years sometimes, a couple of years, then sometimes there’s no need for me, they’re off, and then they come back. And I’ve had that loads of times recently and it’s like, that’s perfect. I’m okay with that. And it saves me finding a new client, right? So it makes sense. Everyone’s a winner.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And customer lifetime value is something we have to think about, kind of like you said, the client for life. And earlier in my career, I’ve had hundreds of clients and I just delivered on the logo and identity and called it a day. And that’s, I kick myself for it now, but imagine 16 years later, what that could have looked like for the brand and the business, like all of those clients. So we do have to think about what’s next. And this is one of the insides is like, what’s next for the client. If you keep thinking and asking yourself that, what’s next, like put yourself in their shoes. How can you help them do the next thing? What does that look like? It’s not here’s your identity and your guidelines. Good luck. At that point, that’s when the brand building actually starts, right? You haven’t actually built a brand. You’ve built some of the core elements, the foundations perhaps, but there’s no brand yet. How can you help them build their brand? That’s what you need to think about.

Absolutely. I work with creative teams all the time in this game. Literally, I’m like, look, why wouldn’t you offer some training for the client? Why wouldn’t you offer like, yeah, you’ve done the guidelines and you’ve pinged over a PDF, but no one’s going to use that unless you engage them with what that means. I just feel like a lot of us are doing this work, throwing it over the fence and running for the door. But we’re not thinking about what we preach, which is, we say to clients, look, it’s about value that you create. It’s about maximizing the value. Now, if you were to sit down and think, as a strategist or as a designer or as a marketer, I’m delivering the thing I’ve been asked to do, yes, but you should always be thinking, how can I add more value? How can I solve more problems? How can I make my clients condition better? And that’s where you can actually then go, hey, and I often find that sometimes I’ll be in a room and I’ll hear something and I’ll think, right, tuck that away, right? Because there’s a problem there. It could be, like, for example, I might be doing a brand positioning piece and the HR director might be in the workshop and something I hear of a problem, like the people managers are not aligned around why the company is so great. Okay, great, tuck that away. And then when I’m next in a position to be having a sensible discussion about next steps, I’m like, hey, you know, the HR manager just said, there’s this problem, like, would you mind if I could go and speak to them? Because I think I could offer something to connect the people managers with the vision, with the brand and take it forward. Like, that’s where you build out extra value. So, you know, don’t think you’re in one lane and you shouldn’t stray out. My view is to see what you can do outside of that. Be of service.

Agreed, agreed. Confidence, maybe it’s confidence. Maybe they’re worried, they’re, they’re, they don’t know how else to make recommendations or what else to listen for. Maybe it’s experience, but definitely leaving money on the table, leaving opportunities on the table. And, you know, again, some people maybe want to run the game of, you know, like over 16 years, hundreds of clients. I’m kind of happy having, you know, a good 15 clients that I keep for 20 years and I become experts and part of their business. It’s part of a long-term relationship. And, you know, we’re changing like they are. And ultimately, we’re growing like they are. So I’m a big fan of that.

Awesome. So the summit insight there was that strong strategies often weaken after delivery. So the opportunity here is to guide what happens next and become a guardian of the brand. I like this idea of guardian because you kind of like-

Love it.

Awesome. All right, we’ve got about four more left. And the next one is every designer needs to become a brand strategist.

Hell yeah. I mean, again, it is to our value. First and foremost, I mean, again, you know, I have an issue with just this whole term designer and what people have thought designers have been lately. But I mean, again, designers have always been strategists. Now, maybe not deep, you know, deep brand strategist or deep UI, UX strategist, but a lot of this stuff also stemmed from being a designer and it is, you know, setting up that brand, helping define that brand and going past than just the visuals. I mean, designers, in my opinion, should be at the front table just like the engineers, just like the CMOs, just like the C-suite. Okay, because we have and should have a direct effect on the decisions made about the brand moving forward, not just colors, not just, you know, font choices, but, I mean, who our target market is, what they’re actually looking for, you know, what we are going to start promising to deliver to these customers. So absolutely, I think that, you know, it’s only to designer’s benefits to either embrace being a brand strategist or at least move up in that chain, you know, and just so you have more value. So, that’s my opinion.

Yeah, the move upstream, I don’t want to say argument, but maybe advice was a very common thing said in the summit is that we do have to elevate, yeah, move upstream. I guess the follow-up question here is like, design and design, as we spoke about earlier, we’re put in a box and it’s kind of being or commoditized with tools like AI and Canva and all of that. How do you feel about the word strategist being commoditized because of everyone becoming like a strategist?

Well, I mean, again, you know, you can give people the tools, but it doesn’t make them experts. And unfortunately, giving people access to chat doesn’t also make them experts. I mean, you know, strategists who use AI are amplified strategists, but a copywriter, you know, using AI to help develop a strategy, they don’t understand strategy enough to be, you know, actually being able to create, use AI effectively enough to help them define that strategy. So, I don’t know, I don’t know. Like, that’s a tough pill to swallow, in my opinion. I think, again, we’ve been pigeonholed in the past few years, and I think that’s one and part of the problem here.

Yeah, Matt, what’s your take?

Ah, that’s, I mean, I’m torn on this one because, like, I agree with Massimo, like, I think, like, you can’t just say, oh, I’m a strategist, and suddenly you’re a strategist, right? Like, you have to know how to move the dial, right, for a brand, okay? That isn’t just nice words in a deck. That takes time and effort and thought, and you have to have something about you. So I agree with that. I also think that you can use AI, for example, to sound a bit strategy-like, but you have to be able to, like, going back to that point about designers having to justify decisions, right? You need to have a position on how your strategy is going to work for the company, right? And that has to be based on, you know, knowledge of how strategy works, how positioning works, on how differentiation works. If you don’t have that, you’re going to be found out real quick because I’m telling you now that any C-suite worth their salt is going to be like, why would we change what we’re doing today to reflect what you’re saying, right? You know, any CFO is going to challenge you on that because it’s going to take investment to do properly. You need to then have the reasons, the decisions, the thinking, the research behind you to be able to do that. And AI is not really going to provide that for you. In that moment. So, you know, it’s a hard one. But then, having said that, can designers become strategists? Can they learn that? I’m proof that that’s a thing, right? Can we move upstream? Can we get to the C-suite? Yes, we can. 100%. Is that just going to be because we talk about colors and kerning and leading? No. We have to talk the language of the boardroom. We have to talk the language of growth. We have to talk the language of business. And as soon as we connect that with creativity, that’s, in my humble opinion, where it works. This is such a controversial statement, Jacob. Why are you doing this to us? Does every designer need to become a brand strategist? I say yes and no. So let me just justify that real quick. So if you want to move, if you want to get paid more for your work, I think you do need to have more, you need to create more value. And usually that’s becoming more strategic in your approach. But like, hey, like I still think that there’s a position in the market for the crafters, right? Who are just so good at the kerning and the leading and the color palettes. And like, there’s still a place for that, particularly at the high end, right? High end brands are gonna need people that are, that are like art directors, that obsess about stuff, that have amazing taste. But the trouble is, is that is becoming a smaller and smaller kind of group of people. So to get there is gonna be highly competitive. But so I don’t know, I kind of, I kind of struggle with this. Like, I guess my gut would say, get more, it’s not gonna hurt you to become more strategic. That’s kind of what we are.

And interestingly enough, I think the one thing strategy has over design, because of the perception of what design has become over the past 20 years, it can be commoditized, because people just assume design is making a logo. Strategy is unique. Every single, you know, situation is different. There’s nuances that, you know, the CEO brings, that the owner of the company might bring, that customers might bring on a Tuesday, for whatever reason, because it’s, you know, half price. There’s so many nuances that I think strategy is harder to commoditize, even if the word becomes diluted, because everybody thinks, hey, I can become more strateg, more strategic. I’ll just go online and use AI. I think those tells will be easier to kind of call BS on, as opposed to being able to present a pretty decent logo, because AI is improved. So I think strategy has a little bit of an upper hand over design.

Yeah, maybe, maybe. There’s just one other thing I’m going to throw in there as well. I know a few folks in the service design community, right? Now that is, they’re designers, but they are looking at things not like graphic design or like outputs like that. They’re looking at customer experience, like they’re looking at. Okay, when I go into your retail store, how are you designing the service around a particular type of customer?

Experience design.

Right, experience design. The flow of the store, what are you seeing? What are you smelling? What are you, like, for me, that’s probably where design is going to start to head. Yes, the visuals, yes, the creative side, but perhaps it’s a bit like we need to broaden what that means, like, I think, to add more value.

Brilliant. I agree. You’re right. Becoming more analog, more connected with people. Yes, absolutely. I agree with that.

But even in that, you need to be strategic, right?

Yes, absolutely.

Sorry, all right.

This is fun.

Sorry, Jacob.

Yeah, that was it.

It depends.

Can you stop making a circle there?

Yeah.

Did we even answer that? Who knows? Move on. All right.

Next one. You need a large audience to build a successful creative business.

Hell no. Let me just say that again. Hell no. So, my agency, we’ve been in business for 27 years. Okay. Full service creative agency, dream agency. Love it. Our clients, okay, our business to business technology companies who focus on broadband technology. You can’t get much niche-ier than that, okay? I believe that the more niche market you serve, the more value, number one, you can provide to that niche market because then I’m the expert and they come to me, which they have. But then, you know, even more so, it makes the pickings easier. It makes it, you know, more lunch. I haven’t had to search for a customer, knock on wood, for 15 years now, because our brand, you know, we are experts in our field. And, you know, we are, you know, of course, we’re also known for good quality and for being kind of, you know, fun, because we’re Canadians and nice and pleasant to work with. But, I mean, we are industry experts in our niche. And that whole saying that there’s, you know, riches in the niches, I mean, I think that’s so true. I think that, you know, it’s a bunch of BS that, you know, you need to be, you know, a broad giant industry in order to be successful in our space.

Oh, I agree with that. Like, I don’t think you have to have, I don’t know, like, billions of followers and stuff to be successful. What you need to do is to be known by the right people. And for you, that might be different to me. And it most probably will be. Having said that, I’m not very good at niching, right? I’m just like the worst at niching. Like, I just follow the money. But like, I think if I was struggling… Well, for sure. I think if I was struggling, I’m like… And I think over time, you get patterns, right? So you kind of know where you can add value and what problems you can… You’re best to solve. And I guess that’s what I’ve niched in rather than an industry or a sector. But you don’t have to have a huge audience. You just need to be known by the right people. And that’s the key. Who is the right ideal customer for you? And what problem do you solve for them? You need to know that.

Agreed. Yeah, the word niche just has a bad stigma around it. I think it’s really misunderstood. I like the word focus because people put themselves in a bucket or pigeonhole themselves in when you say niche. But if you have a focus, Matt, your focus is brand consulting for X companies. It’s not necessarily just like broadband services. There’s different layers on how you can focus. I think it’s meant to be.

Mine, I guess, is like, I always say, I serve Maverick CEOs who are looking at a growth opportunity, but their team is for whatever reason not able to rally behind a single proposition. I come in, I’m going to help you find that. I’m going to help rally the team. My skill set is alignment, stakeholder management. But it’s interesting because I spend a lot of time in Martin Neumeyer. He’s written a number of books. Brilliant. Yeah. He became really famous obviously for his brand books. But before that, he was famous like in the 90s because what he did was he noted that there was a gap in the market for really focused and well-designed packaging design. He was like behind some of the early packaging design of Apple, right? Now, you speak to Martin or you hear him speak on any of that stuff and it’s like, it wasn’t the most sexiest thing at the time, right? But that’s where he could add a huge amount of value, he spent, he became like you were saying, Massimo, like the expert in that, like he was the one with his team down in the stores when we used to buy software in boxes, like talking to customers, getting advice, thoughts on that, creating strategy decks in effect on why, 10 things that you need to know when you design your next piece of software packaging, right? He became an expert in that and the rest is history. And so I do think we need to look for opportunities where we have experience that others don’t. We can leverage the knowledge and the expertise that focus in on your strengths, focus in on where you’ve had success, and that’s where you will win in my view.

Very cool.

Well, I like that, Massimo. I’ve never been described as very cool before, but like I’m going to put it on my wall.

You are very cool, Matt.

You too, man.

You wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and be like, I’m cool.

No, I’m going to say Massimo thinks I’m cool.

All right, do that.

Everyone else thinks I’m not. Anyway.

One of the summit insights there, we didn’t really touch on it, but it was that an audience consumes and a community participates. So reach produces visibility while community can actually provide trust, referrals and collaborations. So that’s the difference.

Interesting.

That’s actually true. Do you know what? I’m going to backtrack a little bit. Yet, you do need to be known by the right people, but when they come and see you, they need a reason to believe you are trustworthy and that what you say is a thing. So you can’t ignore growing an audience and what you’re doing. Particularly, I’m a solo consultant and I coach people, and I always say to them, look, you are your own marketing department, so you can’t expect people to just know you. You do have to build a bit, you do have to get out there, you do have to push yourself out there, and it’s going to feel uncomfortable and like you’re blowing your own trumpet. But unfortunately, that is the game that we’re playing. So it doesn’t mean you need a huge audience, but you do need to be present, I guess, is what I’d say.

Maybe it’s the word audience that we’re struggling with. Because again, I think having a giant following on YouTube or on Instagram, I mean, whoever follows us on Instagram aren’t customers, right? So we have decent numbers, decent, decent, you know, numbers on social. But none of them are my customers and none of them are who I target, because they’re all graphic designers and our podcast is for graphic designers. They’re not people, they’re not my, you know, our customers are who we’d be targeting in our space. So like to your point, the right audience.

Yeah, but that’s interesting, right? So let’s just explore that. Sorry, Jacob, do you want if I just unpack this? No, no, I think that’s such, I think that’s such-

We can always cut this out and use it somewhere else.

No, no, no, let’s not cut it. I just think that’s such an important point, right? Because you have your core ideal customer, right? Absolutely. But this comes on to the question, like, why should they believe that Massimo can deliver what Massimo says he can deliver, right? Now, yes, I could go on and see case studies of other clients a bit like me that have had success, so cool, but other people are doing that, right? Other perhaps agencies, perhaps designers can say some of the things. But then I go on to Massimo’s social media and I see like, oh, hey, he’s got a podcast, he’s got a community. Now, all of these are trust points that cannot be faked, right? These things, like if Massimo was a complete fraud, right? Someone in this community is going to have called him out and have all those followers, right? He will be destroyed, his reputation will be destroyed, right? So I think there’s something about this question of trust, right? I tend to kind of go back to like the old days, right? I live in a rural community. I’m Londoner, born and bred, but like we moved out in COVID and I live in a little farm now. And I kind of like, I love farm life and rural life because it’s like so real, right? So in my little rural community, okay, if I need someone, let’s say I need someone to cut my hedges, right? I just go to my neighbor and say, hey, who cuts your hedges? And he said, oh, Larry cuts my hedges. I say, okay, does he do a good job? Yeah, Larry does a good job. And then I might go to a couple other people in the local pub and say, oh, and they say, oh, Larry, Larry’s the guy, right? Now I’ve got social proof, I’ve got reason to believe, and then I approach Larry. Why? Because I know Larry can do this thing, not because Larry has said he does it, and I’ve read some case studies and I’ve seen some photos on Larry’s website or his Facebook account, but because I’ve got proof from others. And if Larry messes up my hedge, right? And I go into the local pub and I say, you told me Larry was great. Like, look at this picture of what he did to butchered my hedge, right? That’s going to have a knock on effect. So I think there’s something psychological about the community that builds confidence and trust.

Yeah, good. Interesting. Great point. Agreed. 100%.

Yeah. Great. All right. Next one we have, knowledge makes you more valuable.

I’m going to disagree with this one. And I’m going to just rephrase it by saying, experience makes you more valuable because knowledge, unfortunately, I mean, you could, you could know an encyclopedia from beginning to end, but it, you know, it’s not the knowledge, it’s the practice of trial and error. And let’s face it, I have told everybody, I have a 27 year old agency that I grew one failure at a time because it’s in the failures that you actually learn and you experience and you learn what not to do. So while, you know, education might say this or a teacher might say this, the reality is it didn’t work quite that easily. And my experience was that. So I’m going to disagree with that statement per se.

What do you think, Jacob?

100%. And that was one of the key points. But right now, information is abundant. Right? Anyone has access to all the things, all the courses, frameworks, chat, books, certs. Like we have access to all of it. So we need to know how, when and why to apply it. That’s going to be our advantage as brand builders. And 100% agree, you have to get the reps in, you have to get the experience, you have to go deep, you have to build your skill set, both wide and deep.

Yeah. I think we’ve got a problem with education in a way. We still have an almost like an industrial revolution view of education. People come out of university and are like, hey, I’m educated. I know everything there is to know. It’s like, good luck, mate. Yeah. Good luck with that. Yeah. Academics, I find quite amusing because everything’s so lovely inside a laboratory, right? You come outside, you practice, you find like, as you said earlier, Massimo, like leadership teams are different, audiences are different, customers are different, communities are different, like categories are different, so competitors will move in ways you didn’t expect them to move. You know, there’s certain things I always think that you could be 100% right on paper, but you just get a CEO who doesn’t like the color blue, right? And suddenly everything goes, or their wife doesn’t like green or something or whatever. And suddenly all of the best educated thought have to be kind of reconsidered. So my view is on that, yeah, I agree with both of you. I think experience trumps knowledge because the way that we reference information is changing. My daughter, right, she’s seven, and she was doing this spelling like she had to do her work, and I caught her, right? I came to her room. She’s like, Alexa, how do I spell whatever it was? And I was like, what do you think you’re doing? Like she’s like, I’m just doing my English. I was like, no, no, no, that’s not how you do English. Have you heard of a dictionary? What’s a dictionary, dad? I’m like, whoa, but then I was like, look, you know, you need to look. She’s like, why would I need to do that when I could just… And I was kind of thinking, to be fair, like, why would she? Like, I don’t know. Like, these are the things we need to think about.

Yeah. And when brand strategy came into my world, I was trying to find like the elusive, the best framework. I was talking to dozens of different brand strategists, trying to understand their frameworks. I was downloading all the things. And, you know, I was trying to find the unlock. And I literally had a coaching call a couple of days ago with one of my students in the community. And one of their goals was to unlock brand strategy. And I was like, well, what are you doing? And they’re like, they’re just trying to find the right thing. And how I unlocked it was actually applying it and using something to find out my own way of working, not just collecting frameworks and doing all the things. It’s literally putting your knowledge into practice. And that’s how you get that experience and you level up. So stop just collecting frameworks and actually apply them. And you will find out.

Test them.

Yeah, test them.

I 100% agree with that. And like, that’s what some people say to me, Matt, what’s your, like, I’ve got some go-to’s, right? I’ve got some go-to frameworks that I help clients with. But I don’t apply that to every single context in every single situation. I think experience allows you to know what might work in different circumstances with different types of teams. And half of my work is trying to get leadership teams to sign up to the direction that we’re going in and feel comfortable with it, and for that direction to actually be helpful to the audience we’re trying to attract. And sometimes that requires different tactics, different ways of persuading people, different evidence bases, you know. Sometimes the academic route is great. Other times, I need to sit down and have a focus group record, you know, and record what customers are actually saying and then play that back to people, like, and that has more effect. So there’s so much of the human side, I think, to what we do that sometimes we overlook, and we shouldn’t, we need to adapt, and experience gives you that ability to adapt.

Agreed. All right, we have two more, and then a little rapid fire at the end. So the next one, AI will replace Graphic Designers.

Oh, boy, that’s a hard one. So I have a pretty strong stance on this, and while I am 100% a fan of, you know, AI, and obviously I’m passionate Graphic Designer, I feel that AI will replace a large number of Graphic Designers as we know them. So again, the value that true Graphic Designers, experienced Graphic Designers, you know, ones who’ve had more than five, ten years experience, you know, offer is that, you know, they realize that there’s more to it than just that end product. And unfortunately, you know, right now, AI isn’t making that connection from beginning to end. So do I think it’ll replace Graphic Designers? It’ll replace a part of what Graphic Designers do, which might be that final deliverable, but the process leading up to it, which is so much more strategic, so much more discovery, so much more, you know, research and experimentation and trial and error with, you know, the customers and the target market to get to that end unit, it can’t replace. So it’s going to replace a part of what graphic designers, you know, do.

Matt?

I agree with Massimo. I think I don’t need to say anything else. I think you said it perfectly. Okay.

All right. The summit insight there was that the defensible value is shifting towards judgment, context, leadership, relationships and responsibility. Execution still matters, as you mentioned, but execution alone is harder to defend as a premium service.

Exactly.

Yeah. So it comes back to what we were saying before, moving up upstream a bit, becoming more strategic, using our judgment, backing up our work. I think it’s all coming full circle here.

Well, and I mean, there is a large number of graphic designers. I have many friends and they’re terrified. They hate AI because they are incredible makers. And I’m talking, these guys and girls have got a look. They’ve got a following. They’ve got this, you know, they can whip up things and they have certain looks to them. And I mean, I can’t compete with that, right? But AI can, unfortunately. And unfortunately for these guys, these guys and girls, these makers, that was all they had. They differentiated themselves from other graphic designers based on their technique, their style, their usage. Well, the reality is, you know, you’re always going to have people who are happy with photocopies of an original print, prints of an original print, right? Then you’re going to have the ones who will always pay extra. They’ll pay extra for the original art, or at least a signed version of a print from that artist. They want that connection. So unfortunately for those designers, if that’s all they had, if their superpower was, their cool style was what made them, you know, different than everybody else, they’re on the chopping block.

All right, the last one. Your work should remain professional, not personal. 100%.

While I do agree that judgment is important, our judgment isn’t to be on our personal opinions, they should be based on our professional experiences. My personal opinions, thought-wise, have nothing to do with what’s best for the customer. It’s not to say that customers won’t come to us because they like our style. That’s a thing. That’s for sure. But I personally have always tried to keep my personal opinions very different than my professional opinions based on my experience. Does that make sense?

I think it’s really important because your whole point of view on Angry Designer is to give opinionated views, like personal views. But when it comes to your professional work through their agency, you’re doing it from the point of view of their problem, not your own personal view.

Exactly. Yeah.

I agree with that. When I was a kid, I used to draw and do a lot of art. That was my kind of vibe. I always used to think that was my personal expression. I had a statement to make personally to the world or something personally. When I came into design, the reason I like design was it almost took the ego out of it. It’s not about my perspective. This has a purpose like I’m serving a client with the purpose. I’m going to use all my skills to try and achieve that, but that’s what design is. It’s about trying to get the client where they need to be. As soon as you start saying, well, it’s actually not about the client, it’s about my personal perspective, I think that’s where you can run into difficulties. I’ve met a lot of designers who are so passionate about a particular way forward, that isn’t quite right, that then they fall foul of that. So yeah, it’s about removing self from it. But interestingly, I don’t think you can ever completely remove yourself. Part of what I do is my personality, is my energy, is the way that I communicate, and it’s so hard. So in one breath I’m saying, remain professional, but then the other way is like, yeah, but don’t lose yourself completely, but leverage the parts of you that adds value and lean into those. That would be my advice.

So you have to remember, and graphic designers in particular suffer from this, there is a difference between a graphic designer and an artist. Right. An artist does things for themselves, an artist does things for self-expression, and to them, everything they do is personal. Graphic designers do things for the customer. They try to solve problems for the customer, not themselves. They are reversing the relationship, and that’s what makes design different than art. So those two worlds, I mean, and it’s been blurred for years, and that’s why you get all these stereotypical, you know, designers who are, you know, offended if you disagree with them. Well, you know, personal opinion should be left on a canvas for an artist, not on a tablet for a designer. So they’re very different worlds, but oftentimes people don’t realize they’re different worlds. And this is, this, there’s just, I think we did a whole episode, I think we did three, on why graphic designers are one way and artists are another. There’s so many differences between the two. And once you start understanding those differences, it clarifies so much from your business, from yourself, from stress, from burnout, it changes everything.

So some of the discussions at the summit were about, you know, everyone can make content now. So easily. It’s abundant. And it doesn’t make someone irreplaceable. But what does is having a perspective, a point of view, that’s shaped from your experiences, your taste, and your conviction behind it, and standing behind it, and communicating that, that is how we stand out, and we bring our personal views, backed by like professional opinion, into the light. And that’s how we become unique, and differentiated, and stand out in the marketplace. Would you add anything to that?

Well, I mean, I agree with that statement 100%. Again, the value that we have, our opinions, our viewpoint, our taste, our judgment, comes from somewhere. And oftentimes, it is from the experiences that we gain. You know, otherwise, what are we basing it on? We’re basing it on the same stuff that everybody else does. And again, that doesn’t mean that that’s our personal opinions, as in, you know, our tastes or, you know, our flavors. That generally stems from our experiences, which I do think is separate.

I think it’s different. So why do you think designers struggle so much with expressing their point of view, then?

I think, you know, unfortunately, it is that confusion between being an artist and being a designer. And some people, they, you know, you always, you hear so often, oh, I was great in art in high school, which is why I wanted to be a graphic designer. They’re two different worlds. And unfortunately, if you’re going in with that mindset, well, you know, the world’s going to really slap you, you know, really hard, too, because again, customers won’t like it because it’s not, they’re not buying a painting off of you. They’re buying a solution, you know, that they might need based on, you know, their brand perception, based on, you know, how the market interacts with their products, based on customer’s experiences with their products. So I think for a large number of them, it’s just that line is very blurred and they can’t seem to identify where being an artist stops and where being a designer starts.

But it kind of comes back to the word designer again, that definition. I even think designers, they kind of put themselves in that graphic designer box and they don’t think about themselves as a designer of systems or experiences or anything else. So what would you say to them?

Well, unfortunately, I think they need to remove the graphic from designer and realize that being a designer is about serving the end user, not your customer, but your customer’s customer. And you have to think, there’s way too many other factors to take into consideration in order to do that properly. So it’s not just a matter of artistically representing something via a mark that has the company’s name on it. So unfortunately, social media, the internet, award books and such, I mean, these all really lend themselves to just focusing on the end result, which is the mark. And nobody ever, there’s no words for the thought process leading up to it. Back when we were growing up, remember communication art books? You know, they were fantastic because they would talk about the strategy behind it. You know, they would show you these amazing, you know, billboards and print ads and stuff. But they also went into very deep, the strategic mindset, how they got there, you know, what they actually had to uncover to get there. That’s lost. Nobody cares about that anymore because you can’t summarize it in a little mark about this big. So unfortunately, I think the past two decades have really focused on logo porn versus, you know, what leads up to it, you know, the foreplay, you know, if we can use that analogy. Sorry for that. I don’t know why I went there, but you get what I mean.

I think you’re right, like the strategy behind things gets completely lost. Like I remember, do you remember a few months ago, like Spotify changed their icon to like some sort of weird, like I don’t know, was it like a disco ball?

Right. Yeah.

Mark certain amount of years they’d been out and whatever. And I don’t know what you guys take was that like, a lot of people were saying, oh, this is awful. Like I couldn’t even recognize that. I didn’t like the design of it, like blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, from an execution perspective, I can take all those points of what probably could have been better. But from a strategic perspective, like how interesting is it that they, they decided to change the icon, right? Which was broke all the rules, right? But it made it kind of understood, like was it 20 years or something? Like, I don’t know, 10 years, who knows? But like it was like, hey, these guys have been around for a long time now. And that message got home, right? To everybody concerned, whether you liked the look of it or not. And I’m thinking, okay, you’ve got the purists out there saying, oh, look, it’s too detailed. Like I can’t, it’s like, hold on, you forgot, you’ve lost sight. We weren’t there. Like a lot of us have opinions. It’s like you weren’t in the strategy meetings. You don’t know where that hit the strategy. I’m sat there as a strategist thinking, some strategist in Spotify was thinking, how can we make everybody know that we’re 20 years old? Let’s do something radical. Let’s do this. It’s not expensive. It’s not a big lift. Let’s go. Bang. And then everyone’s going mental about it for a week. Did that meet the strategic objective? If I was that strategist and that was my plan, I think, yeah, pretty much, yeah, you should get a jolly pay rise. But I don’t know and no one knows. So I think you’re right. We often focus on the output and we don’t actually understand the thinking that went into it. And we often don’t actually understand the objective. So we’re not really in a place to make a judgment as to whether it’s successful or not.

Absolutely. Graphic designers love logos more than anybody else in the world. And they hate logos more than anybody else in the world. And again, that’s the challenge because it’s very thin and superficial. And if you look at most of the logo review sites, everybody’s giving their opinions on the mark. But there are some sources out there that go into a little bit more detail about why they got there, how they got there. And those comments, those conversations are very different. So I challenge people to actually seek those out because you’ll learn so much more about what’s behind it, the strategy behind it. And I mean, that’s learning how to think before presenting.

Yeah. And I do think like this is where like designers need to get over themselves a little bit, right? Because the strategy behind an identity, and I’m going to shock a lot of people on the JUST Branding Podcast, but like, what is the point? Let’s just take brand identity, a logo, right? A logo type. What is the point of it, right? In my mind, it’s literally to point somebody to the value of the company, what the company is going to offer, right? So if I said, for example, Lego, okay, right? Lego. You think of the Lego brand identity, would any designer sit there and go, oh, that’s like pretty awesome, like as an identity, probably not Coca-Cola, you’d probably look at it and go, oh, that was like something made out of the fifties or whatever. It’s like, yeah, but here’s the thing, they’re some of the most successful brands on the planet, right? Yep. The logo is a way of identifying the value or the meaning that’s going to come to the market. You need to think about that side of things. We can get all head up about kerning and spacing and colors and fonts and logos and all of that stuff. I’m not saying it’s not important, but you’ve got to put it in the right context. In my view, is it strategic context amongst the competitor set, amongst the positioning that you want to occupy in the market. I always remember years and years ago, I was working at a creative agency and I’m talking 25 years ago. A project came in and it was for a local garage that would fix your car. I spent ages crafting this really premium luxury looking, really phenomenal thing. I thought it was amazing. I remember I had a colleague and they were working on something and it looked, I don’t know, for me, it was like something out the 70s. I was like, oh my goodness, I can’t believe we’ve been pitching this. They pitched it and they won it because we were competing with our concepts. I was really gutted. I remember someone pointing out to me, look, the thing is that you’re looking at that, like you were saying, Massimo, like always from an artistic perspective, like from an art perspective, yours is going to win hands down. But if you look at it from a strategic perspective in how this is positioning that garage and market and how distinctive and recognizable it is in their space, in the local area, that is why the other design won. I always remember that lesson, you’ve got to take your personal views and sometimes your personal taste out of it. As you said, Massimo, think about it from the customer’s perspective and that’s the key.

That’s the goal.

That’s ingrained in your mind now, Matt, 25 years.

I know, right?

I’m not bitter, but you know.

I was shocked too when he said that.

I was like, what? All right. We’re going to wrap up with some rapid fire. We’re going to recount the past 10 points. Massimo, and you can just tell us if it’s bulls**t, mostly bulls**t, it depends, mostly true or absolutely true. Let’s do this. Okay.

All right.

From the top, good design speaks for itself.

True. Desires are paid to make things.

Oh, false. Bulls**t.

Great brands should fit their category.

True.

More concepts give the client more value.

False. Bulls**t. Boo. The project ends when the files are delivered.

Hell no.

Every designer needs to become a brand strategist.

Hell yeah.

You need a large audience to build a successful creative business.

Oh, well, you guys maybe made me realize a little difference. So I’ll be on the fence on that one. I can see your points.

Maybe.

Knowledge makes you more valuable.

Experience makes you more valuable. So I’m going to say no.

AI will replace graphic designers.

Hell no.

Your work should remain professional, not personal.

Hell yeah.

Awesome. All right. Final question. Which design industry belief causes the most damage when young designers accept it without questioning it?

Wow. That you have to be, oh, that a good, oh my God, this is a tough one guys, you know, but it all kind of surrounds the same idea. And that is that you have to be a good artist or a good maker, or you have to have a strong visual portfolio in order to be successful. And and I am of the belief that unfortunately, there’s so much more behind just the visuals. So I think new designers have to embrace that they are going to be, while they might be maybe judged on the value of the end result of their portfolio, what’s going to win them the work is going to be the how they got to those end results. You know, the process they went, the strategic thinking behind it, you know, that’s where the real value is, and that’s what’s going to separate them. So unfortunately, I think, you know, it’s the whole idea that, you know, your your value is in what you can create, because it goes so much deeper than that.

Love it, Massimo. What a hoot of an episode. Thanks, Sean, for your input as well.

It was epic, Sean. We were so blown away by your inputs, too.

Yeah, right. Where can people connect with you guys and anything else you just want to share?

You know what? I think right now, you know, two places besides our website, that’s only for a contact form. But, you know, on YouTube, we have kind of a nice little community on YouTube where everybody’s commenting on videos and getting into conversations. But also our Instagram is generally when people can message us directly. And, you know, we have conversations all the time. Personal conversations, people reaching out for help, you know, they’re reaching out for advice, and they’re just reaching out to say what’s up. So Instagram is The Angry Designer Podcast, and on YouTube, it’s The Angry Designer.

Amazing. Thank you, mate. Absolute pleasure. A hoot as well.

You guys were awesome. This was great. I wish we recorded that pre-conversation too, because, man, I needed those laughs. We did get some good laughs there.

I took some screen grabs, Massimo.

Okay, okay.

Good, good.

Well, for listeners out there, Sean joined and the tech was not working well.

I know, the poor guy.

They could reference Skinny Sean, and it’s because when he came on, his camera just squished him.

Squished him up.

So he forever will now be Skinny Sean in my mind.

Skinny Sean. And I think he’s gonna like that too.

Well, you know, I don’t know. He got pretty angry with the tech. So with the tech.

But that’s now, you know, where the real angry designer comes from.

Brilliant. Thanks so much, Massimo. Take care of yourself, man.

Gentlemen. Thank you so much. This was a hoot. This is great. Thank you.

Amazing. Listeners, thanks for tuning in. Can I just make a little plea? Please like, follow, whatever comment on this episode. We love to have feedback. Great to have you on board. Thanks for listening. Take care and peace out.

Peace.

I’m Judging the Indigo Design Awards

Jacob Cass — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:14:01 +0000

I’m pleased to share that I’m part of the Indigo Design Award jury, helping recognise creative work from designers around the world.

As a brand designer, strategist and founder of JUST Creative, I spend much of my time helping businesses find what makes them different and express it through design. Being on a jury offers another opportunity to explore how designers turn ideas into something distinctive, meaningful and memorable.

And, hopefully, discover a few projects that make me wish I’d thought of them.

About the Indigo Design Award

Indigo is an international design competition with four main categories:

Graphic Design
Digital Design
Branding
Design for Social Change

It welcomes entries from agencies, independent designers and emerging designers, including students and those early in their careers.

That breadth matters. Strong ideas can come from an established studio, a solo designer or someone working on their first substantial project. Awards offer a chance to bring those ideas to a wider audience.

Why judging matters to me

Design awards create an opportunity to pause and look closely at the work: the thinking behind it, the choices that shape it and the care that goes into its execution.

From a branding perspective, I’m particularly interested in the relationship between an idea and its expression. What makes the work recognisable? How does it communicate? Why is this approach right for this particular brand?

A beautifully presented identity can catch your attention. An identity with a clear idea behind it gives you a reason to remember it.

Seeing how other designers answer those questions is one of the things I value about being part of a jury. It keeps me curious and gives me another way to contribute to the design community.

My other design judging roles

I’ve also had the opportunity to judge across several other award programs:

Designity Awards
LogoLounge Awards
Horizon Interactive Awards
Signal Awards
LogoWave
International Visual Identity Awards

Each brings a different perspective, from the detail of an individual logo to the coherence of a visual identity or the effectiveness of a digital experience.

Across all of them, I appreciate the opportunity to help recognise designers who bring strong thinking and craft to their work.

Explore Indigo and share your work

If you have a project you’re proud of, take a look at Indigo’s categories and entry requirements.

You can also explore previous winners to see the range of work being recognised, from branding and graphic design to digital experiences and design for social change.

Thank you to the Indigo team for having me on the jury. I’m glad to play a part in celebrating the people and ideas behind the work.

View my Indigo jury profile and explore the awards

The current extended early bird deadline is November 30, 2026, with the regular deadline on January 31, 2027.

JUST Serif® — Modern Editorial Font (Free Download)

Jacob Cass — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 06:41:56 +0000

I’m excited to introduce JUST Serif®, a contemporary editorial serif created for designers who want elegance, expression and personality without the coldness found in many traditional high contrast typefaces.

Designed by Russell Bean in collaboration with me, Jacob Cass, for Just Creative, JUST Serif brings sculpted contrast and human warmth to branding, publishing, packaging and premium typography.

It’s refined but approachable. Expressive without becoming ornamental. Sophisticated, but never stiff.

Jump to Download Options

Why We Created JUST Serif

When we created JUST Sans®, the goal was to build a versatile geometric sans serif that could handle almost anything. It needed to feel clear and functional while retaining warmth and a distinctive personality.

But some projects call for a different voice.

They need more contrast. More rhythm. More editorial character.

JUST Serif was created to fill that role.

It gives designers an expressive serif that can lead a visual identity while working naturally alongside the clarity and versatility of JUST Sans.

The result is a contemporary serif family designed for modern brands, editorial layouts, expressive headlines and premium applications.

Editorial Elegance Without the Coldness

Many high contrast serif fonts lean heavily into the world of luxury and fashion. They can look beautiful, but they can also feel distant, delicate or overly formal.

We wanted JUST Serif to feel more human.

Its warm curves, sculpted flared serifs, confident capitals and carefully balanced proportions give the typeface an editorial presence without making it feel precious.

There’s enough contrast to create drama in a headline, but enough warmth to keep the typography approachable.

That balance makes JUST Serif suitable for a much wider range of projects, from boutique hospitality and premium packaging to publishing, brand identities and digital design.

Seven Weights and a Variable Font

JUST Serif includes seven carefully crafted weights:

Extra Light
Light
Regular
Medium
Semi Bold
Bold
Extra Bold

The lighter weights bring delicacy and refinement to large editorial typography. The middle weights offer a practical balance between expression and legibility. The heavier weights add confidence and impact to logos, headlines and display applications.

The family also includes a Variable Font, giving you more precise control over the weight and allowing the typeface to adapt to the needs of each project.

Whether you’re creating a restrained magazine cover or a bold packaging system, the family gives you room to find the right voice.

Designed for Branding, Editorial and Packaging

JUST Serif was created to perform across both expressive and practical applications.

It works particularly well for:

Logos and wordmarks
Brand identity systems
Editorial and magazine design
Book covers
Premium packaging
Wine and spirits labels
Beauty and fragrance branding
Fashion
Hospitality
Websites
Advertising
Posters and campaigns
Premium print applications

Use it as a modern serif font for a distinctive identity, an editorial serif for publishing, a high contrast serif for expressive headlines or a branding font for sophisticated design systems.

Its personality is noticeable, but it doesn’t overpower the work around it.

Pair JUST Serif With JUST Sans®

JUST Serif brings expressive editorial elegance, while JUST Sans provides clear, versatile supporting typography for a cohesive brand system.

Use JUST Serif for headlines, key messages and moments of personality. Use JUST Sans for body copy, captions, interfaces, navigation and everyday communication.

Together, they let you create contrast without losing consistency.

Pair JUST Serif With JUST Sans® Outline

JUST Serif’s sculpted forms pair naturally with JUST Sans Outline, adding graphic contrast and greater impact to headlines and display typography.

JUST Sans Outline is especially effective in posters, campaigns, packaging and layered typographic compositions.

Where JUST Serif brings editorial character, JUST Sans Outline introduces a more graphic voice.

A Complete Type System

JUST Serif, JUST Sans and JUST Sans Outline form the growing JUST Type Collection.

Each family has a distinct role:

JUST Serif delivers editorial elegance, expressive contrast and human warmth.
JUST Sans provides clarity, versatility and legible supporting typography.
JUST Sans Outline introduces graphic contrast and display impact.

Used together, they create a flexible typographic system that can move across brand identities, packaging, editorial design, websites and campaigns while maintaining a consistent visual language.

Built for Print and Digital

JUST Serif includes desktop fonts for professional design applications as well as web font formats for digital use.

Depending on your licence and download package, the family may include:

Seven static OTF fonts
Variable Font
WOFF web fonts
WOFF2 web fonts
Latin language support
OpenType features
Professional kerning and spacing
Font specimen
Welcome and installation guide

This makes it easy to carry the same typographic voice from a printed book or package to a responsive website.

Crafted With Russell Bean

JUST Serif was designed by Russell Bean in collaboration with me for Just Creative.

Russell brought his experience and technical expertise as a type designer to the development of the family, while I helped shape its creative direction, positioning and relationship with the broader JUST Type Collection.

The process involved balancing the expressive character of an editorial serif with the versatility designers need from a working type family.

Every weight was refined to feel like part of the same family while retaining its own purpose, from the delicate Extra Light to the commanding Extra Bold.

We love featuring great work from the design community.

The Making of JUST Serif

Go behind the scenes with Jacob Cass to see how JUST Serif came to life, from early references and the design brief to rounds of letterform refinement with type designer Russell Bean.

Download Full JUST Type Collection Free — JUST Sans, JUST Sans Outline, JUST Serif

Get the Regular and Extra Bold weights of JUST Sans, JUST Sans Outline and JUST Serif. That’s 6 fonts, completely free.

How to Download

1. Join the FREE JUST Creative Newsletter (form below)
Gain access to JUST Serif, JUST Sans, JUST Sans Outline and 100+ premium design and branding resources.

2. Check Your Inbox
You’ll receive a link to the Branding Briefcase, our free, ever-growing library of professional resources.

3. Download Your Fonts
The Regular and Extra Bold weights of all three JUST type families are yours to use immediately.

Licensed under CC BY-ND. Free to use with attribution, but modifications and redistribution of adapted versions are not permitted.

If you see no form below, it is likely your browser is blocking the form. Try this link instead.

Download JUST Serif® — Your Options

JUST Serif was created for designers looking for a contemporary serif that feels refined, expressive and unmistakably modern.

It has the elegance of an editorial serif, the warmth of humanist forms and the flexibility required for modern identity systems.

I’m incredibly excited to finally share it with you.

Download Two Free Weights on JUST Creative — See form above
Download JUST Serif in our Shop — 50% Off until October 31, 2026
Download JUST Serif on Envato — Subscription required
Download JUST Serif on CreativeMarket
Download JUST Serif on MyFonts — Best for web licensing

Already using JUST Serif? Tag @justcreative or use #JUSTSerif so we can see what you create.

[Podcast] Does Purpose Really Sell? The TOMS Story with Justin Herber

Jacob Cass — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 04:44:51 +0000

Does purpose really sell?

TOMS helped prove that a business could connect commercial growth with positive impact. Its One for One model transformed a simple shoe purchase into a story millions of people wanted to join.

But not everyone agrees that purpose drives sales. Some argue that product, price and positioning do the real commercial work, while purpose merely gives customers another reason to care. Others question whether purpose can remain credible once it becomes part of the marketing machine.

Former TOMS brand leader Justin Herber joins us to examine the argument from inside one of the world’s best known purpose led brands.

We explore how TOMS became a cultural movement, why its story resonated, what the company got right and wrong, and whether purpose can genuinely produce commercial growth.

Justin also reveals what Hollywood can teach us about brand storytelling, why strong brands need tension and how founders can build a belief that shapes the entire business rather than becoming another campaign line.

We discuss:

Whether purpose genuinely influences purchasing
What made the TOMS One for One story so powerful
How customers became participants in the brand
The difference between authentic purpose and purpose marketing
Why some challenger brands become movements
What TOMS got right and wrong while scaling
Whether purpose must be embedded in the business model
Why consumers have become cynical about corporate purpose
How narrative can align an entire organisation
Whether another TOMS could succeed today

About Justin

Justin Herber is a brand strategist and creative leader whose career spans Hollywood, TOMS, Hot Wheels and Tractor Beverage. As an early brand lead at TOMS, he helped shape the storytelling behind one of the world’s most influential purpose led brands. He later became the first Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Tractor Beverage and now advises founders and leadership teams on narrative, positioning and storytelling.

Listen Here

Love the show? Please review us on Apple.

Play Now

Watch on YouTube

Learn Brand Strategy

Brand Master Secrets helps you become a brand strategist and earn specialist fees. And in my opinion, this is the most comprehensive brand strategy course on the market.

The course gave me all the techniques and processes and more importantly… all the systems and tools I needed to build brand strategies for my clients.

This is the consolidated “fast-track” version to becoming a brand strategist.

I wholeheartedly endorse this course for any designer who wants to become a brand strategist and earn specialist fees.

Check out the 15-minute video about the course, which lays out exactly what you get in the Brand Master Secrets.

Transcript

Today, purpose-driven brands are everywhere, but there was a time when the idea that buying a product could directly create positive change in the world felt genuinely disruptive. TOMS became one of the brands that absolutely changed that. It didn’t just challenge the footwear category, it challenged our expectations of what a business could be turning customers into participants in a much bigger story.

On today’s episode, we want to explore how you build a challenger brand around a belief and turn that belief into a movement. And we’ve got the perfect person to explore this with us because we want to introduce you all to Justin Herber, a brand strategist and creative leader whose career has spanned both Hollywood and some of the world’s most interesting challenger brands. Justin started out in the entertainment industry before moving into brand building, becoming an early brand and storytelling lead at TOMS, where he helped shaped the early narrative as the company grew from a shoe brand into a global purpose-driven movement. He went on to lead creative strategy for brands including Hot Wheels, before becoming the first chief brand and marketing officer at Tractor Beverage, helping take the business from an early stage challenger to a national brand. Today, Justin advises founders and leadership teams on brand narrative, positioning and storytelling with a particular belief that the strongest brands aren’t built around products, they’re actually built around stories and beliefs that people want to be part of. Justin, welcome to the JUST Branding Podcast.

It is such a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, guys.

It’s great to have you on. I’m excited. We’ve been talking back and forth for a few months now. To finally get you on in all your glory, I can’t wait to tuck into this because who doesn’t love a challenger brand, particularly one that’s purpose-driven. I know we’re going to tuck into all of that stuff just shortly. But before we get there, I know you started off in Hollywood and then moved into brand building. So perhaps we could just sort of ask, what connects those two worlds?

There’s so much overlap between the two worlds, and it’s not what I would normally see. To me, I think the biggest connected tissue is the idea of theme and purpose, being the emotional driver of story and of entertainment and also brand. So if you think about a movie that just has an idea and a plot but no emotional thrust, that’s like having a brand that has a product and some marketing but no real contention underneath it. So for me, I always think about what’s the why, what’s the theme we’re exploring, whether that’s me writing a TV show or building a brand, what are you really anchoring your belief system in, and then how do you express it? Then we can go on to talk about how a brand is really, and its community is the protagonist, and you’re pushing against something in the same way that you would in a screenplay or in a TV series. So to me, there’s been a pretty seamless translation, but the language is a little different in each one.

I love how you mentioned tension, because that brings drama, that brings excitement, that brings intrigue, everyone’s suddenly leaning in when there’s a bit of tension. You’re absolutely right. So tell us the story. You started off in Hollywood, and obviously, we’ve mentioned you went to TOMS, you’ve done a bunch of other stuff. Perhaps give us a potted history. Perfect.

So the long backstory. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker. I grew up in Texas. There really wasn’t a pathway for filmmakers in Texas, and I ended up making my way to California by way of Pepperdine University on a fine arts scholarship, knowing that’d be my way into the entertainment world. So after graduating college, I applied to every single post-production house in Santa Monica and somehow ended up interviewing with Michael Bayes, his editing house, and from there, I got introduced to Michael Bayes’ team and then became Michael Bayes’ creative assistant, project, new production assistant, everything assistant at the age of 22. So I had a direct line into Hollywood, but also into commercials because Michael was one of the most successful commercial directors at the time. So I really liked the way that he could work on longer-form narrative and also short-form content, and that was exactly what excited me about telling stories. And so I really got almost an apprenticeship working under him for two years. And then from there, I went on my own and decided to learn how to, I decided to go to film school without having to pay for it. So I worked on the agency side, I worked on the post-production side, and got massive exposure to the apples of the world, a bunch of car accounts to not only agency side, but production company side, to the business side of it, and was able to see all the pieces and how they work together. And then I eventually got a call from a friend from the entertainment days who said, hey, I took this job at a company that is trying to give shoes away, and will you come talk to me about it? So one of my friends was the ninth employee at TOMS, and as they grew, I would shadow advise and give them different ideas. And then they brought me on to help them launch Eyewear, which is their second one for one product. So all of the brand stuff that I was doing led to me having a robust understanding of how things got made, and all the entertainment stuff I did around writing screenplays, developing, et cetera, gave me a real concept for narrative thrust. So it was the idea of not only storytelling, but the visual expression of those ideas. And so that was, TOMS is the perfect thing for me because it brought all those worlds together, and it was a company that had this amazing story that just needed to have it brought to life. And that was my very fortunate role to have.

Right, so just for folks who perhaps don’t know much about TOMS, you mentioned One for One. Do you mind explaining to everyone what that idea was?

Sure, so the founder of TOMS was this amazing entrepreneur, and he was on a trip to Argentina, and he saw some kids without shoes. And he met some people who were on a shoe drive, and he started asking, well, what happens if people stop giving shoes to these kids and they don’t get shoes? So he decided to create a company where what if he sold a pair of shoes and if a pair of shoes sold, he would give to somebody in need. So they called it TOMS Shoes, Shoes for Tomorrow was the idea, and the business model was One for One. And so that was the first real company that integrated giving into business. You had companies that had foundations and charitable givebacks, but this is a company that said, hey, we’re putting giving first, and really we’re gonna challenge the way we think about the role of business in society. And I think that was what really, beyond the inventiveness of the business model, the idea that companies could do more and had a different role they could play in society and a different role they could play with consumers was really the power of the brand at the time.

And they’re still doing it now, aren’t they? I think One for One.

Yeah, so of all their giving model, we use the One for One model to introduce handbags, eyewear, coffee. So they always had to have a One for One component. And then they’ve evolved the giving model to be, it’s after my time. So I don’t really know exactly how it functions, but the way it did at the time was all, it had to be One for One. You buy this, it impacts a community this way.

Nice. And it’s for profit, the company, right?

All for profit. Yeah. So that was the exciting thing about it because Blake recognized that charity might fall short, but if you had something that was a business, then that could potentially create long-term impact. So he really flipped the idea on its head. And it was, he’s an amazing person and an incredibly inspiring individual and entrepreneur. And he just saw the world differently. And that was the magic of it all.

So when you arrive at TOMS, this crazy idea, right? What was it like? Give us a sense. Only nine people. So were you number 10, number 11, something like that? Like what was it like? Give us a description of what it was like.

So when I first came in, it was, my friend was the ninth employee, and everyone’s bagging up shoes and shipping them and all hands on deck type thing. I didn’t officially come in until they were about 85, 90 people. So they would always bring in and say, yeah, so they would say, hey, we’re launching a new product. Can you help us do this for $7? And I’m like, $7 doesn’t really pay me, but they eventually were able to, when they launched their one-for-one product, the second one I wear, they said, hey, we’re going to Nepal for 10 days. And it’s the founder and a couple of his friends, and they’re going to see if there’s a giving model for site. Would you be interested? I’m like, 10 days in Nepal sounds amazing. So I quit the job that I had at the time, which was producing visual effects at a major VFX house, and then just bought a plane ticket and went to Nepal for 10 days. And it was a life-changing experience.

You’ve been to Nepal, Jacob, I know you’re a very well-traveled man.

Yes, we have. There’s a lot of hiking around there. Yeah. Cool place.

There we are. Recommend it?

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely.

Jacob’s are like resident traveler. Like I’ve traveled a little bit. Thanks, traveler, Matt.

We’ve got four muppets now.

Oh, yeah. Really leave the house.

No more travel for you for a few years.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was an, I mean, it’s a journey to get there, right? It’s like 30 hours of travel from Los Angeles, where TOMS is based.

Yeah. It was just after an earthquake as well when I was there. So it was all like a lot of rubbles and a lot of recovery and everything. But it was still amazing people and a lot of cool things to see, obviously, it’s a beautiful place in the world.

Yeah, the Hanna printer range, this is amazing. It was an incredible place to be.

Were you filming there, Justin, then, at that early point? And so you’re telling the story from the founders, what they were doing, documenting, I guess. And then, so you then went to work for TOMS for a while. First of all, next question was, when was that roughly?

So this was in 2010. So you’d asked earlier about what was TOMS like when I walked in, right? So everyone was a believer. And I think this is what founders really need to anchor into. Like when you’re early stage, everyone was bought into the belief system of TOMS. So it was a bunch of 20-somethings that thought they could change the world, right? And there’s a few more senior level people, but it really was a company that operated on belief. So they really thought that every thing we did on a daily basis made a big impact. So that was the culture of the place. And it was also the culture of Venice and Santa Monica at the time, among 20-somethings. There’s groups like Falling Whistles and Charity Water. They were all trying to do something more impactful. This is your Obama era aspirational, like optimistic millennial, right? So everything was about how do you create a better world? And so TOMS is just at the forefront, but really around TOMS was this community of amazing people who are doing things that could change the world. So that was the culture of the place, and that was how it felt to be there. And then for me, like after I went to Nepal for 10 days with the founders, my job was then to help them launch Eyewear. And so I was able to put together some documentary stuff that you can still find today. And then that role slowly evolved into me being overseeing all consumer facing videos, so all campaign stuff. And then the role evolved further to overseeing really all brand storytelling. So what was happening seasonally in the catalogs, partnership wise, brand book, really. So more of it was, we didn’t have any external agencies. So it was all internal. So there was kind of a creative services side of it. But then there was more of the kind of the thought leadership side of it as well. So we kind of had to straddle both lines, having it all be in the house.

So Justin, I had a question around challenger brands and eyewear, because Warby Parker, was this before or after TOMS introduced eyewear?

I think Warby was just after TOMS. Just after. Yeah, and Warby was amazing. And they really led with their giving in the beginning, but then they kind of moved more towards like the trying at home type messaging. So yeah, but they were, that energy was all around entrepreneurship at the time.

Yeah, I remember that. And I had a couple of pairs back when I wore glasses, and that was like a pretty revolutionary model as well, like trying on at home. And it’s just like, and you buy one, someone else gets one as well.

So yeah, they were super, they’re super disruptive. They had amazing infographics and communications. Like they were always somebody I looked to personally, but man, they’re, they’re doing great things. I loved what, the way they communicated their ideas.

Yeah. And the technology as well, like at the time, I remember you could try it on at home, literally with the tech and the camera and everything, and it’ll put on your face. This seems so basic now, but it was quite, quite new at the time.

Where you could-

The first like AR application. Yeah. Yeah.

You could see what it would look like and everything, and like move your head and it was all new and it was, yeah, definitely that’s why I bought with them.

Yeah. I think like what’s interesting about Werby and also about TOMS is yes, there’s giving incorporated, but it’s also disrupting industry, right? Like if you think about Werby, there’s Luxottica, there’s like two major eyewear companies, right? And so when you’re entering in that space, you have to do something distinctive. And TOMS, like we didn’t think of our competitors as being the Nikes or Sketchers or Adidas of the world, but we were introducing a silhouette of a shoe that is super interesting and fashionable, but also a business model that was really disrupted too. So I think sometimes people think about that era as a do-good era, but it was really a disruptive era when you’re challenging pre-conceived notions and patterns of business, and you’re doing it and modeling a new way. And so I think that’s the most, probably the lasting legacy of TOMS isn’t just the give back component or those that inspired, but it really is the idea of industry disruption, right? And say like, there could be a better model for capitalism. There could be a different way we think about how companies participate in social issues, et cetera. So it was quite revolutionary at the time and still has echoes throughout so many brands.

What would you call that, Justin? I mean, I would probably call that like a conscious capitalism. Would you be okay with that phrase, do you think? Or is there another phrase that you would sort of dub it?

That’s what it was referred to at the time. And so it was conscious capitalism is the way they thought about it and the way it was kind of branded at the time. I don’t know if there’s a more modern interpretation of it, but I’m open to it.

No, I don’t know. That’s the phrase that comes to my mind as you were talking about it. And look, we’ll come back to the TOMS story in a minute because I really want to dive in to some of the principles and the things that you learned. But just so that folks get a sense of what happened to you beyond TOMS, you know, let sort of give us the rest of the sort of story up until now, and then we’ll circle back around and perhaps pick apart some principles that I know you’ve probably applied throughout your career.

Sure. So while I was at TOMS, I sold a TV show with my writing partner that was on Legend’s first scripted television show he did. And that show didn’t get made, it got a lot of attention. And so we ended up, it got read around town and we ended up winning an open writing assignment to adapt this famous novel. And we won the assignment. And it was enough of a win for me to walk away from TOMS. And it was such a hard decision to make, but I’ve been building this career of both brand guy and entertainment guy. And we’re kind of top of the mountain like, hey, this is going to be the show. And so we wrote a script. We got Antoine Foucault attached to direct. We got Sly Stallone attached to star. And it looked like it was going to be the first, it was going to be like a too big to fail kind of show. And of course it failed. So that’s, that is Hollywood, right? So, but that was enough for me to be able to leave TOMS. And in that period, when I was writing, I was also consulting brands and one of my buddies had invested in the soda company and he said, hey man, I love what you did at TOMS. Can you help us build the TOMS of beverage? So, there’s three founders and myself as the first advisor and later a few more advisors, but we ended up saying like, what does it take for a challenger brand to break through in their space? So, what they had done is they had recognized that food service was the only place you couldn’t get a clean beverage option. You can go to any corner store or any grocery store or greengrocer and you can find a better option. But why wasn’t that the case in food service? So, what they aspired to do, and this was all based in the founders’ intent. One of the founders was a farmer who had transitioned his farm to organic and he said, I think we can make organic sodas that would be better for the farms and be better for the consumer and we could challenge this kind of monolithic Coke and Pepsi soda world is happening. So, the whole challenge became how you position a brand when there’s only four of us to be able to take on 125-year-old incumbents, right? So, it all became about positioning, about story, brand presentation, making smart bets, getting the right partners lined up. So, I ended up architecting the brand from the beginning and then helping them with key launches as an advisor and consultant and then going in-house as their first chief brand officer in 2021 to help them really turbocharge the brand. So, we took it from proof of concept to national brand expanding into Europe and not only within food service but now expanding into retail. So, that was all part of the model and the great thing was is I got to use everything I did from TOMS and help not only with the marketing and branding but also with organizational design, right? How do you incorporate more of a regenerative give back model into the company? So, we ended up along with the founders, I launched something called Farmhand Foundation which took our top line revenue and put it back to farms to help them integrate more sustainable practices. So, then they could then potentially be integrated in our supply chain. So, it was really a study in organizational design in brand led principles, especially in a historically non branded space. So, I was really proud of everything I built there and it was after last year, I stepped away having built everything I wanted to over the course of 10 years. And now I consult with other founders and brands and CPG and luxury hospitality. And so really helping them get clear on their story. And then how do you tap in that belief? How do you articulate the story? And then how do you create a culture of belief and possibility? They can take on incumbents, they can build a pulse within the market. So, my whole thesis is that brands are businesses built on belief systems, right? And so that’s where I am now.

If you’re serious about mastering branding and building a thriving creative business, the Brand Builders Alliance is for you. Inside, you’ll get live masterclasses, mentorship from our eight resident coaches, a stacked resource vault and a global network of brand builders who actually get it. If you’re done winging it alone and are ready to scale with structure, support and serious momentum, head over to joinbba.com and get on the wait list. That’s joinbba.com.

Where do we take this next? I was going to circle us back then to those early days of TOMS and perhaps go completely off-piece and ask you about some of those principles. You talked about belief being at the core. You talked at the start around how that when you joined TOMS, everyone was a believer. I think that’s how you phrased it. So perhaps that’s a good place to start. If someone’s trying to build or challenge a brand, and I think you’re going to say yes, but is it always rooted in a belief and how do you find that thing to believe in that I guess is anti-establishment as well or anti-status quo because that then allows you to challenge?

Yeah, great question. And I think that the more daylight there is between your marketing message and your purpose, the more fractured the brand is going to be. So if founders are thinking about purpose-driven or belief system as a marketing layer or brand layer, the thing is going to fracture. So it has to be part of organizational design. And a lot of times, the purpose may not be super clear in the beginning, but it oftentimes lives with the founder. And so you guys probably see this in your work, right? You talk to a founder and you really are trying to pull back the layers. Somebody told me this analogy of Michelangelo knew that David existed inside the stone. It was his job to just reveal it. And so I think that’s what great strategy does and great brand building does is the founder has this animating idea that lives within them on why they were pulled or charged to create this organization or this product or the story. And that is the role of the brand builders to help them to be their Michelangelo sometimes, right? To help them reveal what’s truly there so it can be seen in the way that the founder intended. So a lot of times, you know, with Tractor, there is this belief that if we had more organic produce, it would be better for the soil health and but it took a while for us to really land the messaging, the exact idea that we were latching on to, to express it clearly, and that’s a journey. And so I think that for early founders, when you’re thinking about a purpose-driven brand, you have to think about who you are beyond product, and that is what the clarity is, right? Get clear on who you are beyond product, because if that goes away, would people even recognize your brand, right? At that point of view. So you have to get very clear on that, and then you have to get very clear on your conviction, right? What do you believe? What are your non-negotiables? Why should people believe you? Then that starts to build a real basis for a belief-led brand, right? The clarity and conviction is where it starts. So a lot of that is editing out and sacrificing, and just getting clear on what your non-negotiables are, and then within that too, knowing what you stand against, right? It doesn’t often have to be a competitor. It could be things like apathy, or it could be about industrial agriculture, but as long as you can frame up what you stand for, and be clear on that, then you can animate your team around those principles, right? And you can make that part of your practice. So at TOMS, we had giving trips that everyone got to go on after a year. So they got to go experience giving, and then they come back on fire for the brand. At Tractor, we started something called Farm Camp, which was every employee has to work on a farm for four days, right? So then it starts to reinforce the founding belief system, in a way that then becomes evangelist, right? Because what you’re trying to do with a purpose-driven brand is create these stories that travel, this magnetic evangelism, where you can see somebody wearing your product, and you can walk up to them and be like, hey, tell me about the shoes you’re wearing. They go, oh my goodness, you buy a pair and they give a pair. And so that’s where the flywheel really comes.

Yeah.

So I think like getting clear on who you are beyond product, and then making sure you integrate that into your hiring practices, into the way your organization behaves, and then the way you market.

So I’ve got a question on this. You mentioned the founder a couple of times, right? So do you think it always has to be something that is rooted in sort of an early startup business, or do you think you could reverse engineer it into a more established business, say with a new CEO coming in?

I think there is room for reverse engineering, there’s a lot of calcification that you have to break, right? So that is a challenge, but I think that the same principles can be applied to even legacy brands and reinvention, or oftentimes it’s when they launch a new category or a new product, how do you create its own known belief system around that product, its own ideology, its own thing it’s pushing against as well. So I think these principles can be applied to almost any brand. Like for instance, I helped Hot Wheels figure out how to expand their YouTube channel, right? And the way that we did that is anchoring in their belief, which was challenge accepted, which is the idea that the kids are inventors and playful. And so anchoring that ideology, then turning it into rather than trying to create viral clips, create this entertainment engine that could be more of a Saturday morning cartoon. And so the same ideology that I applied to using TOMS, figuring out what it is, expanding it in the most powerful way possible, is the same that I use for Hot Wheels, the same I use for TV series, the same I use for Tractor. Loved that.

Yeah, another brand I love, what they do is, you know, like Red Bull, which I think their sort of purpose is something along the lines of giving wings to people and ideas, and the way that they sort of like sponsor, like extreme sports. And I’m here in Wales in the UK, and there’s this tiny little disused slate mine, right, called the Blue Lagoon, right? We went there a few weeks ago with the kids. And there’s like these really big jumps that you can do into water where the slate mine has been basically filled with the sea now. And everyone talks about the fact that Red Bull went there, I think, about in 2013. And they had, like, you can still see where they had a massive dive board right at the top, like, I don’t know, it was like 100 meters up, absolutely insane dives. I mean, we didn’t do that. We did like a 30 meter drive, and that was scary enough. I nearly, like, yeah, had a heart attack. You see my little kids just like jumping off, like. You didn’t jump from space, Matt. But the point being is, is that, you know, like the fact that that brand has built those experiences and extreme sports and people now talk about the legacy, that’s just a tiny little community, a tiny little place, for example, where that happened. Like, I just think it’s like testament to what you’re talking about, which is around belief systems, purpose, and actually leaning into that. There’s a question I love to ask leadership teams, which is like, why do we exist beyond making money? Like, you lot want to get rich, that’s fine, I’ve not got anything against that, but consumers don’t care that you lot want to get rich and retire and go to the beach in Hawaii in five years’ time, or that your board want to sell out to another board in three years’ time. That’s your purpose, like individually, that’s great, but why should everyone else care, right? That’s the key. And I think what you’ve just described there is brands that have tapped in to that and thought about it, not just from their own perspective, but from the consumer’s perspective and the wider, perhaps societal perspective as well, which of course then lends itself to a consumer thinking, oh, I don’t mind paying a little bit more perhaps for this brand than another brand.

So yeah, I think that that’s like to your Red Bull example, like Red Bull has done such a good job of, you ask people in Red Bull, they say like, it gives you wings. That’s our whole ideology, right? Like we are there to empower possibility. And so then it becomes very easy to say yes or no to things, right? Like, hey, does this make sense to build a diving board on top of an abandoned mine? Yes, like of course it does. So I think that so much of what Red Bull did was they did world building, right? Because they have their product line, but then they exist far beyond that. And that’s what such an interesting case study, and looking at how even how modern brands are built, right? Like modern brands have to participate in culture beyond just product, right? So it has to be events, it has to be your partnership strategy. So you have to bring texture and understanding so that the brand can be fully dimensionalized. And Red Bull anchored to that idea of gives you wings and just like built an entire universe out of it.

Yeah, for sure. It’s like experiential, isn’t it? And not just customer experience, right? Like as you sort of talk about, it’s like beyond the buying journey, right? This is like just around the idea of the concept. And like to touch on your point for Tractor Beverage, you’re building experiences for employees to create them into believers as well. Now, I remember reading about Whirlpool, which is a really dry utilities brand here in the UK that sell like washing machines and white goods and kettles and stuff. And I think one of their kind of things that they do is they get people, they have a Whirlpool house, right? And they send their employees to live in it for like a week or something, right? And all the products are Whirlpool products. So you know, they guess to just live there and experience all the products. That’s one example. There’s another example that I love, which I used to do a bit of work with with boots here in the UK, which are, I think they’re called Walgreens boots now, I think Walgreens bought them out. I don’t know if they’re in the US at all, but in the UK, they’re one of the UK’s oldest chemists. And when I was living in Nottingham, which is where Mr. Boots originally came from, they have their HQ in Nottingham. And what they do is they have stores all over the UK national, and they do this thing where they, because their big idea is around customer service and making sure that kind of customers are serviced in an excellent way, they send, well, they tell all their staff, they have to go for, I think it’s two weeks, to a store and serve customers like on the tills, right? Like that’s no matter who you are in the business. And what they find is, is that that’s so helpful because when it’s the, what they call the golden quarter, which is the lead up to Christmas, a lot of people, they want their Christmas holiday, but they want to kind of be near home also around that time. So a lot of people kind of book in to their local boots, where maybe they’re going home to see their parents or something, they’ll go in two weeks before, add to the local boots in their local town, go serve customers for two weeks whilst being around mom and dad, and they’ll probably get completely sick of them and wish they never did it for the rest of the holidays. But it’s such a cool idea, isn’t it? The point being is that you’ve got big ideas and you’re building experiences, yes, for customers, but also for your team around it, so they can believe and they can become, I think you call them evangelists, which I think is such a great word.

Yeah, and that it also helps with retention too, right? And I had somebody I worked with at Tractor, who she had come from seven generation, and they got the which is like a leader in sustainability. And so they would actually get calls from other brands to be like, hey, can you help us be better at sustainability? And so they became known for that and they’re advancing it. So it really is creating that belief system, creating that world, right? Just world-building both internally and externally, so the brand feels cohesive and it feels dimensional and it feels like it is a living breathing thing, not the thin brands that a lot of times we just see stood up and kind of pushed it, which is so easy to do now.

I was going to ask about that Justin, because there’s so many soda brands, we’ve been talking a lot about soda and drinks and soda brands pop up every day and they’re gone within months. It’s a very competitive category. We’ve talked about so many things to do like the internal beliefs, well, the belief system, internally, externally, more than the products and organizational design, the culture, all of these good things. But what other things do you see these brands doing wrong that they could potentially improve?

Yeah, I think beverage, specifically CPG beverage is really challenging, right? Because if you walk to your local grocer, we have Whole Foods or AeroOn or 7-Eleven, it’s just a really crowded category, and it’s really hard to get things to break through. So a lot of the times, you have very thin marketing budgets for these organizations. So it’s like how do you, one, get on the shelf and then create a poll for it, right? So that’s a real challenge. So you have to be really smart with your spend. So that comes to knowing exactly who your consumer is, and then who you want to connect with, and then figuring out probably a mix of creator and partnership strategy to get the brand seen and then trialed and expanded. So it’s, but CBG beverages is, I think less than 3% of beverage companies make it. So to the proof of concept, that’s what I’ve heard. Don’t take it as a fact, but that’s what I’ve heard. It’s an exciting category to play in, and it’s great to have like cans in hands and to be able to just do fun things with it. But it’s also, it’s hard to pay that longevity, right? And that’s when the doctor we saw at Tractor was like, hey, what if, rather than challenge retail, what if we just went to food service? And that was just a totally different animal.

Category is important that we haven’t really talked too much about category, but your 3% is wild. You hear about all the unicorns like Olipop and some other big brands, and like billion-dollar valuations. They’re like, oh, this can’t be too hard. And then they enter the market, and they’re like, in reality, it’s…

It’s interesting because now you see so much protein products in the market, everything going functional. So a lot of it is… A lot of brands were under where lightning just struck, right? So it’s like Olipop and Poppy came out with, hey, what if there’s a modern soda that didn’t have the sugar content, but maybe had some prebiotic benefits to it? What if we shifted the way we thought about soda? And so they were kind of the first movers in the space, and then they kind of gave birth this whole functional beverage. We had cambootches at the time, we had hydration stuff, but now you see so many hydrations, so many protein, mental clarity, adaptogens, THC products. So it’s a fun area to experiment into, but it’s also the retail pressures are really tough.

Yeah, for sure. I want to just go back into some principles stuff, if I may. So you talk about building an ecosystem, content strategy, making it live. How do you do that? Have you got any kind of, I don’t know, like can you think back to TOMS or maybe what you do now? Like what are the sort of the building blocks that you walk through with a founder? Because you’re going to have to get investment, right? So when you’re talking to the founder or the CEO, you’re like, you’ve got all these great ideas, and they’re going to be like, I know the question they’re going to be asking, how much is this going to cost me, right? And what’s my ROI? Every dollar I spend with you, Justin, like I want to get two back, like how do you deal with justifying and giving them a plan, and how do you go around building that?

Yeah. So at TOMS, it was all instinct. It was just like, and also it was pre the mckenzie-fication of the brand world, right? So now what I do is with my brands, say we have to align business and brand objectives. We have to think of them as one thing, right? We have to think of what sentiment we’re trying to drive with the brand, how that’s going to impact the revenue, and how the revenue spend is going to impact the brand. So those have to be built in unison. What’s the brand goal? What’s the business goal? So if it’s to increase, show 35 percent growth here and the brand goal is to be the favorite X of whomever, then you start to create a plan around that. And what I do with my teams is I create three global strategies for the brand. So for instance, like at Tractor, it would be, let’s be in the first 15 percent movers of the whole food service category. So whether that’s health and hospital, hospitality, let’s attack the first 15 percent there. Let’s grow our existing accounts and then let’s double down on mission. And those are the three things that I do from a brand and business side and then the whole organization would align around it, right? So then KPIs are put forth by the Ops team and you say, okay Ops, what are you going to do to help drive adoption for the top 15%? How are you going to grow existing accounts? And then how are you going to double down on brand and business? So they might come back with some sustainability ideas or some ideas on how we can drive more efficiencies to drive probability. So it gets everyone basically operating on the same three strategies, this service, both brand and business. And that’s to me, that’s been the most effective way to align it. And then you can start to assign budgets and KPIs around that. But you’re like, globally, what we’re trying to do is hit, you know, 28% growth and grow our share of voice or share of attention by X. And then everyone’s kind of working in the same direction there.

I love that. Sounds like you’ve got, and forgive me if I’ve got this wrong, but you’ve got like commercial goals, right? And then you’ve lathered how the brand is going to help to fulfill those. And then you go out to the rest of the business to ladder into the brand and commercial goals. That is definitely the way to do it, I find. I often find myself fighting with executives to try and adopt such a model. It’s tricky, isn’t it? So, but the companies that you’ve worked in, they’re already on board with brand, or do you ever have to explain and persuade?

There’s some explain, like at TOMS there wasn’t, but at Tractor there wasn’t too much, but there always is that fight, right? Like what’s the long-term going to be? And also, there historically hasn’t been a really good way that I found to measure long-term brand growth and impact, right? Like you make a $10 investment here, like when will you see it? So I think for me, a lot of it, and this is probably something you do too, is like figuring out how to create common language between brand and business, right? Being able to show the finance team what long-term equity and build looks like, and then the things we need to invest in now. So like that’s a lot of my pursuit too, is I’ve even built tools to help drive clarity. So it’s like, hey, what are we aligning on and what are we investing in? And then how can we then measure those results? So much of it is, especially in the era of analytics, now even AI analytics, it’s like every input has to have some kind of return or some kind of measurement. And that to me, it’s like trying to write poetry in a spreadsheet. You know, it’s like you have to have some magic there, you know?

Yeah, I so agree with that. And it’s so tough. It’s almost like we’ve allowed the overlords of finance, which I’m not being naïve, right? Finance are important, right? But we’ve allowed them to become the dictators, right? But what they don’t do, this is my personal take anyway, is they’re not the ones that create the value, right? They’re the ones that count the beans after the value has been created, and they’re measuring and exploiting, if you like, what has been created. And then, right, we come along and we’re like, let’s try to create this new thing, and they’re like, they’ve sort of taken over, and they’ve said, right, justify everything. It’s like, well, no, hold on, you wouldn’t even be sat there if people like us hadn’t created something for you to sit there. But you’ve forgotten that, and the business has forgotten that because we’ve become entrenched in this way of thinking, which is very protecting, almost rear view mirror protecting, you justify your existence. It’s like, well, no, you justify your existence, right? You create new value in finance, and then we’re all listening to you. But that’s not going to happen, is it? But it’s almost like not on a par. It’s almost like we feel we have to persuade and defend our way into that conversation.

The age-old pursuit, right? And also, when finance, when you’re based on a quarter and you’re trying to hit that quarter, it just creates a pressure cooker. So I think I would encourage brands to think in 18-month to three-year terms for long-term objectives, and then make sure you’re not eroding your brand in the interim. You have to be building towards something great. It’s like, if you’re trying to build, say I’m a showrunner and I create a TV series, and I’m like, here’s the five-year arc of this thing, right? And then finance says, oh, that first episode was great, can you pack it all into one year then? It’s like, no, you’re not seeing the whole idea for this whole landscape we’re building, the world we’re going to build. So I think that being able to find financial partners that you can share common language with and common objectives, and then how you define those, it’s kind of the Rosetta Stone in your industry, right?

All right, so principles wise, we’ve talked about how you start to build that, you’ve talked about how you work with the founder, how you layer the objectives and how the brand kind of sits really just underneath the commercial objectives of the business in terms of driving it forward. I was going to kind of flip the script a little bit and talk about in terms of your advice to say early starting out brands in perhaps competitive market spaces, we’re talking about challenger brands, right? Like most people starting a business, they have an idea and they think they can challenge the establishment for some reason. What you’ve done in your career is exploded that beyond just a product. So how do people get themselves out of just, hey, I’ve got this great product, to really think about that ecosystem that you’ve been describing. That’s really tough to do, isn’t it?

It’s really tough to do, especially for founders who have the burden of driving the business forward. So I would say to founders, make sure you get a great creator partner that can really help you understand the rhythms and the possibility of the brand. Because I’m not a finance guy, I can manage the P&L stuff, but it’s like, you don’t want me running supply chain. What you want me doing is just unearthing the possibility of what a brand can be. Figure out what we can uniquely own and how to express it in the most powerful way possible. So with founders, if you’re creatively minded, make sure you get a really great operator. If you’re operationally minded, make sure you get a really great creator. So they can help you really expand the possibility of it. Because there’s a book called Rocket Fuel that talks about this idea where there’s visionary and there’s an integrator. This is the Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak dynamic. The idea that you have to have somebody who’s looking towards possibility, then someone who’s helping kind of distill that and then integrate it, right? So that to me is an important dynamic to explore. So the idea of vision and integration of vision.

Love that. Yeah. Peter Drucker says, I’m not going to quote him verbatim, but he says something along the lines of like, it’s almost impossible to live in the future, right? To have people that focus in the future vision and work in the operations of today, because the firefighting always takes over, right? So you almost like have to compartmentalize those two things, and I think that that makes a lot of sense to have two people in the business at a high level whose jobs are to do that, one to look forward and one to deal with the realities of today.

So go back to the real quick drop, the whole idea, another entertainment parallel, right? Great TV shows need a show runner, somebody who can hold the whole world in their head, they can orchestrate the team, they can manage to the budget, they can express the idea in a beautiful way, they can get the actors, they can coach the team, and then they have the studio that does all the financing and the marketing, etc. But I think businesses should look at this too, like who’s going to be your chief brand officer, your show runner? Who’s going to be the one that holds the idea of the brand and pulls it through to the consumer? I think as the chief marketing officers become the chief revenue officer, chief growth officer, there’s a vacancy on a lot of C-suites for chief brand officer, chief creative officer, chief culture officer, somebody that can help the ideas of the brand translate into culture and into the world at large.

Right, and challenge decision-making at the highest level that perhaps doesn’t sit within that framework, right?

Yeah.

That might be damaging or be very short-termism, and as you say, not grasp the overall concept and go against it almost and cannibalize it. So I wanted to ask you, at the start we talked about tension, right? When you were describing storytelling and stuff, you were talking about that tension. Does it challenge a brand? Obviously, I guess it’s challenging the status quo, but does it need an enemy and what kind of enemy would you pick?

So I think yes, and I think that the enemy could just be anything from boredom or sameness or something. So I think just being able to name what you’re against is important. So within this too, within tension, there’s something called cultural strategy, which you guys are probably familiar with, where Doug Cameron wrote this book about it, but it’s an examination of how iconic brands remain relevant. The way they do that is to own their ideology and then push against an existing cultural tension. So for us at Tractor, we launched a brand campaign and it was a 90-second animated spot. We’re telling the Tractor story in a way that was showing the consumer like, hey, we’re a new beverage is trying to exist in food service. But what we’re really doing is tapping into more the cultural tension, which is that there are corporations that are forcing their point of view on you, that you don’t really have choice in the matter, that there is always just things are binary, that you’re feeling that a lot within culture. So we used our ideology, which is a better food system and pushed against the idea of lack of choice, and created this campaign that felt bigger than a 90-second handmade spot, but it felt like a cultural truth. So I think for brands, knowing who they are ideologically and the belief system they’re operating under, but then being able to interject into culture, not co-opt it, but just say, hey, listen, people are scared of AI right now. Hey, listen, like the middle class is getting like man-to-town, like what cultural truths can we take from that? And then push it into something that’s really resonant. And I feel like that is the work that Nike used to do so beautifully, the Apple used to do really well, where it’s saying, hey, we’re going to be able to push against, whether it’s the Colin Kaepernick stuff or much other stuff, the cultural attention of the day to advance the idea of the athlete. So I think naming an enemy is important. And I also think being aware of the tension and culture that you can rightfully play in. So those are tremendously important, because a movie about a guy who lives a great life and walks through unscathed is super boring. So you have to be able to have somebody who’s fighting for something or believes in something and is challenged by something.

Right. So what was TOMS challenging, would you say, Justin, from the inside? What would you describe it as?

Blake, too, is very solidly that business could be used as a force for good. Right. So I think that we’re challenging that convention. When you think about it at the time, the history lesson for the younger viewers, there’s 2008, you had financial collapse, we saw institutions failing us. There was stuff happening with sweatshops and things like that. People were just really tired of the corporate creed, right? So that’s kind of the undercurrent of what’s happening. And then TOMS came along and said, hey, what if there’s a different way we do business, right? What if there was a way that we incorporated giving into it? And so it worked really well at the time because in society, you’re seeing institutional collapse, you’re seeing people lose their homes, you’re seeing greedy capitalism. And so that to me was, TOMS always stood for, let’s use business to do more good. And anything that we were working on was about helping businesses do more good. And so that’s, it wasn’t the one form business model. It wasn’t just about like helping underprivileged people. It was the idea that like, let’s build a new way of doing business.

Nice. And when a challenger brand becomes sort of more established, like TOMS has today, for example, how do you kind of keep that mentality going, I guess? Like, does the brand need to adapt much? I suppose if the big idea is big enough and the belief is strong enough, I guess it doesn’t necessarily need to. But, you know, what are your thoughts on adaptation over years?

I think adaptation and innovation are critical, right? Because like, if you look at, if Nike would have just came out with the same silhouette and been like, hey, we’re just going to push the waffle shoes forever, then that isn’t creating new ways to connect the consumers. So to me, I think it is heavy on product innovation, then also tapping into culture and the way that we talked about earlier, right? So even like at TOMS, I think that they probably, we had a bunch of new product lines, but I don’t, we were on such a trend cycle with and a fad with the early silhouette of the Alpurgata, there was hard to regain that heat. So like how do you manage that as an organization? So I think owning the ideology, giving stuff, giving consumers things to participate and be excited about, i.e. products, partnerships, et cetera, and then tapping in the cultural attention to make the brand constantly relevant is like the high level blueprint.

I love it. Okay, cool. So Jacob, I’m going to turn to you. Got any follow up questions for Justin before we get into our quick fire?

Well, I think relevance is something we’ve just touched on, and maybe we unpack relevance a little bit more, how to actually stay relevant. What are you actually doing to stay relevant? What are you looking into and how do you make decisions of what to do to be integrated into culture and so forth?

Yeah, I think it’s like you have to stay curious, you have to have people who can stay curious too. So I think it’s important to know who your core consumer is, who’s your tribe, and then making sure that you’re keeping a finger on the pulse. That means whether it’s agency partners or new hires, just making sure that people are brought in where they can keep the pulse on that. We built TOMS 16 years ago at this point. I probably am not the perfect person to be talking to 28-year-olds right now, like the way the world understands. So I think that it’s important to bring in new ideas, but maintain the same fundamentals.

Right. Do we have quick fire, Matt, or do we have another segment? Yeah.

Now, I think we should go straight into quick fire because we’re coming to the end of our time. We had tons more questions for you, Justin. I guess my first quick fire question is, when is the book coming out?

Oh, man. My mom keeps asking me the same question. It’s just like, do I write the Hollywood book? Do I write the purpose-driven book? Do I write the, I don’t know. So maybe you can give me some feedback on what book is needed. All right.

All right. Okay, next one. Favorite challenger brand right now.

I love brands that are messing with format. I love what Vacation is doing with their sunscreen. I love what Grazza did, which is totally disrupting an old stodgy category. People are remixing culture in that format. So those are brands that I immediately go to, is just the old stodgy brands and then just doing a funny flip on it.

Awesome.

Nice. Jacob.

A brand with brilliant purpose.

One that is an older brand that I really just discovered their story more recently is this brand, Yerba Madre, and what they do is they reforest rainforests. So they are a regenerative brand and they’ve been doing it for like 30 years working directly with indigenous peoples. They’ve done it in a way that has, their story isn’t told that often, but I’m really inspired by what they’ve done. And then from a product side, they’ve been able to just kind of own like this clean energy space. So for me, like they’re an OG brand that just hasn’t gotten the shine that they need to.

Most overrated idea in modern branding.

Oh man.

We just love to ask the easy ones, right?

Yeah. I mean, I think this, the whole with Claude and with AI and everything, the whole idea that everyone can be a brand builder or that like everybody’s a marketer is just, it’s so exhausting. You know, it’s just like, I’ll show up to a meeting and somebody will bring in a ChatGPT render of something. I’m like, oh boy. So I think that’s the most overrated. It’s a useful tool, but listen, I can give my son a hammer, but he can’t build a house, right?

There you go.

All right.

What’s one brand you wish you built?

Okay. So this is out of my category, but I love Buck Mason. I love the men’s program Buck Mason. US based, they were doing all, they just tried to make the perfect t-shirt and then the perfect jean. Then they expanded into just a really classic military-inspired men’s wear and they’ve done the brand right. They didn’t take on institutional capital. They can play nice in culture. They have a super elevated aesthetic and really comfy clothes that are really stylish. So for me, I’m not a men’s wear guy or I haven’t spent a lot of time in that, but that’s one I’m like, that would have been sick to make that.

All right. Sneaky little one here. Purpose or positioning?

Neither. I think belief.

I knew you were going to say that. I think belief.

Yeah.

That’s why I thought I’d like, see if I catch you out there, little sneaky one, Jacob.

What’s one lesson you’ll take from TOMS that you’ll carry forever?

So many lessons, but I think that the impact that belief systems and founders can have on not only the company but where everyone goes from there. If you look at TOMS, one of the lasting impacts is everyone that was there during that period, or a lot of them have gone on to do really interesting things that have impacted more industries. A lot of times when you’re thinking about building an organization, you’re sending kids to grad school. You’re saying like, hey, here’s the way we do business, here’s how we think about it, and they’re going to take that and they’re going to go to different industries. So for me, it’s about really creating alignment around the founder and then integrating that into all the quarters of the company.

All right. One piece of advice for somebody trying to build a brand people genuinely can care about.

Don’t try to make them care about it. Do what you love. Musicians, they say, write the album you want to listen to. If you’re trying to play a pen to tell the donkey and trying to be impressive to people, then you’re going to come across as fake, right? So it’s like you got to do something that you truly feel a need for, and then create the energy around that. Because otherwise, if you’re just trying to be impressive, then it comes across as disingenuous.

All right, mate. Where can people connect with you and learn more and discover your book?

I’m a forthcoming book. We’re going to co-write. Just find me on LinkedIn is probably the best. I’m just Justin Herber, and you can find me there. You just want to see me traveling with my family. You can find me on Instagram. But LinkedIn is probably the most selling place to meet me, and then I’ll eventually roll out the whole catalog of all the things I’ve built at some point online.

Amazing. Well, listen, thanks so much for taking the time to speak to us about this. Really, really appreciate it. Thanks, folks, for tuning in. Jacob and I would absolutely love it if you could leave us a little review and anything that you found helpful from what Justin’s shared. I know he would be appreciative as well to know that he’s had an impact. So drop us a note, give us five stars, of course, assuming, of course, you think it’s a five-star episode. And that’ll be wonderful. Thanks, everybody. Have a great rest of your days, and look forward to having you back again for the next episode of JUST Branding.

Why I Joined MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland, Plus £200 Off

Jacob Cass — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:20:20 +0000

Ever since Rory Sutherland joined us on the JUST Branding Podcast to discuss problem framing, I’ve been interested in joining MAD//Masters, his course on behavioural science, creativity, marketing strategy and unconventional problem solving.

Now that an on demand version is available, I’ve officially signed up.

If you’re considering joining too, I also have a MAD//Masters discount code that will save you £200. Use the BBA200 discount code when you enrol for Access All Areas.

But the discount is only part of the story. My main reason for joining is to challenge how I think and become a better brand builder.

I was immediately interested, but there was one practical issue holding me back.

The challenge of learning from Australia

The original MAD//Masters programme included live sessions, which were difficult to make work from Australia due to the time difference.

While the live element would have been valuable, committing to sessions at inconvenient hours was not particularly realistic. So, despite being interested in Rory Sutherland’s course, I held off.

That recently changed.

MAD//Masters has now introduced an on demand option at half the cost of the live programme. It does not include the live aspect, but it gives me the flexibility to work through the material in my own time.

For me, that was the perfect fit.

So, I’ve officially signed up.

Why I want to learn more about behavioural science

Behavioural science is relatively new territory for me, which is exactly why I want to study it.

Brand building is ultimately about people. It requires us to understand how people perceive value, make decisions, form preferences and choose one option over another.

Those decisions are rarely as rational as we like to believe.

As brand builders, we can easily become focused on strategy frameworks, positioning exercises, data and established processes. These tools are useful, but they can also lead us towards familiar answers.

Behavioural science offers another lens.

It can help us understand why people behave in ways that conventional logic does not always explain, and how perception, emotion, context and psychology shape the decisions they make.

I’m not taking the course because behavioural science is already my area of expertise. I’m taking it because it isn’t.

The point is to challenge my existing thinking, develop new ways to approach problems and become a better brand builder.

What is MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland?

MAD//Masters is a Rory Sutherland course designed to help marketers, founders, agency leaders and other commercial professionals apply behavioural science, creative thinking and experimentation to real business problems.

Rather than encouraging students to simply repeat conventional marketing theory, the programme focuses on how to think, ask better questions and consider less obvious solutions.

The course explores areas such as:

Understanding customer behaviour through a psychological lens
Reframing problems and considering unconventional solutions
Making better decisions using practical mental checklists
Taking calculated creative risks
Recognising the strengths and limitations of data
Using creativity, experimentation and behavioural science together
Challenging conventional marketing and business logic
Finding more distinctive ways to compete

The MAD//Masters course also examines concepts such as choice architecture, heuristics, loss aversion, social proof, reverse benchmarking and the relationship between perception and reality.

What appeals to me most is the focus on asking better questions.

Instead of simply optimising what already exists, Rory encourages you to step back, challenge the assumptions behind the problem and consider whether there is a more interesting way forward.

That feels especially relevant to branding. As Rory explained in our conversation about problem framing and creative brand thinking, the strongest solution is not always the most obvious or rational one.

Learning at my own pace

The new on demand format means I can work through MAD//Masters at my own pace without battling the time difference between the UK and Australia.

It also makes Rory Sutherland’s course more accessible for anyone interested in behavioural science and creative problem solving who cannot commit to scheduled live sessions.

The on demand option gives me the flexibility to study when it suits me, revisit useful ideas and consider how I can apply them to branding, strategy and client work.

I’m particularly interested in exploring how behavioural science can improve the way we:

Frame brand and business problems
Understand customer motivations
Communicate value
Make strategic decisions
Develop more distinctive ideas
Challenge assumptions within a brief
Create brands that connect with people emotionally

I’ll share more once I’ve worked through the course and had a chance to put the ideas into practice.

MAD//Masters Discount Code: Save £200 on Rory Sutherland’s Course

Looking for a MAD//Masters discount code? Use the BBA200 discount code to save £200 when you enrol in MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland.

This Rory Sutherland course explores behavioural science, creative problem solving, marketing strategy and customer behaviour. It is designed for marketers, founders, agency professionals and business leaders who want to challenge conventional thinking and make better decisions.

As a MAD//Masters partner, I can offer you an additional £200 off All Access Areas with the MAD//Masters coupon code BBA200.

Explore MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland and save £200 with code BBA200

Start with our Rory Sutherland podcast episode

If you want a taste of Rory’s thinking before considering the course, listen to our JUST Branding Podcast episode, Problem Framing: Rewire How You Think, Create and Lead.

In the episode, Rory explains how changing the way we define a problem can reveal creative opportunities that conventional thinking misses.

We discuss behavioural science, emotional decision making, creativity, brand strategy and why reframing a bad brief can produce much better answers.

I’m looking forward to getting started, exploring a field that is relatively new to me and bringing what I learn back into my work as a brand builder.

If you have already completed MAD//Masters, I’d love to hear what you thought.

MAD//Masters FAQs

Is there a MAD//Masters discount code?

Yes. Use the MAD//Masters coupon code BBA200 at checkout to receive £200 off your enrolment.

What is MAD//Masters by Rory Sutherland?

MAD//Masters is a course exploring behavioural science, creativity, marketing, customer behaviour and unconventional approaches to solving business problems.

Is MAD//Masters available on demand?

Yes. An on demand version is available for people who prefer to complete the course at their own pace without attending the live sessions.

Who is the MAD//Masters course for?

The course is designed for marketers, founders, agency professionals, commercial leaders and anyone interested in behavioural science, creativity and better business problem solving.

Time to get started

I’m looking forward to exploring a field that is relatively new to me and bringing what I learn back into my work as a brand builder.

It is easy to keep refining the skills and frameworks we already know. Sometimes the better investment is to explore a new discipline that challenges how we think.

That is what I hope MAD//Masters will do.

If you have already completed the programme, I’d love to hear what you thought.

50+ Classic & Elegant Serif Fonts for Classy Designs (2026)

Jacob Cass — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:20:36 +0000

Are you on the lookout for all of the best classic & elegant serif fonts? Or perhaps classy fonts that convey an elegant look? If you are, then you’re in the right place!

Choosing a font for a project isn’t always an easy task but this list of professional classic and elegant serif fonts will make the task a little easier.

When it comes to typography, the beauty is in how well it expresses your voice. Serif fonts have a lot to offer in terms of simplicity and elegance.

These fonts always add flair to your typography, really helping it stand out. If you’re working on a logo or branding project, be sure to check our post on the best serif fonts for logos.

But before you dive in, you may want to consider this incredible offer below.

Top 10 Classy Fonts for Classic & Elegant Designs

If you’re looking for something classy, classic, and elegant, see our list of the best classy fonts below.

Classy fonts usually come in different shapes and forms, but one giveaway for an elegant typeface is its tasteful curves and luxurious swashes.

Let’s go over the top picks in this category, to better give you a glimpse of what bundles you can use for your Class A-targeting projects!

For the complete list, scroll on!

Also see our features on the best regal fonts, and the best luxury fonts.

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 50 Million+ Fonts & Design Assets

Download all the Elegant Serif Fonts you need and many other design elements, available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs $16.50 per month and gives you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of over 50 million items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!

Classy Fonts for Classic & Elegant Designs

1. JUST Serif® – Modern Editorial Serif Font

JUST Serif® brings classic elegance into a contemporary setting. Its high contrast letterforms, sculpted terminals and warm humanist curves give logos, headlines and brand identities a refined presence without making them feel cold or overly formal.

The family includes seven weights from Extra Light to Extra Bold, plus a variable font for precise creative control. With more than 400 characters and support for 200+ languages, JUST Serif® is a versatile choice for luxury branding, packaging, editorial design, websites, posters and international visual identities.

It also pairs naturally with JUST Sans, allowing designers to combine expressive display typography with clear, practical supporting copy.

Download Now

2 Giveny – Classy Serif Font

As if designed specifically for magazines and publication headlines, Giveny does a tremendous job of looking stunning in simplicity. This all-uppercase font bundle is arguably one of the fiercer-looking picks from the bunch but equally as classy and sophisticated.

Download Now

3. Pierson An Essential Serif Typeface

A classy serif font never goes out of style, and Pierson is proof of that. Complete with a ton of styles and variations, you’re free to pick both thick and slender versions of the font.

Classy, pretty, legible, and light on the eyes—what’s not to like?

Download Now

4. Gadhen – Classy Fonts

Anyone who says funky display fonts can’t be classy hasn’t seen Gadhen – Classy Fonts yet. Great for both small texts and large signages, this trendy headline font is as crisp and sophisticated as it gets.

Download Now

5. TAN Aegean

TAN Aegean is an elegant typeface that makes clever use of swashes. Great for branding designs, marketing projects, and headlines, this classic favorite is a best seller for obvious reasons.

Download Now

6. Megante – Classy Font

Megante‘s chic overall shape and its striking combination of thick and slender make it a standout. Suitable for branding and marketing efforts, this bundle comes with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, basic punctuation marks, and TTF, OTF, and WOFF formats.

Download Now

7. Holland Classy Font

Nothing says elegant the way a signature font does. So if this is the aesthetic you’re gunning for, try Holland Classy Font. Loaded with both uppercase and lowercase letters, this bundle also comes with basic punctuation marks, multi-lingual support, and numbers.

Download Now

8. MABOZ Classy Advertisement Font

Designed specifically for eye-popping billboards and advertisements, MABOZ does a swell job of immediately capturing one’s attention. Mixing thick and slender and packing odd-shaped holes inside a few characters, this classy font bundle is a standout for reasons that don’t require elaboration.

Download Now

9. Ahayo – Classy Elegant Font

Another expensive-looking sans serif on the list is Ahayo. Combining thick structures with slender lines, this pick feels straight out of a premium product’s logo. Featuring only uppercase letters, this bundle makes for a spectacular option for headlines and branding projects.

Download Now

10. Bastine Modern Classy Serif Font

Bastine is a contemporary, sophisticated serif font that features a plethora of unique alternative glyphs and ligatures created using unique style, regular, and outline. Perfect for magazines, branding projects, advertising materials, and headlines, there are plenty of things you can create with this one.

Download Now

11. Amoore – A Classy Handdrawn

Are hand-drawn fonts more of your thing? If so, you’re going to enjoy making designs with Amoore, a classy hand-drawn font. Loaded with all uppercase letters, punctuation marks, and numbers, this font bundle makes for a fantastic headline.

Download Now

12. Valky

Valky is a classy modern typeface that features occasionally exaggerated swashes and a combination of thick and thin structures. Suitable for branding logos and other similar projects, this striking pick is one of the more visually memorable options here.

Download Now

13. TAN – ALASTAIRE

Working on a book cover? You might want to use TAN – ALASTAIRE. Complete with both uppercase and lowercase letters, this display script is perfect for a variety of designs and illustrations.

Download Now

14. Rutch Display Font

Rutch is a funky-looking display font that’s both trendy and elegant. Legible enough to be light on the eyes and distinct enough to stand out, this all-uppercase wavy contender is a visual feast for plenty of reasons.

Download Now

15. Frankfute Classy Font

Frankfute is ideal for stunning titles and logos. Featuring numbers, symbols, and both uppercase and lowercase letters, this pick here is equally distinct from previous contenders. Here, all of the fonts, including web fonts, are included, as are OTF and TTF files.

Download Now

16. Bon Vivant Family

Bon Vivant is a font duo that features script and serif fonts. Designed primarily for elegant branding efforts, this upscale-feeling font bundle is great for premium products and experiences.

Download Now

17. The Chatalestick – Classy Font Duo

Another classy font duo you might like is The Chatalestick, a strong condensed sans serif and a classy script font. It’s perfect for a lot of design projects, too, although you’ll want to note only the script option has small letters.

Download Now

18. Blessing – Classy Handlettered Font

If you’re looking for a hand-lettered font, then Blessing may be just that—a blessing. As if written with a marker, this pick feels authentic, warm, and familiar.

Download Now

19. Eugusto Display Typeface

Another sans serif stunner in the bunch is Eugusto Display Typeface. Featuring 3 styles and over 350 glyphs, this bundle is beyond complete. If you’re looking for a fun mix of playful and elegant, this soft-edged font pack is a strong contender.

Download Now

20. Rossanova

Does your project call for a cute and trendy but classy typeface? Then Rossanova might just be the solution for that. Featuring soft and rounded edges, this thick-structured font bundle is suitable for plenty of designs.

Download Now

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 50 Million+ Fonts & Design Assets

Download all the Classy Fonts you need and many other design elements, available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs $16.50 per month and gives you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of over 50 million items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock effect & element packs too)!

28+ Classic & Elegant Serif Fonts

Here is an overview of 12 of the best classic serif fonts but for more, scroll on. We feature classy serif fonts, luxury serif fonts, and premium serif fonts.

You’ll find fresh picks as well as tried and true old serif fonts. Now let’s dive in!

Nimbus Roman No 9

URW Antiqua

Baskerville Font

Sabon Font

Arno Pro Font

Palatino Font

Centaur Font

ITC Bookman Light

Times Font

Minion Font

ITC Garamond Font

Baskerville No. 2

1. Nimbus Roman No 9

Nimbus Roman No 9, Image source: MyFonts

The Nimbus Roman No 9 is a classy and elegant font that can work well for more sophisticated projects. Created by URW Studio in 1987, it looks very similar to the Times New Roman font and generally carries the same overall tone. This is a true classic serif font.

Download Now

2. ITC Garamond Light

ITC Garamond. Image credit: MyFonts

Created by Tony Stan in 1975, ITC Garamond Light has ITC’s signature house style. Much like most serif fonts, it works for serious and elegant messaging. As the name conveys, Claude Garamond’s typography work inspired this font.

Download Now

3. Minion

Minion. Image credit: MyFonts

Minion was created in 1990 by Adobe Systems inspired by the late-renaissance era. Designed by Robert Slimbach, it’s intended for body text, keeping legibility uppermost in mind. Minion is a balanced and clean font that can be great when used to convey more serious messaging.

Download Now

4. URW Antiqua

URW Antiqua. Image credit: MyFonts

URW Antiqua was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1985, alongside URW Grotesk — a sans serif font that goes well with it. The font by itself is great for conveying more elegant themes.

Download Now

5. Times

Times, Image credit: MyFonts

The Times font is from the same font family as the more popular Times New Roman font. This font is great for conveying a serious and academic voice. There are several variations of this font available, but the Times font is in a class all its own.

Download Now

6. Baskerville

Baskerville. Image credit: MyFonts

Baskerville, a typeface created by John Baskerville in the 1750s, and characterized by its more circular strokes, is used often for marketing messaging. Popularized presently by Microsoft, this font, like most serif fonts, is sophisticated and bold.

Download Now

7. Baskerville No. 2

Baskerville No 2. Image credit: MyFonts

Created by the URW Design Staff in 1980, the above typeface served as the inspiration for this font. Characterized by its thin, more circular, and sophisticated strokes, the Baskerville No. 2 is an iteration of the popular Baskerville font. This is a true luxury serif font.

Download Now

8. Mrs Eaves

Mrs Eaves. Image credit: MyFonts

Mrs Eaves is a font designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996. It’s a transitional serif typeface that is used in display contexts such as book descriptions and titles. This font can convey elegant and fanciful messaging and titles.

Download Now

9. Cheltenham Old Style No 2

Cheltenham Old Style No 2. Image credit: MyFonts

URW Type Foundry produced the Cheltenham Old Style No 2. For body copy in books and magazines, this typeface works beautifully. It is based on the Cheltenham font that architects Bertram Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball created in 1896 for the Cheltenham press. This font has a strong, memorable style.

Download Now

10. Cushing Std-Book

ITC Cushing Book. Image credit: MyFonts

The Cushing Std-Book typeface was created by Vincent Pacella and is trademarked by the International Typeface Corporation. This is yet another great typeface for presswork and body copy that keeps things interesting and elegant.

Download Now

11. Aldine 721

Aldine 721. Image credit: MyFonts

Originally designed by the font designer Frank Hinman Pierpont, this font was later adapted for digital printing and use by Bitstream. Aldine 721 is great for legibility and sophisticated overtones.

Download Now

12. Plantin Std

Plantin. Image credit: MyFonts

Named after the 16th Century printer Christophe Plantin, this typeface was the predecessor to the Times New Roman — and was the basis for this typeface. Plantain Std is a modern-day variation of this font. The font is great for magazine text and anything that requires substance and class. This is a true timeless serif font.

Download Now

13. Sabon

Sabon. Image credit: MyFonts

Originally designed by German-born designer Jan Tschichold, this old-style serif font was later digitized by Linotype. Sabon is a slender and legible typeface that is great for book covers, poetry, quotes, and even posters. Like most serif fonts, it conveys an overall sophisticated feel.

Download Now

14. Arno Pro

Arno. Image credit: MyFonts

Arno Pro is a serif font created by Robert Slimbach from Adobe Type for professional use. Heavily inspired by Italian renaissance texts, this font is great for book design, even earning a winning entry in the 2007 Type Design Competition.

Download Now

15. Palatino

Palatino. Image credit: MyFonts

This old-type serif font was created by Hermann Zapf in 1949 and later published by Linotype. Palatino was later licensed to Adobe and Apple, which made it a pre-installed font, increasing the popularity of this elegant typeface. This font family has 20 styles and family package options. This is a very formal serif font, and a top funeral font choice too.

Download Now

16. Centaur MT Std

Centaur. Image credit: MyFonts

This serif typeface was created by Bruce Rogers and later released in 1929. Also known as Metropolitan, this font variation was digitized and licensed by Linotype. Inspired by renaissance printing in the 1470s, Centaur MT Std conveys a scholarly tone.

Download Now

17. Bookman Light

ITC Bookman Light. Image credit: MyFonts

This old-style serif font was inspired by Bookman Old Style that was created in the 1860s. It rose in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s for its legible and classy characteristics. Bookman Light can give an impression of reliability without the heaviness.

Download Now

18. Perpetua Std

Perpetua. Image credit: MyFonts

The Perpetua font was designed by Eric Gill in the 1920s. This font was published by Monotype and comes with 22 styles in this package. Perpetua has a delicate and crisp font structure and is very similar to 18th-century British fonts like Baskerville.

Download Now

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 50 Million+ Fonts & Design Assets

All the Fonts you need and many other design elements are available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs $16.50 per month and gives you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of 50 million items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!

19. New Century Schoolbook Roman

New Century Schoolbook. Image credit: MyFonts

New Century Schoolbook Roman was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1919. The transitional serif typeface was created to improve textbook readability (from where it derives its name). Later published by Linotype, this font retains its sophisticated and informative aesthetic.

Download Now

20. Berthold Baskerville Book Regular

Berthold Baskerville Book Regular. Image credit: MyFonts

Berthold Baskerville is a reinterpretation of the classic Baskerville typeface from Berthold Type Foundry in the 1800s along with several other font variations. Most of the Baskerville typeface’s original features are still present in this font. The typeface is bolder and has sharper lines, which is one of the most obvious differences.

Download Now

21. Scala Pro-Regular

Scala Pro, Image credit: MyFonts

Created by Martin Majoor in 1991, this font is an old-type serif, published by the FontFont Foundry. This font has an emphasis on clarity and is also very calligraphic in italics. Generally, it conveys a clear and crisp overall tone.

Download Now

22. Garamond Premier

Garamond Premier. Image credit: MyFonts

This font was created by Robert Slimbach for Adobe and is described as a more restrained and modernized approach to the classic Garamond font. Garamond fonts were re-envisioned by Slimbach to meet the business requirements of the time. Garamond Premier has a sophisticated, minimalistic appearance.

Download Now

23. Bembo

Bembo. Image credit: MyFonts

Created by Monotype, this font is based on one used by the Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius. Bembo is an old-type serif font that rose in popularity because of its overall sleek look and its ability to remain consistent in color. This font has an elegant and clean aesthetic.

Download Now

24. Times New Roman MTStd

Times New Roman MT. Image credit: MyFonts

Times New Roman by Monotype was designed by Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent. To date, this font is for many the golden standard for academic writing and the publishing of important information. The font is bold, legible, and leaves an official impression.

Download Now

25. Caslon

Caslon. Image credits: MyFonts

Adobe Caslon was created by Carol Twombly and William Caslon for Adobe. This font was inspired by the Caslon font, designed by William Caslon in the 1600s. This old-type serif font looks sophisticated and has an overall clean look.

Download Now

26. Bodoni

Bodoni. Image credit: MyFonts

The Bodoni typeface is based on similar ones created in the 1800s by Giambattista Bodoni. Many of Bodoni’s fonts draw inspiration from the same design movement as Robert Baskerville. As a result, there is a slight similarity to the Baskerville typeface. The font’s exquisite appearance is enhanced by using alternate thin and broad strokes.

Download Now

27. Goudy 38

Goudy 38. Image credit: MyFonts

Goudy 38 is a typeface by Red Rooster Collection based on Goudy Old Style. Goudy Old Style was particularly famous in advertising circles for its overall boldness and eligibility. The Goudy 38 retains this quality and adds a slightly whimsical touch to it.

Download Now

28. Goudy Trajan Pro

Goudy Trajan Pro. Image credits: My Fonts

Goudy Trajan Pro is “Fonts favored by Hollywood movies” by Frederic W. Goudy and Jason Castle. This font comes in three different styles and is similar to the Gowdy 38. If you want to give your project something different and unique, then go for this serif font.

Download Now

Frequently Asked Questions

How To Tell If A Font Is Serif Or Sans Serif?

Sans-serif font strokes lack decorative strokes, while serif font strokes feature decorative strokes.

What Do Serif Fonts Convey?

Serif typeface fascinates readers and inspires confidence in the truthfulness of all claims made in blogs and other projects.

List out Most Popular Serif Fonts?

The most widely used serif typefaces are Didot, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond.

More Typography & Font Resources:

Classy, Classic & Elegant Professional Fonts Summary

A classic serif font is perfect for creating any project or document where you can expect readers will read it because it accentuates the ends of strokes. Serifs are not merely decorative, though, they add a touch of class and elegance to the design.

Have you got a favorite classic serif typeface or classy font was missed in this list? Let us know in the comments below.

20+ Best Serif Fonts for Clean & Elegant Logo Design

Jacob Cass — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:55 +0000

Are you looking for the best serif fonts? If you are, then we’ve got you covered!

For many designers, when it comes to designing a clean and elegant logo for a company, using a Serif font in their designs helps to add a little bit of flair, class & sophistication to the brand.

A serif font is easily identified by the “little feet” that appear at the ends of the letters being used. Searching for Serif fonts can lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole with all of the options there are to choose from.

To offer a bit of help, we wanted to focus on ten of our favorite Serif fonts you can use when branding or designing a logo with a clean and sophisticated look.

Now, you may have your own favorite Serif font and it may or may not appear on our list, but we recommend taking a closer look at the options presented here, some of which are revivals of the classics, ensuring your logo has a unique character to it.

Who knows, you may find a new font that you end up using for years to come.

See here for the best sans-serif fonts for clean & minimal logo design as well as the top fonts professionals use.

10+ Best Serif Fonts for Beautiful Logo Design & Branding

For the full list, scroll on.

Also see Best Modern Serif Fonts and Best Round Serif Fonts

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 50 Million+ Fonts & Design Assets

Download all the Serif Fonts you need and many other design elements, available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs $16.50 per month and gives you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of over 50 million items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!

20+ Best Serif Fonts for Modern, Stylish & Beautiful Designs

Below we list the most beautiful serif fonts and aesthetic serif fonts so you can the best serif font for your needs!

We feature modern serif fonts, bold serif fonts, and popular serif fonts so you have a wide range to choose from.

1. JUST Serif®

JUST Serif® is a contemporary high contrast serif typeface that combines editorial elegance with warmth and distinctive character. Its sculpted terminals, friendly curves and confident capitals make it especially effective for clean logos, luxury branding and memorable visual identities.

The family includes seven weights from Extra Light to Extra Bold, along with a variable font for greater control. With 400+ characters and support for 200+ languages, JUST Serif® is equally suited to packaging, posters, websites, magazines and international brand systems.

Designed as a companion to JUST Sans, it can be paired with a clean sans serif for supporting copy while JUST Serif handles expressive headlines, wordmarks and display typography.

Download Now

2. Hermann

Hermann. Image credits: Hermann/myfonts

Designed in 2018 by Diego Aravena and Salvador Rodriguez, the Hermann font family is one of the design teams’ most readable fonts available so far. Looking at the works of Herman Hesse and Aldous Huxley for inspiration, the team found the concepts of duality, surrealism, and wildness frequently appeared, fueling the design process.

Designed to not only be an accurate font when it comes to legibility but can also present a feeling of being wild and bold. Available in ten different variations including italic and bold, the Hermann font is inspired by the novels of the 20th century and their worlds, taking its name from one of the most prolific authors of that era.

Download Now

3. Recoleta

Recoleta. Image credits: Recoleta/myfonts

Like a melting pot, Recoleta combines many different aspects from fonts of the past to create something new, fresh, and with a modern flavor. By taking the soft and gentle shapes found in the Cooper font and the fluid angled strokes in Windsor, designer Jorge Cisterna has blended together a beautiful and familiar font that looks amazing in a logo or on a business card, giving them a look that’s unique

Available in a variety of weights, this font gives you the options you need to choose the best typographic color for whatever project you’re working on. While body text works well with a lighter weight, if you’re writing headlines, heavier weights are ideal.

The Recoleta font can make any design stand out like in the Waves to Wilderness logo.

Download Now

4. Blacker

Blacker. Image credits: Blacker/myfonts

A wedge serif type font, Blacker was designed to be a take on the “evil serif” typeface genre. The high contrast, sharp wedge serif design was created by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli who were looking to evoke the proportions of fonts used in the 1970s.

Using the Latin alphabet, Blacker features an extended character set that covers more than seventy languages, including Russian Cyrillic. Small caps, fractions, alternate forms, four sets of figures, as well as superior and inferior figures, and discretionary ligatures are all features of the Blacker font family.

Download Now

5. ITC Lubalin Graph

ITC Lubalin Graph. Image credits: Lubalin/myfonts

While it is technically a slab-serif font, the ITC Lubalin Graph font helps convey a no-nonsense look, that while strong, can be perfect for a modern design, especially with lighter weights.

ITC Lubalin Graph is a 1974 design that is based on an earlier sans serif font that was designed by Herb Lubalin, ITC Avant Garde. The character shapes may be identical between the two designs although Lubalin Graph adds a slab serif feature.

Designed to look good in applications from headlines to packaging, this is an extremely versatile font family.

Download Now

6. Linotype Didot

Linotype Didot. Image credits: Linotype Didot/myfonts

Designed by Adrian Frutiger, the Linotype Didot font pays respect and tribute to one of the most important print shops and font foundries in France during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Didot family were active designers as well as printers, typeface designers, inventors, intellectuals as well as publishers during this era.

Frutiger’s Linotype Didot design is a sensitive interpretation of the French Modern Face Didot font and gives any text you use, a classic and elegant feel and at the same time paying respect to the original Didot family.

A truly stylish serif font, perfect for logo design, branding and fashion.

Download Now

7. Begum

Begum. Image credits: Begum/myfonts

Begum. Image credits: Begum/MyFonts

A Latin display serif typeface with contrast, the Begum font family has an ultra-contemporary appearance and shares DNA with other Anglo-Dutch font types such as Caslon, Fleischmann, or Times, with a slightly exotic feel.

Designed by Manushi Parikh, the Begum font truly shines when used with texts of a shorter length, article introductions that are multiple lines, and even on packaging.

Download Now

8. ITC Caslon No. 224

ITC Caslon No. 224. Image credits: Caslon/myfonts

Designed in 1983 for the International Typeface Corporation by Ed Benguiat, ITC Caslon 224 was designed to be a modern-day interpretation of the Caslon typeface.

With eight font weights ranging from Standard to Standard Black Italic, ITC Caslon 224 has a large x-height, a very high contrast between thin and thick strokes, and also provides transitions between the different weights smoothly.

Download Now

9. Sabon

Sabon. Image credits: Sabon/Myfonts

Sabon. Image credits: Sabon/myfonts

In the 1960s, a new typeface was requested by the German Master Printers’ Association to be designed and produced identically on both Linotype and Monotype machines in order for both the text and technical composition would match. Jan Tschichold was commissioned to use Claude Garamond’s classical and serene Roman font and design a new version.

Sabon succeeds although its bold and italic styles are limited by Linotype casting machine requirements. This forces the character widths to match between different styles and also gives the italic typeface its characteristic narrow f.

Download Now

10. Bookmania

Bookmania. Image credits: Bookmania/MyFonts

With 10 styles, 658 swashes, and a multitude of expert features, Bookmania is a font that any logo design can benefit from.

Designed by Mark Simonson in 2011, the Bookmania font type has all of the features that you may expect to appear when using a modern digital font family. As a revival of the Bookman Oldstyle, designed in 1901, and the Bookman font family from the 1960s, the Bookmania font family has the features that you need to make your logo design excel.

Download Now

11. Gabriela Stencil

Gabriela Stencil. Image credits: Gabriela Stencil/Envato elements

Designed by Antonio Mejia in 2016, Gabriela Stencil has a unique character while being part of a classic font family. Well-suited for headlines & fancy logos, the font emphasizes the modern and elegant personality that the font features and has been inspired by the style found with the Didone typefaces from the 19th century.

Also ideal for branding, short text, and publishing projects, Gabriela Stencil is a highly readable font with an x-height sized at 50% of the cap height, along with short ascenders and descenders. Available in six styles, the font family contains a 433-character set that supports over 200 different languages.

Download Now

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 400,000+ Fonts & Design Assets

All the Serif Fonts you need and many other design elements are available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs ~$16.50 per month and give you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of 400,000+ items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!

12. Bridesmaid

Bridesmaid. Image Credits: Envato Elements

Bridesmaid font is a new product and is also named Britain Rough Serif Font. This font is suitable for fun-themed, and classic vintage-themed projects. This font is also suitable for posters, apparel, badge, labels, and emblems.

Download Now

13. Montage Serif Font

Montage serif font. Image credits: Design Cuts

The Montage Serif font works best with Cricut, Silhouette, Photoshops, Illustrator, Procreate, InDesign, and Canva Pro. This font looks subtle and elegant, so it works for clean and classy logos, titles, and headlines.

Download Now

14. Sundays Modern Serif Font

Sundays Modern Serif font. Image credits: Design Cuts

The Sundays Modern Serif Font draws inspiration from fonts like Baskerville. This font has a modern and classic touch that you can use for magazines, catalogs, mastheads, logos, and headers. This font features subtle curves and minimal serifs, which gives the font an elegant look.

Download Now

15. Hughe Serif Font Family

Hughe Serif Font Family. Image credits: Envato Elements

The Hughe Serif Font is a classy-looking font. This serif font is ideal for logos, posters, brochures, presentations, quotes, invitations, movie titles, magazines, book covers, branding, Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving cards, packaging design, and many more creative projects.

This font features four styles such as regular, light, round, soft, and bold. This serif font contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters. The Hughe Serif font family has OTF and TTF file formats. This serif font also supports multilingual characters.

Download Now

16. Floreal Serif Font

Floreal Serif Font. Image credits: Floreal/Designcuts

Floreal is a sophisticated, modern, and fancy serif font with a hint of fashion. For websites, magazines, business cards, logos, tags, or any other broadcasting objectives, floral produces the greatest results.

Regular and true italic are the two fonts available in floral. It has elements like ligatures that help elevate and distinguish your project. This typeface has strong typographic legibility and has a good range for those with dyslexia.

Download Now

17. Ferly Serif Font

Ferly Serif Font. Image credits: Ferly/Designcuts

Ferly is a magnificent, delicate font with multilingual support. A very adaptable font, Ferly produces the best results in both large and small sizes. The ideal applications for this font include magazine headings, advertising campaigns, home décor designs, product packaging, and adding attractive text to any backdrop image.

Ferly offers the finest results for promoting expensive and ostentatious goods like jewelry, diamonds, etc. The uppercase, punctuation, symbol, and number features of Ferly are available.

Download Now

Our Favorite Serif Fonts

Still undecided? Below we’ve hand-selected our favorite 12 serif fonts from the list.

Sabon®

Sundays Modern Serif font

Montage Serif font

Artifex Hand

Addington CF | beautiful serif font family

Bridesmaid

Blacker Pro

Hughe Serif Font Family

Gabriela Stencil

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a serif font?

Serif fonts are classic, elegant fonts popularized by their use in mainstream media. Serif fonts are characterized by their sleek, thin lines paired with broad strokes and endings that have a flair at the tips. Due to the common use of these fonts, they’ve acquired an impression of elegance and trustworthiness in the branding world.

What is the best serif font overall?

Hermann is the best serif font overall. Unlike the usual standard serif fonts, Hermann is a font that is dynamic and has a flair to it.

What are the most popular serif fonts?

Caslon and Sabon are the most popular serif fonts on this list. However, in the design world, Bodoni, Times New Roman and Baskerville are the most well known fonts.

What are some of the good modern serif fonts for branding?

Begum and Didot are two modern serif fonts that look elegant when added to in designs. When working on Logo design, making sure everything looks clean and sleek is pivotal and these two modern serif fonts do just that.

What is the best stencil serif font?

Gabriela Stencil is the best stencil serif font to use for clean logo design.

What is the difference between a traditional font and a contemporary font?

While traditional serif fonts are classy yet stiff, contemporary fonts are more adventurous. For example, Sabon, although an elegant traditional font, is less dynamic when compared to a font like Hermann.

What should I do when using Serif font?

The following are ideal actions you can follow while using serif fonts:

It's a classic move to use serif fonts with sans serif. For example, you can pair serif headings with sans serif for body content in digital environments.
Establishing a clear hierarchy is vital in printing materials. Prefer serif fonts for all your branded printing materials.
Logo creates an identity for your brand. Having a professional yet attractive logo for your business is mandatory and you may use serif fonts to achieve this goal.

What Shouldn’t I do when using Serif font?

It's also important to know what not to do when using serif fonts for your logo design.

When going for long-form content, it’s best to avoid serif fonts.
Serif fonts give you a clean and elegant look, so if you want a modern and futuristic logo, then you must avoid using Serif fonts.

What does a Serif font say about your brand?

Serif fonts best suit companies who want their brand to look serious, established, and reputable. The distinctive characteristics of serif fonts give the viewers a feeling of trustworthiness, confidence, and elegance.

Can I use only one Serif font for overall designs?

You can prefer a serif font that has different weights and styles, such as thin, light, thick, bold, semi-bold, extra bold, etc. These variations make your design versatile and convey different messages.

Best Serif Fonts for Clean & Modern Logo Design Summary

Using a clean and stylish serif font in your logo design not only makes it sophisticated but can also add a bit of exciting flair to your design.

There are so many different, well-designed serif fonts that are available for any graphic designer to use.

We hope that our list of the ‘best professional serif fonts for logo design’ can provide you with some options you might not have considered before and inspires you.

More Top Font Compilations

Do you have a favorite serif font that you use in your logo designs?

Let us know in the comments below.

Infographic: What your Logo’s Font Says About Your Brand

Thanks to Brand Marketing Blog for the below infographic.

Don’t forget to save the blog for later, pin the image below!

14+ Best Free Logo Makers Online in 2026

Jacob Cass — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:18 +0000

Looking for the best free logo maker? Here’s our top pick right off the bat!

Our Top Pick

Looka Logo Maker

4.7

FREE

Our top pick goes to Looka as it's a powerful free logo maker (and brand builder) with a fun and user-friendly design. All it took for us to create a logo was a few clicks and five minutes! We customized a logo we loved and then Looka built out the rest of the brand! A truly seamless brand-building process we can't recommend more highly!

Pros:

Incredibly easy to use
Offers more than just logos

Cons:

Full Brand-Kit offering is a paid add-on.

Coupon: Get 10% off Brand-Kit with coupon code ‘JUST10’.

Try Looka Today Read Our Review

The logo of your brand represents more than just a name. It delivers a seal of trust, puts your mission and vision forward, and forms a connection with your audience.

The more memorable your logo, the better it will be at striking a chord with your customers and keeping your brand fresh in their minds.

But designing a logo or getting it designed by a professional artist can be costly (see our guide to logo design costs here) so perhaps that is why you are looking for the free and best logo makers online.

If you are on a tight budget or run a small website/business, then investing money in your brand logo might not fit into your initial plans. But don’t forget that your brand’s visual identity is important as well.

So what to do?

Well, the internet is full of surprises. You can do some searching, and find the right links, just like this one. There are loads of online logo design software for creating logos with no design/coding knowledge.

To help, we have personally reviewed the best free logo makers and generators that will help you design an engaging logo that sends the right message about your brand.

Without downloading/installing, or learning graphic design, let’s get right into the top free logo-making online tools.

But before you choose a free logo maker tool, make sure you read our warnings below if you are serious about your brand and its impact.

As designers ourselves, we don’t recommend free logo makers but instead, recommend hiring a professional because a well-designed brand is going to yield much better results than stock logos could ever do.

Also, see our blog on the dos and don’ts of logo design.

What is the Best Free Logo Maker?

As it is the most versatile & easiest to use, we consider Looka Logo Maker to be the best free logo maker. See our consolidated list of other great free logo makers.

Looka Logo Maker — Great for beginners / non-designers (Editor’s Choice) – Get 10% off below
Tailor Brands — The best all-in-one logo maker and business launcher (Editor’s Choice)
Adobe Creative Cloud Express Logo Maker — One of the best free logo makers overall
Canva Logo Generator — The best logo generator for customizable logos + brand templates
Logo Difussion — The best AI logo generator
LogoMakr — The best logo maker to create commercial logos & websites
Shopify Free Logo Maker (Hatchful) — The best logo maker for e-commerce business
MarkMaker — Best for modern logos
Squarespace Free Logo Generator — The best instant logo generator
NameCheap Logo Design Tool — The best logo design tool for entrepreneurs
Ucraft Logo Maker — The best logo maker with a vector editor
Zyro Free Logo Maker — The best logo maker to create simple designs
Fiverr Online Free Logo Maker — The best professional logo maker
DesignEvo Free Logo Maker — The best logo maker to create stunning logos

If you know the basics of graphic designing and want to make the logo from scratch on your own you can have a look at the list of graphic design software you can use.

As professional logo designers ourselves, we use the industry standard Adobe Illustrator to design our logos.

Contact us for a custom logo design.

Boost Your Brand!

Get Your Own Custom Logo Design + Brand!

5.0

Stand out from the crowd with a unique custom logo design that captures your brand's essence. Boost your business's identity today! View our services or schedule a call.

Pros:

Free Brand Clarity Call

View Portfolio Book Free Brand Clarity Call

Learn Logo Design Online (Logo Design Course)

LogoCore Masterclass (includes 10% discount + 65% off Adobe Creative Cloud)

LogoCore Logo Design Masterclass. Image credit: LogoCore

Price: $72-$320 | Course Duration: 15-20 hours

The LogoCore Masterclass is the most in-depth & best logo maker course available online, perfect for beginners and intermediate designers looking to learn logo design.

You will learn to master Adobe Illustrator (our #1 logo design software choice), learn grid structures, how to vectorize a logo, how to present design work, create a style guide, build a creative brief, get valuable feedback, animate logos and so much more. They also have a mentorship program.

Get an exclusive 10% discount with coupon code ‘JUST10’. Simply enter the coupon at checkout.

The best part? You get 65% off Adobe Creative Cloud as you qualify as a student.

Enroll in Course

14+ Best Free Logo Makers Online

1. Looka — A highly rated choice great for beginners / non-designers (Editor’s Choice)

Looka Website. Image Credit: Looka

Looka Brand Kit. Image Credit: Looka

The best free logo maker overall

Looka is a solid free logo maker choice that comes with a fun and user-friendly design.

This logo design program saves your logo designs as JPEG and PNG files, as well as vector file options like SVG and EPS, making it convenient for scalability.

Looka guides you through the logo design process. You can add certain elements that you want to associate with your brand and include them through icons and symbols. Other than this, you can pick the overall feel you’re going for and also the color scheme you’d prefer.

After designing your logo, you can use it on social media templates, color variations, and even post-purchase updates to the overall look.

Looka also offers a ‘Brand Kit Subscription‘ add-on that includes everything you need to start your business, beyond just the logo.

This means you can use Looka, one of the best logo makers for Social Media Posts, Business Cards, Email Signatures, Letterheads, Invoices, Brand Guidelines, and more. This is a paid add-on that goes for $96/year billed annually or $196/year if you want an AI-generated website too.

You can get 10% off your first year with code ‘JUSTCREATIVE10’ and read our Looka Logo Maker review.

Try Looka

2. Tailor Brands (Editor’s Choice)

The best all-in-one logo maker and business launcher

Tailor Brands. Image Credit: Tailor Brands

Tailor Brands makes setting up your small business easy and its AI-powered logo maker is a game-changer! It’s easy to use, incredibly smart, and quite spot-on with its designs!

Granted that there is no replacing custom-designed logos, we think the platform does a decent job of getting your brand off the ground.

We did find the font options to be quite limiting and the algorithm does much of the legwork for you (which means you won’t have all that much control over your logo’s final look). Whether that’s a good or bad thing is entirely up to you!

What’s more, if you decide to put out merchandise, social media art cards, or maybe even business cards, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by your array of choices.

If you’re looking to start a business and want to get started right away without complex branding strategies, Tailor Brands is a great choice.

Try Tailor Brands

3. Adobe Express Logo Maker

The best free logo maker overall

Image credit: Adobe

Adobe Creative Cloud Express logo maker is a great free tool for creating unique logos for your brand and business. It comes with a wide range of customization options like fonts, colors, and texts to creatively alter designs.

You can find 100+ icons and four styles to get started with. There is also a spinning wheel to choose the style and placement with ease. The great part about the free logo maker is that you don’t have to start from scratch.

You can set your preferences like colors, aesthetics, or industry to get a handful of pre-created templates. Just like other Adobe products, you will love the simplicity of this delightful free logo maker.

You can even great other branded elements such as social graphics, website graphics, and more right within Adobe Spark.

The best part is that you get Adobe CC Express free forever! The premium offering is $9.99/month and includes a free 30-day trial. See the differences between the plans here.

If you decide to purchase a subscription to the larger Adobe CC Suite of products, make sure you see our Adobe discount guide to save up to 65% and also our guide on how to use Adobe Express.

Get Adobe CC Express

4. Canva Free Logo Maker

The best logo maker to create awesome logos

Canva Free Logo Design Maker. Image Credits: Canva

Canva is an all-around online logo design tool and one with which you’re probably familiar. Apart from creating your social media posts and landing page images, you can create super awesome logos using Canva.

With a drag-and-drop interface, users with absolutely no design experience can create beautiful logos in no time. Equipped with 100+ templates, you can get started with this online logo maker by answering a few questions about your brand.

Based on your company’s name and responses, you will see a variety of logos from which to choose. Just a couple of tweaks and you can change the feel, color, and font. The best part? You can download the high-resolution logo without paying an extra charge.

The best part about this tool is that you can trial Canva Pro free for 30 days. See our feature of the best Canva templates and the best Canva Instagram templates.

Try Canva

5. Logo Diffusion

The best generative AI logo maker

Logo Diffusion differs from most logo makers on this list because it generates new concepts from text prompts, sketches, or reference images rather than assembling layouts from a fixed library of icons and templates. Its proprietary AI model is trained specifically for logo design, with more than 45 visual styles available for exploring different directions.

The platform also includes tools for creating variations, transferring styles, removing backgrounds, generating mockups, and refining designs inside its editor. Paid users can export transparent PNG files and layered SVGs with editable vector paths, allowing designers to continue working in Illustrator, Figma, or Affinity Designer.

Logo Diffusion is best treated as a concept exploration and production tool, not a replacement for brand strategy or professional design judgment. AI generated logos can still raise questions around originality, copyright, and trademark availability, so important marks should be refined by a designer and legally cleared before use.

You can try the generator free, although the free plan has limited credits and export restrictions. Paid plans start at $24 per month and include commercial usage rights, private generations, downloads, and vector export.

Pros:

Generates concepts instead of relying solely on shared templates
Accepts text, image, and sketch inputs
Exports editable SVG and transparent PNG files on paid plans
Includes vectorizing, editing, mockup, and upscaling tools

Cons:

The free plan is mainly suitable for testing the generator
AI output still requires careful selection and refinement
Copyright and trademark clearance are not guaranteed

Try Logo Difussion

6. LogoMakr

The best logo maker to create commercial logos

Logo Makr

When you visit LogoMakr’s website, you might find a useful video that details how to utilize the free tool in its entirety. Drag and drop is also used on their user interface.

Compared to the tools above, this best free logo maker app online is a logo builder that is somewhat less customizable but is still quite simple to use. They do charge for the high-quality file, however, the low-resolution option is free to download.

Try Logo Makr

7. Shopify Free Logo Maker (Hatchful)

Hatchful. Image Credits: Shopify

The best logo maker for eCommerce business

Shopify’s Hatchful is an easy-to-use, best free logo maker app, the perfect choice for eCommerce businesses to create an intuitive logo for their online store. Simply by typing your brand’s name, and choosing the icons, colors, and fonts that you like, you will find a wide range of unique logo combinations.

As it is a DIY logo maker, you can easily customize the theme, feel, and color of the logo to complement your brand message. The best thing about this tool is that once you export the logo, you can receive it in your email inbox in different aspect ratios and sizes. It will be ready to use on your website, social media, business cards, etc.

Try Hatchful

8. MarkMaker

MarkMaker

Despite being a prototype, this program is excellent. You begin by entering the name of your company. Then, MarkMaker produces a vast array of logo choices.

You can select the category your company falls under and “heart” the types of logos you like. Because our free logo design program progressively learns which options you prefer, be sure to “love” as many potential logos as you can.

When you find a design you like, you can edit it by clicking the pencil symbol while your mouse is over the picture. You can download it when you’re finished.

Get an exclusive 10% discount with coupon code ‘JUSTCREATIVE10′. Simply enter the coupon at checkout.

Also, see our blogs on the best logo design principles, and logo design tips.

Try MarkMaker

9. Squarespace Free Logo Generator

Squarespace Free Logo Maker. Image Credits: Squarespace

The best instant logo generator

Squarespace Logo Generator is a unique tool that helps you visualize your new logo on your website, business card, t-shirt, and more. It is not as robust as other tools on the list, but it will get the job done.

By selecting the type of symbols, icons, and colors you want, Squarespace will generate beautiful results in seconds. Once you decide on your logo, you can see it live and in action. And if it meets with your approval, it is all yours to download and use.

Try Squarespace

10. NameCheap Logo Design Tool

NameCheap Logo Design Tool. Image Credits: NameCheap

The best logo design tool for entrepreneurs

NameCheap Logo Design Tool focuses on entrepreneurs and has amazing features when it comes to designing super awesome logos. You can easily find the right colors, fonts, and icons for your logo by seeing them live on real applications.

By literally narrowing down your choice from hundreds to tens, you can see delightful mockups to imagine the logo in real life. Once you complete your logo design, you can download the vector file to use it as you like.

Try NameCheap

11. Ucraft Logo Maker

Ucraft Logo Maker. Image Credits: Ucraft

The best logo maker with a vector editor

Bored with all the above tools? Nothing appealing about the logo templates and AI-powered designs you’ve seen? Ucraft is here to help create your unique logo from scratch. It is an easy-to-use vector editor that will give you lots of options and flexibility with icons, text, color, and shapes to design your perfect logo.

The best part is that Ucraft comes with over 220,000 icons, so it’s bound to be the perfect choice for you. Once you complete your design, you can export the high-resolution PNG image file for free. This makes Ucraft a perfect free logo maker to create the logo of your choice.

Try Ucraft

12. Zyro Free Logo Maker

Zyro Free Logo Maker. Image Credits: Zyro

The best logo maker to create simple designs

Zyro is the very definition of simplicity and one of the easiest tools to use on the list. This intelligent logo builder helps you convert your creative ideas into a logo design. All you need to do is select a starter logo and decide on the color and shape.

You will receive a wide variety of logo ideas that you can easily tweak and customize to create your dream logo. And it is free! Within minutes, you can create and download your logo without the help of a professional graphic designer.

Try Zyro

13. Fiverr Online Free Logo Maker

Fiverr Logo Maker. Image Credits: Fiverr

The best logo maker with a professional touch

Fiverr’s logo maker gives your brand’s logo a professional touch. With Fiverr, it is super easy to design an enticing logo for your business. Simply enter your brand’s name and select your preferred style. By adjusting the colors, icons, design, and typeface, you can get some great ideas and fantastic options for designing a logo that increases brand awareness.

You can choose the paid option to have your logo reviewed and polished by one of their designers, elevating your creative product.

Try Fiverr Logomaker

14. DesignEvo Free Logo Maker

DesignEvo. Image Credits: JustCreative

The best logo maker to create stunning designs

DesignEvo is one of the most popular logo makers that offers 10,000+ templates for creating a stunning logo for your brand. By simply hovering the mouse over any template, you can smoothly customize the background, text, color, icon, shape, etc., to match the logo with your brand’s theme.

The best part is that you can preview the logo on your website and marketing materials like business cards, t-shirts, etc. With any time, anywhere cloud access, you can tweak and make changes to the logo on the go from any device.

Try DesignEvo

Warning Paid or Free Logo Makers Might Mess Up Your Brand

How Free and Paid Logo Makers Can Mess With Your Brand

Logo makers are very tempting. To design a beautiful, low-cost logo (if not for free), seems like a deal you can’t pass up. But should you really use a free online logo maker? After all, your logo is going to represent your brand and you want it to be memorable for your customers.

So, let’s check out what you will want to consider before making your decision to go with a free online logo maker.

#1 – Lacking Uniqueness

You are not the only one visiting the online logo design tools. The tool is available to everyone across the globe and there are hundreds or thousands of people accessing the same logo templates. So, surely other businesses could create the same or similar logo as yours. That makes your brand’s visual expression open to a loss of originality and punch.

#2 – Less Creative Expression

The online templates might get the job done quickly for you, but they can leave little room for creativity. You won’t have much control over the fonts, shapes, color combinations, and other design elements. When you use free logo design software, your logo can lack a creative touch and flair.

#3 – No Access to Copyright

With most free logo maker sites, you won’t receive a proper trademark or a copyright license for your logo. Without information on the legal use of your logo, you could have copyright issues in the future.

#4 – Hidden Charges

On many of the so-called “free logo maker” sites, you will invest your time in designing an engaging logo for your brand. In the end, when you go to download your logo, there could be a charge for the download of your high-resolution logo file. So, be sure to factor in that you may still pay for what will be a more generic logo.

#5 – Limited Customization & Resources

You will not have complete freedom to customize your graphics and logo. Customizing and using your own images or design on the logo is important for business identity. In using these limited customizations, other businesses might duplicate your logo, without you even in a position to claim infringement.

That all being said, what will be your best option? You can hire a professional logo designer at a reasonable price to create a unique logo. There won’t be any copyright issues and you will have a full claim. See here for our guide on how to choose a logo designer.

Moreover, you can explain your requirements, and your desired color combinations, to an actual professional human designer with a logo design process. This opens more doors for creativity to create that awesome, unique logo that speaks volumes about your brand.

Benefits of Using a Free Online Logo Maker

Although using an online logo maker has a number of drawbacks it does also include a number of benefits, including:

#1 Time-saving

You can create your logo in just a few minutes, without having to spend hours learning to design.

#2 Cost-effective

Online logo makers are often much more affordable than hiring a professional designer, although the latter is recommended for serious business owners.

#3 Customizable

You have complete control over the design of your logo, allowing you to create a unique and eye-catching design that perfectly represents your brand.

#4 Accessible

You can access online logo makers from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easy to create your logo whenever and wherever you need to.

Key Features of Online Logo Maker Apps

Online logo makers are designed to make logo creation quick, easy, and affordable. Here are some of the key features you can expect from a professional logo maker.

#1 User-friendly interface

Most online logo makers have a simple, intuitive interface that makes it easy to create your logo, even if you have no design experience.

#2 Templates

Many online logo makers provide a range of templates to choose from, so you can find one that fits your brand perfectly.

#3 Customization options

From font choices to color palettes, you can customize your logo to reflect your brand personality and values.

#4 Affordable prices

Online logo makers are often much more affordable than hiring a professional designer, making them a great option for small businesses and startups.

Best Free Logo Makers Conclusion

Logo Design Principles

Before you use a free logo maker online, think about hiring a professional.

Although a free online logo maker can mess up your logo, it can be a useful tool if you are on a budget. Just make sure you are fully aware of what makes a successful logo.

For best results, keep five things in mind: Simple, Memorable, Timeless, Versatile & Appropriate.

To summarise these are our top three choices for the best free logo maker online:

Looka Logo Maker — Great for beginners / non-designers
Adobe Creative Cloud Express Logo Maker — One of the best free logo makers overall
Canva Logo Generator — The best logo generator for customizable logos + brand templates

If you’re looking for a custom logo design, contact us or check out our logo portfolio.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free logo maker overall?

Looka Logo Maker is the best logo maker overall due to it's versatility & ease of use making it great for beginners / non-designers.

What are the best AI logo makers to use?

When it comes to logo makers Tailor Brands Logo Maker and Shopify Free Logo Maker (Hatchful) are good easy to use logo makers that come with AI elements.

What are some points to remember when creating the a quality logo?

When it comes to creating a quality logo it's important that you remember to keep it simple, memorable, timeless, versatile and appropriate.

More Logo Resources

Brand Builders Alliance Case Study: How Hailey Doubled Her Project Value

Jacob Cass — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 03:11:59 +0000

The Brand Builders Alliance is a year round training, coaching and community platform for designers, strategists and creative entrepreneurs who want to master branding and build stronger businesses.

Members gain access to expert masterclasses, live coaching, practical resources, structured learning pathways and a global community of brand builders who share advice, feedback and opportunities. Its central belief is simple: no one builds alone.

Each year, BBA awards a full scholarship to a brand builder who demonstrates ambition, commitment and the potential to make meaningful progress with the right support.

This Brand Builders Alliance case study follows last year’s scholarship recipient, Hailey Fackrell, founder of Greater Heights Marketing. When Hailey applied, she was struggling with confidence, inconsistent leads, unclear offers and uncertainty around what to charge.

Over the following year, Hailey simplified her services, repositioned her business and doubled the value of her combined branding and website projects from approximately $6,000 to $12,000. She is now working with fewer clients while moving toward her highest revenue year yet.

In the case study below, Hailey shares where she started, what changed inside BBA and how greater clarity and confidence helped her build a more focused and valuable business.

Hear Hailey’s Brand Builders Alliance Testimonial

In this audio interview, Hailey shares where Greater Heights Marketing was before she joined BBA, the challenges she faced around confidence, pricing and focus, and what changed during her year inside the community.

Audio interview coming shortly (currently being edited).

Results at a glance

2X increase in the value of combined branding and website engagements
Increased standalone website pricing by approximately 1.3X
Simplified multiple packages into clearer core offers
Worked with fewer clients while moving toward her highest revenue year
Built the confidence to charge based on the value of her work

Meet Hailey Fackrell

Hailey Fackrell is the founder of Greater Heights Marketing, a branding, web design and systems studio based in Boise, Idaho.

She started the business after graduating from Boise State University, driven by a clear personal goal: to build meaningful work while having the flexibility to stay home with her son.

Hailey had taught herself many of the creative and technical skills needed to serve her clients. She had built a functioning business, but after several years, she knew something needed to change.

The challenge

When Hailey applied for the Brand Builders Alliance scholarship, she was struggling with confidence, inconsistent leads and uncertainty around her pricing.

Her services had become spread across multiple packages. She was considering courses, digital products, community building and several other possible directions, but lacked clarity about where to focus.

She also wanted access to other experienced creatives who understood both sides of the work: delivering strong branding and building a sustainable business.

“I wanted a space where I could ask other creatives how they do it. I needed help with both the business side and the design side.”

Hailey did not need more disconnected information. She needed direction, feedback and people who could help her apply what she was learning.

Why she joined BBA

Hailey first encountered BBA through the Brand Builders Summit, which she described as the best summit she had attended.

The depth of the sessions stood out, but so did the participation and sense of connection. It gave her a glimpse of what an active community of ambitious brand builders could offer beyond a conventional course.

When the BBA scholarship opportunity opened, she applied.

Her ambition, openness and commitment to building a better business stood out among dozens of applicants, and she was selected as the scholarship recipient.

Finding focus and support

Inside BBA, Hailey used the learning library, session replays, coaching, community feedback and Accountability Pods to focus on the areas that mattered most to her business.

Because she was balancing client work with caring for her son, attending every session live was not realistic. Having organised pathways and accessible replays allowed her to learn on her own schedule.

More importantly, she could find relevant support whenever a new challenge emerged.

One month, she might need help with pricing. Later, it could be positioning, design or refining her services.

“It’s not just for one level. Wherever you are in your journey, there is something relevant to help you.”

The community gave Hailey a place to ask questions without feeling judged. Members shared advice, resources and even offered private conversations to help her work through specific challenges.

She was no longer trying to solve everything alone.

Simplifying the business

One of Hailey’s major goals was to reposition Greater Heights Marketing through a redesigned website and clearer copy.

With feedback and accountability from BBA, she completed the redesign and began simplifying her services.

Instead of filling several packages with different combinations of deliverables, she moved toward one clearer core offer for each service. A coaching conversation helped her recognise that her custom services deserved greater focus.

That clarity made it easier to communicate her value, present her services and establish a stronger minimum engagement.

Doubling her project value

As her offers became clearer, Hailey gained the confidence to increase her pricing.

The value of her combined branding and website engagement grew by approximately 2X. Her standalone website pricing also increased by approximately 1.3X.

Clients have since booked her at the new level, giving her evidence that the market was willing to pay for the value she provides.

The result is a more focused and efficient business. Hailey has served fewer clients this year while moving toward her highest revenue year yet.

“I’m serving fewer clients than I ever have, and it will probably be my highest revenue year. That is significant to me.”

This was not simply a pricing adjustment. It was a shift in how Hailey understood and communicated the value of her work.

More confidence and more freedom

The commercial progress matters, but Hailey’s reason for building the business has always been personal.

Greater Heights Marketing gives her the flexibility to remain at home with her son while contributing meaningful income to her family. During a year filled with personal challenges, the business provided valuable stability and support.

The scholarship helped Hailey improve the business without sacrificing the reason she started it.

“Before BBA, I wasn’t charging what I was worth and I wasn’t very confident. Now, I’m much more confident and able to charge for the value I bring. BBA accelerated that journey.”

Hailey’s Brand Builders Alliance review

When asked to share her honest Brand Builders Alliance review, Hailey pointed to the combination of practical education, community support and access to people who were willing to help her work through real business challenges.

She could ask honest questions, learn from more experienced brand builders and receive practical support from people who wanted to see her succeed.

Her advice to another designer or strategist considering BBA is simple:

“Join it. The community alone has been incredibly valuable. It is a supportive space where you can ask questions, connect with people and know that someone will show up to help.”

Hailey’s journey is still unfolding, but the direction is clear: fewer distractions, stronger offers, greater confidence and a business capable of supporting the life she wants to build.

Her experience reflects the central belief behind BBA: No One Builds Alone.

Listen to the full Brand Builders Alliance testimonial

Listen to Jacob Cass and Hailey Fackrell discuss her experience inside BBA, the changes she made and the results she achieved.

Full audio interview coming soon. It’ currently being edited.

Read the full interview transcript

Where to Find the Best Black Friday Deals for Creatives 2026

Jacob Cass — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 22:43:08 +0000

Black Friday can be one of the best times to invest in creative software, design assets, courses, hardware, and business tools. It can also become a mess of inflated discounts, expiring countdowns, and subscriptions you never intended to keep.

The trick is knowing where to look and what is genuinely worth buying. Our Black Friday deals for designers and creatives guide brings together the best offers we find across software, courses, fonts, stock media, design assets, hardware, and creative business tools.

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday falls on Friday, November 27, 2026, followed by Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30, 2026.

You do not need to wait until Black Friday itself. Many creative brands launch early access promotions during the first half of November, while others extend their offers throughout Cyber Week.

The strongest discounts often appear during three periods:

Early Black Friday sales throughout November
Black Friday weekend from November 27 to 29
Cyber Monday and extended Cyber Week promotions from November 30 onward

Some deals last several weeks. Others disappear within 24 to 48 hours. If there is a particular tool on your wish list, check its usual price before the sales begin.

Where can creatives find the best Black Friday deals?

Start with our regularly updated Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for creatives.

Instead of searching dozens of websites, you can use the guide to compare deals across the categories creatives are most likely to need:

Graphic design software
Adobe Creative Cloud plans
Fonts and typefaces
Mockups and presentation templates
Stock photography, video, and audio
Online design courses
Computers, monitors, and accessories
Website builders and hosting
Marketing and business software
Productivity tools
Creative services and subscriptions

We update the roundup as offers are announced. Because discounts and availability can differ by country, account type, and subscription status, always check the final price and renewal terms before purchasing.

You can also browse our broader collection of design tools and buying guides when comparing products outside the Black Friday period.

1. Creative software

Creative software is one of the first places designers should look during Black Friday.

Subscriptions can become a significant annual expense, so even a modest discount may save more than a dramatic percentage reduction on a smaller one off purchase.

Software worth watching includes:

Adobe Creative Cloud
Affinity
CorelDRAW
Procreate
Capture One
Topaz Photo
Video editing and motion graphics tools
Prototyping and interface design platforms
Productivity and project management apps

Adobe usually attracts the most attention because Creative Cloud includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom, and other professional applications.

If you are unsure which programs you need, our complete Adobe Creative Cloud guide explains the major apps, plans, features, and use cases. You can also review our Adobe software list for a simpler overview of what each application does.

Adobe has not yet confirmed its 2026 Black Friday promotion. Based on previous years, discounts may become available before Black Friday and continue into Cyber Week. Eligibility can depend on your country, plan, and whether you are a new or existing subscriber.

See our dedicated Adobe Black Friday guide for the latest confirmed information, or compare regular plan costs in our Adobe Creative Cloud pricing guide.

What to check before buying software

Look beyond the percentage printed on the sales page. Confirm:

Whether the discount applies for one month, several months, or the full year
Whether an annual commitment is required
The renewal price after the introductory period
Whether existing customers are eligible
Whether the offer is limited to individuals, teams, students, or teachers
Whether cancellation fees apply
Which applications, credits, storage, or services are included

A 50% discount for three months is not equivalent to 50% off an entire year.

If the discounted software still exceeds your budget, compare it with our selection of the best free graphic design software before committing to a subscription.

2. Fonts and type resources

Black Friday is a strong time to build your type library, especially if you regularly work on branding, editorial, packaging, advertising, or web design.

Look for offers from:

Independent type foundries
MyFonts
Fontspring
YouWorkForThem
Creative Market
Font Bundles
Type subscription services
Before buying a font, check the licence rather than relying on the product preview.

Independent foundries may offer smaller discounts than large marketplaces, but their bundles and complete family upgrades can provide better long term value.

If a premium font is not essential, explore our collection of the best free font websites before buying. Always confirm the individual licence, even when the font itself is free.

3. Design assets, templates, and mockups

Asset marketplaces frequently offer Black Friday discounts on:

Logo presentation templates
Brand guideline templates
Packaging mockups
Device mockups
Social media templates
Brushes and textures
Illustration packs
Icon libraries
Presentation templates
Lightroom presets
Procreate brushes
Photoshop actions and effects

Popular places to check include Envato Elements, Creative Market, RetroSupply, Yellow Images, Placeit, and independent creative shops.

Our best design assets guide brings together recommended fonts, brushes, textures, patterns, mockups, effects, and other useful resources.

If you are working on brand presentations, you can also browse these free branding templates and mockups before paying for a larger collection.

Subscriptions are useful if you download assets throughout the year. Individual bundles may be better if you only need resources for a particular style or project.

Ask yourself whether the purchase solves a real production need. A folder containing 10,000 unused templates is not a bargain.

Check the asset licence carefully

Before downloading or purchasing a bundle, determine whether the licence permits:

Commercial client work
Use in products for sale
Editable templates
Print on demand products
Logo or trademark use
Multiple users
Continued use after cancelling a subscription

The number of included assets matters less than whether you can legally use them in your intended work.

4. Stock photography, video, music, and audio

Stock media can consume a large part of a creative project’s budget. Black Friday promotions may reduce the cost of subscriptions, credit packs, or annual plans.

Watch for deals from:

Adobe Stock
Shutterstock
Depositphotos
iStock
Freepik
Envato
Motion Array
Storyblocks
Artlist
Epidemic Sound

Compare more than the download allowance. Review:

Commercial usage rights
Client usage
Distribution limits
Editorial restrictions
Music publishing requirements
YouTube channel registration
AI training and generation terms
Whether downloaded assets remain licensed after cancellation

For client work, save a copy of the licence and purchase receipt with the project files. Marketplace terms can change, and a clear paper trail may save you trouble later.

5. Online courses and creative education

Courses are among the most heavily promoted products during Black Friday. This makes November a useful time to learn a new discipline, provided you choose a course you will actually complete.

Look for offers covering:

Brand strategy
Logo design
Typography
Illustration
Motion design
Photography
Web design
UX and UI design
Creative business
Pricing and sales
Client management
Marketing
Content creation
Artificial intelligence tools

Course platforms and educators to watch include:

Brand Master Academy
The Futur
Skillshare
Udemy
Coursera
Domestika
MasterClass
Interaction Design Foundation
Independent designers and educators

Our creative courses and books directory covers graphic design, branding, UX, animation, marketing, photography, illustration, and other creative disciplines.

More specific guides include:

Do not judge a course by its discount alone. A permanently discounted course advertised as “90% off” may offer less value than a specialist programme with a smaller reduction.

Review the curriculum, instructor experience, project examples, update history, student outcomes, access period, and refund policy.

The best course is the one that addresses the next constraint in your career or business.

6. Computers and creative hardware

Black Friday can be a good time to buy expensive equipment, but hardware requires more research than a font bundle or course.

Creative hardware deals may include:

Laptops
Desktop computers
Monitors
Drawing tablets
Cameras and lenses
External storage
Keyboards and mice
Microphones
Lighting
Printers
Colour calibration tools
Office furniture

Amazon, Apple, B&H Photo, Best Buy, Adorama, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and specialist photography retailers are useful places to monitor.

Before buying a laptop or workstation, match the hardware to your actual workflow. A designer working mainly in Illustrator and InDesign has different requirements from someone editing 8K video or building complex 3D scenes.

Check:

Processor and graphics performance
Memory capacity
Storage size and speed
Display resolution and colour coverage
Port selection
Battery life
Upgrade options
Warranty conditions
Return policy
Independent reviews

A slightly older professional model can offer better value than a heavily promoted entry level device.

Compare our best laptops for graphic design or see the best budget laptops for designers if price is your main concern.

7. Website builders, hosting, and portfolio tools

Black Friday hosting discounts are often substantial, but the lowest advertised monthly price can be misleading.

Deals may be available from:

WordPress hosts
Webflow
Elementor
Squarespace
Wix
Shopify
Framer
Domain registrars
Email hosting services
Portfolio platforms

Our guide to the best website builders for artists and designers compares tools for portfolios, ecommerce sites, and creative businesses. Web professionals can also compare the best web design software.

Check the full contract value, not just the monthly equivalent.

A host advertising a very low monthly price may require payment for three or four years upfront. The renewal price can also be several times higher than the introductory rate.

Consider:

Initial contract length
Total upfront payment
Renewal price
Number of websites
Storage and bandwidth
Backups
Staging environments
Email hosting
Migration support
Security features
Cancellation and refund terms

If your portfolio or business website already performs well, a discount alone is rarely a good reason to migrate.

8. Business and marketing tools for freelancers

The best Black Friday purchase may not be a design tool.

For many freelancers and studio owners, the right business system can save more time and money than another collection of assets.

Look for deals on:

Accounting software
Proposal and contract tools
Customer relationship management software
Scheduling apps
Email marketing platforms
Form builders
Cloud storage
Password managers
Time tracking
Project management
Social media scheduling
Website analytics
Search engine optimisation tools

Our guide to the best invoicing software for freelancers compares tools for invoicing, contracts, payments, project management, and client relationships.

Before committing, compare the discounted annual plan with your expected usage. Many platforms restrict their most valuable features to higher tiers.

Check client limits, automation allowances, storage, integrations, transaction fees, and the number of team members included.

9. Independent creators and small design shops

Some of the best Black Friday deals never appear on large marketplaces.

Independent designers, educators, type foundries, photographers, illustrators, and template creators often release limited bundles through their websites or email newsletters.

These offers may include:

Complete font families
Brush libraries
Preset collections
Course bundles
Template packs
Digital books
Community memberships
Coaching sessions
Lifetime access deals

Follow creators whose work you already respect before the sale begins. Their email subscribers may receive early access, additional bonuses, or a better discount than the public offer.

Buying directly can also provide clearer documentation, product updates, and support from the person who made the resource.

10. Newsletters and curated deal guides

A curated guide can save hours of searching, but not every deal roundup is genuinely curated.

The best guides should:

Separate confirmed offers from predictions
Display the sale dates
Disclose affiliate relationships
Link to the relevant product or offer
Explain who the product is for
Identify subscription and renewal conditions
Remove expired promotions
Avoid repeating unverified discount claims

Bookmark our Black Friday deals for creatives page and check back as new 2026 offers are confirmed.

How to tell whether a Black Friday deal is genuine

A large discount does not automatically mean a low price.

Before purchasing, use this checklist.

Check the normal selling price

Some products spend most of the year “on sale.” Search the company’s pricing page, previous promotions, and recent reviews to establish the usual price.

Calculate the total commitment

Multiply the monthly price by the required contract length. Include taxes, fees, and paid add-ons.

Check the renewal rate

Many subscription deals apply only to the first billing period. Add a reminder before renewal if you do not want to continue at the standard price.

The US Federal Trade Commission provides additional guidance on subscriptions and negative option plans.

Confirm eligibility

Offers may be restricted to new customers, particular countries, students, educators, or specific billing options.

Read the licence

For fonts, templates, stock media, and other creative assets, confirm that the licence covers client and commercial work.

Check the refund policy

Digital products may have limited refund rights once files have been downloaded or course content has been accessed.

Ignore the countdown clock

Some countdowns reset when the page reloads. Make the decision based on value, not artificial urgency.

What should creatives buy on Black Friday?

A worthwhile purchase should do at least one of the following:

Replace a tool you already pay for at a higher price
Remove a repeated bottleneck from your workflow
Improve the quality of billable work
Save meaningful production time
Support a specific service you plan to offer
Provide training you have scheduled time to complete
Replace equipment that is limiting your work

If you cannot explain how you will use the purchase within the next three months, leave it in the cart.

What should creatives avoid?

Be cautious with:

Lifetime deals from unproven software companies
Huge asset bundles with inconsistent quality
Courses bought without a learning plan
Duplicate tools that solve the same problem
Subscriptions with unclear renewal pricing
Fonts without appropriate commercial licences
Hardware purchased only because the discount looks impressive
Offers that hide the final price until checkout

The goal is not to buy more. It is to spend less on tools that make your work better.

A simple Black Friday plan for creatives

Before November

List the tools, assets, courses, and equipment you genuinely need. Record their current prices and remove anything that does not support an active goal.

Early November

Subscribe to relevant newsletters and bookmark the product pages. Check our creative Black Friday roundup for early offers.

Black Friday week

Compare the final prices, licences, billing commitments, and refund policies. Prioritise limited offers only when they match your original list.

After purchasing

Save receipts and licences. Add renewal dates to your calendar and schedule time to install, organise, or complete what you bought.

Black Friday deals for creatives FAQ

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday is on Friday, November 27, 2026.

When is Cyber Monday 2026?

Cyber Monday is on Monday, November 30, 2026.

Do creative Black Friday sales start early?

Yes. Many software companies, marketplaces, educators, and hardware retailers begin their promotions before Black Friday. Some start in early or mid November.

Is Black Friday or Cyber Monday better for creatives?

There is no consistent winner. Software, courses, and digital assets may retain the same price throughout the weekend, while individual retailers may introduce different Cyber Monday offers.

If a confirmed deal matches your budget and requirements, waiting may not produce a better price.

Where can I find confirmed Black Friday deals for designers?

Visit our updated Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for designers roundup. It covers software, courses, fonts, stock resources, hardware, web tools, and other products for creative professionals.

Are Black Friday creative software deals available worldwide?

Some are, but prices and eligibility can vary by country. Taxes, currency conversion, account status, and regional terms may affect the final offer.

Are annual subscriptions worth buying during Black Friday?

They can be if you already use the product and the discount applies to the full subscription period. Check the contract length, cancellation terms, and renewal price first.

Does Adobe offer a Black Friday discount?

Adobe has offered Black Friday promotions in previous years, but the discount, eligibility, and dates can change. Check our Adobe Black Friday guide for confirmed 2026 details as they become available.

Find the best 2026 Black Friday deals for creatives

Black Friday is useful when it helps you buy the right tool at a genuinely lower price. It becomes expensive when urgency replaces judgment.

Create your wish list early, compare the full cost, review the licence, and concentrate on purchases that will improve your work or business.

We will track the strongest offers throughout November in our complete guide to the best Black Friday deals for designers and creatives.

Bookmark the guide and return as the official 2026 deals are announced.

Adobe Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale 2026: Expected Dates and Deals

Jacob Cass — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 05:00:42 +0000

Getting the best deal during the Adobe Black Friday sale can be an excellent way for designers, photographers, filmmakers, and other creatives to reduce the cost of Adobe software.

In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about the expected Adobe Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026 sale, including likely dates, possible Creative Cloud discounts, current Adobe pricing, and what existing subscribers can do.

View Adobe Black Friday Offers

Looking for even more savings? Black Friday is a special time to grab the best deals on laptops, drawing pads, and yes, even design software such as Adobe CC. Let’s get into how to get the best Adobe deals available.

Adobe Black Friday 2026: Quick Overview

Black Friday 2026: Friday, November 27, 2026
Cyber Monday 2026: Monday, November 30, 2026
Official Adobe sale dates: Not yet announced
Expected sale period: Mid-November through Black Friday, with a possible extension into Cyber Week
Expected discount: Up to 50% on selected individual and team plans, based on previous promotions
Student and teacher pricing: Adobe currently advertises 71% off Creative Cloud Pro for eligible US education customers during the first year
Availability: Prices, discounts, and eligibility vary by country and account type

Check Current Adobe Offers

Is the Adobe Black Friday 2026 Sale Live?

No. Adobe has not yet announced a dedicated 2026 Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotion.

Adobe is currently advertising other Creative Cloud offers in some regions, including a US promotion giving eligible new subscribers 50% off Creative Cloud Pro for the first three months. This is a standard promotional offer, not a confirmed Black Friday deal.

Check the offer period carefully. A discount for three months is not the same as receiving 50% off an entire year.

Check Current Adobe Offers

Expected Adobe Black Friday 2026 Deals

Adobe has not confirmed its Black Friday discounts for 2026. Based on previous promotions, the sale may include:

Up to 50% discount on Creative Cloud all apps membership
Up to 50% Off Teams on Creative Cloud all apps membership
70% off for Students & Teachers
An optional Adobe Stock trial with selected Creative Cloud plans

These offers are predictions, not confirmed 2026 sale terms. The actual discount may differ by country, plan, billing option, and customer eligibility.

Get Adobe Black Friday Deal

Expected Adobe Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026 Dates

Adobe Cyber Monday Sale 2025 (We will update to 2026 when available)

Adobe’s official 2026 sale dates are not yet known.

Black Friday falls on Friday, November 27, 2026, while Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026.

Based on Adobe’s 2025 promotional schedule, our best estimate is that an Adobe Black Friday promotion could begin around November 12, 2026, and run through November 27, 2026. Adobe may then continue or extend the offer through Cyber Monday or into the first week of December.

This forecast should not be treated as a confirmed sale schedule. Bookmark this page and return when Adobe publishes the official terms.

Adobe Cyber Monday Deals

How to Get the Adobe Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deal – Step by Step Instructions

Once the 2026 promotion is live, follow these steps to claim the Adobe Black Friday discount and save up to 50-70% on Adobe Creative Cloud:

Step 1: Visit the Adobe Offers Page

On the sale dates, go to the Adobe Black Friday Deals Page.

Step 2: Browse & Select Your Plan

Review the available deals for Creative Cloud All Apps plans including, Annual, Monthly and Paid in Full Up Front subscriptions.

Step 3: Sign In or Click ‘Save Now’ to Create an Account

Exisiting Subscribers: Log in to your Adobe account
New Subscribers: Create a new account by clicking “Save Now” and selecting your desired plan (see next step)

Step 5: Choose Plan & Check Discount

The discount (e.g. 50%-70% off) should automatically be applied at checkout. The best deal is the “Annual, prepaid” offer.
If the discount is not visible which is possible if you’re a current subscriber, use Adobe’s Virtual Assistant:
- Click on the Help/Chat speech bubble in the bottom-right corner. Or head to the Adobe Help Center if you don’t see it.
- Type “Talk to Agent” and ask the agent about the Black Friday deals for your region or subscription. Results vary depending on the agent you speak to, so our suggestion is to keep trying.
- If all else fails, you can consider setting up a new account with a new email address to get the Adobe Black Friday offer.

Step 6: Complete Your Purchase

Enter your email and payment details to confirm the subscription.
You will receive a confirmation email with the subscription details.
Congratulations, you just saved a few hundred dollars!

If you decide you want to cancel your plan, see our instructions on how to cancel Adobe subscription.

Can Existing Adobe Subscribers Get the Black Friday Discount?

Possibly, but eligibility varies.

Some Adobe promotions are restricted to first-time or new subscribers. Existing customers should sign in to their Adobe account and check the Manage Plan area for personalised offers.

If no offer appears, contact Adobe Customer Care and ask whether your current plan is eligible for:

A promotional renewal price
A move from Creative Cloud Pro to Creative Cloud Standard
A different annual billing option
A retention or loyalty offer
A regional Black Friday promotion

Adobe does not guarantee that existing subscribers will receive the advertised new-customer price. Get the final price and commitment terms in writing before changing or cancelling a plan.

How to Download Adobe Creative Cloud Software for Free

Adobe CC Free Trials

One way to find the perfect software for you before the Black Friday sale happens would be by checking which Adobe software is the best fit for you. And instead of making any commitments right off the bat, why not just try a trial for free.

Can you install Adobe software for free? You can! Once you create an Adobe account, enter your payment details (credit card) and register for a free trial.

However, it’s important that you cancel your free Adobe trial software seven days before the trial period ends in order to avoid being charged.

Try out the Adobe All Apps Plan

Current Adobe Creative Cloud Prices in 2026

Adobe’s published US prices for annual contracts billed monthly are currently:

Creative Cloud Standard: US$54.99 per month
Creative Cloud Pro: US$69.99 per month
Creative Cloud Pro for eligible students and teachers: US$19.99 per month for the first year, then US$39.99 per month while eligibility continues

Adobe also lists these US payment options for individual plans:

Plan	Annual, billed monthly	Month-to-month	Annual, prepaid
Creative Cloud Standard	US$54.99/month	US$82.49/month	US$599.88/year
Creative Cloud Pro	US$69.99/month	US$104.99/month	US$779.99/year

Prices exclude applicable taxes and vary by country. Adobe can change its prices, so confirm the current total before purchasing.

For a complete comparison, see our Adobe Creative Cloud pricing guide.

What is the Adobe ‘All Apps’ Plan?

Creative Cloud Pro is the new name for Adobe’s former Creative Cloud All Apps plan.

It includes more than 20 creative applications, including:

Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
Premiere
After Effects
Lightroom
Acrobat Pro
Adobe Express

The plan also includes Adobe Fonts, cloud storage, full access to supported web and mobile apps, unlimited standard generative AI features, and monthly credits for premium video and audio generation.

Creative Cloud Pro is best suited to professionals who regularly work across several creative disciplines or need Adobe’s broader AI, web, and mobile features.

If you mainly use desktop applications and require fewer AI features, Creative Cloud Standard may provide better value.

Compare Adobe Creative Cloud Plans

The Adobe Student and Teacher Discount

Adobe Black Friday 2025 Student Sale

Adobe Discount for Students and Teachers.

Another great deal besides the Adobe Black Friday Sale is the Student and Teacher discount. For those of you who are teachers or students, you’re in luck! You’ll be surprised to find out that you can get over 60-65% off on the Adobe ‘All Apps’ plan!

And to break it down for you, you’ll be paying $19.99 per month for a plan that normally costs users around $69.99. So if you’re a student or teacher and you want to get ahead in Adobe, we’d strongly recommend you opt for the discount as it’s quite a steal!

Also, you can easily become a student (temporarily) to take advantage of this plan. And if you want to know more information about this, I’d suggest you take a look at our Adobe Student and Teacher discount article.

Get the Student & Teacher Discount

Adobe Black Friday 2026 FAQ

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday falls on Friday, November 27, 2026.

When is Cyber Monday 2026?

Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026.

When will the Adobe Black Friday 2026 sale begin?

Adobe has not announced the official sale dates. Based on its previous schedule, the promotion may begin in mid-November and continue through Black Friday or Cyber Week.

Is the Adobe Black Friday 2026 sale live?

No. As of September 2026, Adobe has not announced a dedicated 2026 Black Friday sale.

Will Adobe offer 50% off Creative Cloud Pro?

Adobe has offered discounts around this level before, but the 2026 promotion is not confirmed. Check the official offer terms when the sale is announced.

Can current subscribers use the Adobe Black Friday deal?

It depends on the offer. Some promotions are limited to new subscribers. Existing customers should check their Adobe account or contact Adobe Customer Care for available options.

Is the Adobe student discount better than the Black Friday deal?

It may be. Eligible US students and teachers currently pay US$19.99 per month for the first year, which Adobe describes as a 71% saving against the regular Creative Cloud Pro price. Compare the complete first-year and renewal costs before choosing.

Does the discount apply worldwide?

Not necessarily. Adobe prices and promotions vary by country, tax treatment, currency, and customer eligibility.

Key Takeaways: Adobe Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026

Adobe has not yet announced its official 2026 Black Friday promotion, so any precise dates or discounts should currently be treated as predictions.

Black Friday is on November 27, 2026, and Cyber Monday is on November 30, 2026. Based on previous years, Adobe may launch its sale before Black Friday and extend it into Cyber Week.

Before purchasing, compare Creative Cloud Standard with Creative Cloud Pro, calculate the complete first-year cost, check the renewal price, and confirm whether the offer applies to your country and account type.

We will update this guide once Adobe publishes the official 2026 sale dates, prices, and eligibility terms.

View Current Adobe Offers

Enjoy the savings!

2026 Black Friday Deals for Designers (and Cyber Monday)

Jacob Cass — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 04:01:03 +0000

Welcome to our massive roundup of the best 2026 Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday sales for graphic designers, web designers, photographers, freelancers, and creative professionals.

We’ll update this page throughout November as new offers are announced and remove deals as they expire.

Have a Black Friday deal of your own? Email us and we’ll consider adding it to the roundup.

Keep in mind that many offers will only be available during Black Friday + Cyber Monday period, from November 27 to November 30, 2026.

Some of the deals below are from 2025 and will be updated to 2026 once we have the final details.

Best Black Friday Deals for Designers 2026 (& Cyber Monday)

For full details, valid dates & coupon codes for these Black Friday deals you must scroll on further.

Software & Apps

Adobe Creative Cloud — 50-70% off
Logo Package Express — You pick your discount (up to 80%)
CorelDRAW — 30% Off
Elementor – Website Builder – 30% Off – Nov 24 to Nov 30

Courses

TheFutur — 25% off
Skillshare — 50% Off
Udemy — 85% Off
Domestika — $9.90 Courses + 10% Off
Masterclass — 2 for 1 Memberships

Marketplaces

Envato — 30% Off
CreativeMarket — 30% Off

Stock

Abobe Stock — Get 10 Free Photos
Shutterstock — 25% off
RetroSupply Brushes — $270 off

Fonts

MyFonts — 20-80% off
FontBundles.net — 50% off

Icons

IconFinder — 50% Off
45,000 Icons: RoundIcons — 50% Off

Web

WebFlow – 50% Off Templates
BlueHost — 75% Off

Services

Blinkist — 60% Off
NordVPN — 69% off
Freshbooks — 50% off

Lead Gen

Aweber — 25% off for 1 year
OptinMonster — 35% Off

Many more Black Friday deals are listed at bottom of this post and will be updated as they come in.

2026 Black Friday & Cyber Monday FAQ

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, when many retailers offer special deals both online and in stores. It is widely considered one of the best times of the year to buy almost anything.

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday falls on Friday, November 27, 2026. Sales generally run throughout the weekend until Cyber Monday on November 30, although many retailers launch their offers days or weeks earlier.

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is an online shopping event when retailers offer significant discounts on products and services.

When is Cyber Monday 2026?

Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026.

100+ Best Black Friday Deals for Graphic Designers & Cyber Monday Sales

Here are all the best deals for graphic designers this Black Friday! Enjoy.

Adobe Creative Cloud Black Friday Sale Save 50% (Dates TBC, if confirmed)

Adobe Black Friday Sale 2025 Sale (We will update with 2026 when available)

The 2026 Adobe Black Friday Sale and Cyber Monday sale are expected to offer savings of up to 50–70% on selected Creative Cloud Pro plans, including annual plans billed monthly and annual plans paid upfront.

Adobe has not yet confirmed its 2026 Black Friday discounts or promotional dates. Based on its 2025 schedule, our best estimate is that the Black Friday sale will run from approximately November 12–27, 2026, followed by an extended Cyber Monday promotion from approximately November 28–December 6, 2026.

Expected offers may include:

The dates and discounts above are estimates based on Adobe’s previous promotions. We will update this page when Adobe confirms its official 2026 Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers.

Get Black Friday Deal

Pink Friday — Up to 60% Off Our JUST Creative Shop

Get up to 60% off items from the JUST Creative shop including coaching, VIP days, templates, fonts and more.

1:1 Coaching Bundle with Jacob Cass (3x Sessions) – ~~$1500~~ $750. (Save $750)
Brand Strategy Discovery Workshop Template + Training ~~$149~~ $74.50 (Save 50%)
JUST Sans Font – ~~$49~~ $24.50 (Save 50%)
‘Become a Brand Master’ Branding Course — ~~$199~~ $98.50 (Save 50%)
JUST Creative Shop – 50% Off Everything Else with code BF2026

Shop JUST Creativel

Envato Elements – Get Unlimited Downloads of 50+ Million Design Assets (30% off)

Get unlimited downloads of 53+ million creative assets: graphics, web and video templates, audio, photos & more! All for one low cost, cancel anytime.

Plus, with this sale you get an extra 30% off.

Likely on sale: 25-28th and possibly to December 1 for Cyber Monday.

You can download our typeface, JUST Sans, as a subscriber to Envato Elements.

Get Deal

Amazon Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals Week

Amazon have an awesome Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals week page that lists everything from electronics, toys, kitchen tools, pet supplies, and more.

Top Gear for Designers:

View All Buying Guides

Logo Package Express – Up to 80% Off Pick Your Price (Nov 28-Dec 1)

Save out your client’s logos with just one click with Logo Package Express. Get up to 80%.

Click ‘Buy Now’ now then choose your operating system ‘Mac’ or ‘PC’ and click ‘Buy This’.

Logo Package Express

Export Logos 10x faster
Save $40 on the regular price of $149 and get Logo Package Express for just $119

Logo Package Portal

Store and share logos with your clients
Save $40 on our bundles which include Express and Portal

Logo Package Swatch

Color info at your fingertips
Save 20% on the regular price of $25 and get Logo Package Swatch for just $20

Valid Nov 29-Dec 2.

Get Deal

Mr Mockup’s HUGE Pro Mockup Bundle – 80% OFF

It’s finally here! The Mockups Sale from MrMockups!

You can get all of their products in one massive Mockup Bundle.

The total of this is ~~$1447~~, but you can get it for just a fraction of that.

Get it now before its gone!

Poster Mockups – Studio Scene
Floral Mockups + Stationery Pack
Stationery Mockups – Corporate Pack
Logo Pin Enamel Mockup
Business Card Mockups
Poster Frame Mockups – Generator
Book Cover Mockups
Folded Paper Mockups
Patch Mockups + Embroidery Generator
iPhone 11 Mockups Pack
Glued Poster Mockups
Magazine Mockups
Moodboard Mockups Scene Creator
MacBook Mockups – Workspace Mockups
Canvas Mockups – Studio Scenes
Sign Mockups and Storefront Mockups
Vehicle Mockups – Car Mockups
Logo Mockup Bundle – Paper Print
Business Card Mockups Vol.1
Box Mockup Bundle – Mailing Box
Magazine Mockups Vol.1
Sticker Mockups – Shape Generator
Billboard Mockups + Banners & Signs
Can Mockups – Nature Scenes
Burger Mockups – Scene Creator
Stationery Mockups – Studio Scenes
Bottle Mockups – Beer, Soda, Yerba
Coffee Mockups – Scene Creator
iPhone 13 Pro Mockups + Case Mockups
Hardcover Book Mockups
Billboard Mockup – Scenes Creator
Macbook Pro 16 Mockups + Clay Style
Apparel Mockups – Scene Creator
Outline Device Mockups – Vector Pack
Badge Mockups – Packaging Creator
Sunlight Branding Mockups
City Billboard Mockups
Front View Branding Mockups
Outdoor Branding Mockups
Studio Branding Mockups
Branding Mockups Kit
Wine Mockups – Scene Creator
Device Mockups – iPhone and MacBook
Outdoor Apparel Mockups

You can also shop their store and get 10% off with code ‘MRJUST10’.

Get Mockup Bundlel

RetroSupply – Save up to 50%+ Get BonusRewards

Discount: 50% off just about all digital products in the shop.

Save 50% off on just about all RetrosSupply digital products including brushes, textures, fonts, and even bundles.

Plus, get FREE digital downloads and merch with each purchase. The more you spend the more free gifts you get.

They will have asale during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (and the days after) but it will not exceed what we offer now and the rewards will not be as big as the pre-BlackFriday deal.

Get Deal

The Futur – Courses & Business Resources

The Futur have 25% off their whole catalog. Use coupon code ‘THANKYOU‘ at checkout.

Download their LookBook as there are over 100+ pages of digital products, sample curriculums, exclusive insights, testimonials and more.

Attend their live events for 70% Flash Sales!

See our review of the best Futur courses and their official Black Friday sale here.

View Futur Deals

SkillShare – 4 Weeks FREE of Unlimited Classes

Get 4 FREE weeks of Unlimited Classes from Skillshare. Learn a new skill today, enroll in a class from Skillshare.

Get Deal

Brand Master Secrets – Brand Strategy Course (Save $200-$500)

If you want to level up your branding game, become in-demand brand strategist, and earn specialist fees, then now’s the time to back yourself. I’ve reviewed this course in detail here, and it’s my #1 recommended course on the topic of brand strategy.

You can also grab their Black Friday Super Bundle which combines Brand Master Secrets & Brand Master Workshops, featured below.

View all Brand Master Black Friday Deals.

Get Deal

Brand Master Workshops Course (Save $200)

The only program you need to run effective brand strategy workshops with your clients to develop strategies and brands they understand, feel connected to and believe in.

Exclusive 20% coupon discount available only to JUST Creative Insider subscribers.

An email will be sent out around Nov 23-25. Limited availability!

You can also grab their Black Friday Super Bundle which combines Brand Master Secrets & Brand Master Workshops.

View all Brand Master Black Friday Deals.

View all Brand Master Black Friday Deals

Janda’s Ultimate Freelancing Course – $800 $249

Save $551 on Michael Janda’s Ultimate Freelance Course Bundle. And $150 off the Web Design Business Bootcamp.

View all Brand Master Black Friday Deals

The Lighthouse CBO Brand Strategy Masterclass (40%)

The Lighthouse CBO Masterclass is a self-paced program for small business owners, solopreneurs and brand strategists ready to master the art of building standout brands. Guided by Peter Wilken—an industry veteran with 35+ years of experience working with global brands like Coca-Cola, Shell, PepsiCo, McDonalds, Unilever and BMW—the course is built around the proven Brand Centered Management process.

It’s focused on practical, real-world application, not academic theory. With 50+ videos, 100+ templates, live cohort sessions, a private community, and optional 1:1 mentoring with Peter, it will give you the tools to craft unique Brand DNA, solve real business challenges, and deliver transformative results – with the human engagement to make the journey productive, enriching and enjoyable.

Get 40% of the DIY and 20% off the Done-with Community package.

Learn More

Domestika – 10% Off

Discover the community’s top-rated courses and choose 5 of your favorites to hone your skills alongside inspiring professionals and like-minded creatives.

This deal can get you 5 courses for around $49!

Get Deal

Jeremy Mura’s Premium Templates for Designers – 40% Off

Use code BF40 at checkout. Ends Nov 28.

Notion Freelance Hub: A comprehensive tool for freelancers to manage projects, clients, and workflows.
Logo Presentation Deck: A template for presenting logos professionally to clients.
Stylescape & Moodboard Template: A resource for creating effective stylescapes and moodboards.
Brand Discovery Workshop Deck: A deck designed to facilitate brand discovery workshops.
Instagram Carousel Templates: Templates for creating engaging Instagram carousel posts.
Turbo Badge Logo Builder: A tool for designing and constructing badge logos.
Type Blaster Graphic Styles: A collection of graphic styles focused on typography.
Chalk & Charcoal Brushes: A set of brushes for digital artwork mimicking chalk and charcoal.
200 Grunge Textures: A vast collection of grunge textures for various design uses.
Adventure Logo Backpack: A resource pack for creating adventure-themed logos.
Client Welcome and Offboard Guide: Guides for onboarding and offboarding clients effectively.
Freelance Mastery: Skyrocket Your Design Biz: A course aimed at enhancing freelance design business skills.
AI Magic: Unlock Your Creativity with Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Adobe Firefly: A guide to leveraging AI tools in creative processes.
Brand Guideline Sheet: A template for creating concise and clear brand guidelines.
Capabilities Deck: A resource for showcasing a freelancer’s skills and capabilities.
Brand Identity Design for Beginners: An introductory course on brand identity design.
Photoshop MasterClass for Graphic Designers: An advanced course for graphic designers to master Photoshop.

These resources span a range of topics relevant to branding, design, and freelancing, offering tools, templates, and educational content to enhance your skills and business processes.

Shop Templates

Dubsado – Business Management Solution

Dubsado is a business management solution designed to cut out the busywork. Build relationships, schedule appointments, and create workflows to streamline your projects from start to finish.

During this time, Dubsado’s monthly rate will be $30 (reg. $35) and their yearly rate will be $300 (reg. $350). You must sign up for a paid plan during the sale time to lock in that rate. But guess what? Once you’re signed up for a plan, you’re locked into that rate forever, it will not go up!

Get Deal

iStock – Save 20%

Save 20% on Photos, Illustrations, and Video. Use promo code SAVE20.
15% off annual subscriptions for all customers with promo code ANNUAL15.
12% off everything for new customers with promo code 12NEWIS.

Get Deal

Blinkist Book Summaries App – 60% Off

Blinkist is an app that summarises the key ideas from a bestselling nonfiction book in just 15 minutes.

You can get books in bitesize text form as well as audio which makes it easier than ever to find time to read.

You literally get the golden nuggets from each book, without all the reading.

It’s genius and I’ve been loving it and wanted to share it with you!

I’ve outlined the best Blinkist book summaries for designers & creatives below, so you can listen to 20 top-selling books in a variety of categories in a fraction of the time.

And the best news is that you can get a Free 7 Day Trial! After that, it is $9.99/month. Also see our best Blinkist books for designers.

Click here for Blinkist’s 60% off sale for Black Friday.

Get Deal

Shutterstock Stock Photos & Vectors – 25% off

Get over 60 million stock photos, vectors, videos and music tracks from Shutterstock.

Get 25% off 750 image subscription plans or get 25% off any order with code ‘SHARE25’.

Get Deal

NordVPN (68% Off)

NordVPN is the easiest to use VPN provider out there. You can watched previously banned TV from other parts of the world, while increasing your online privacy.

Get an exclusive 68% discount on a 3 Year Plan making it just $3 a month. Use code ‘3ydeal’ to claim.

Get Deal

Cloudways 40% Off on All Plans! + Extra $25 Hosting Credit

Cloudways is our recommended choice for SMBs managed hosting. It is a managed cloud hosting that enhances productivity and provides peace of mind. Just Creative readers save up to 40% off for 4 months of their hosting with a BFCM4030 code + 30 Free Migrations + an EXTRA $25 Hosting credit.

The discount is available between the 21st and the 28th of November.

Get Deal

MyFonts Best Sellers & Special Offers

Browse the MyFonts best sellers and special offers page and grab some great Black Friday deals.

Get Deal

BlueHost Web Hosting 75% Off AND 50% Off Domains

BlueHost is our recommended web host for small to mid-sized businesses. Easy to use, great value, great support and our first choice for clients. Just Creative readers save up to 66% off their hosting and 50% off domain names. See our tutorial on how to set up your own website. See here for other top web hosts.

Get Deal

The Ultimate Guide to Logo Design eBook – 35% Off

The Ultimate Logo Design eBook by Kyle Courtright is the “definitive guide to logo design”. This eBook would go for $29 however you can get $10 (35% off) the book, making it just $19. This is your chance to up your logo & branding game – there really is no other resource like this. Use coupon code ‘JUST10OFF’ at checkout.

Get Deal

IconFinder – 5 Million Icons 70% Off

Get 70% off the first month or year on all Pro subscription plans, including access to millions of icons and thousands of illustrations.

Get Deal

50% Off All Marketplace Items at FontBundles.net

Get 50% off all marketplace items at FontBundles.net. Browse items.

Get Deal

TopazLabs – Save Up to 60% Off

Get Up to 60% off all TopazLabs products including Video AI, Photo AI, Gigapixel, Dense AI, Sharpen AI and more. Browse items.

November 17 – November 29

Get Deal

Udemy Online Courses – 85% Off

Master a new skill with an online course from Udemy for just $10-$15 which gives you up to 85% off any particular course!

Use BLACKFRIDAY24PP from 21 to 29 November 2026.

Get Deal

Creative Market – 25-50% Off

Get 30% off stock resources from CreativeMarket from Nov 17 until Dec 1.

Get Deal

OptinMonster Lead Generation Software – 35% Off

Get 35% OFF your entire OptinMonster cart between November 21-30. Use code: BF2026.

Get Deal

Freshbooks Invoicing

Freshbooks online invoicing and accounting. FreshBooks plans will be 50% off for the first 3 months when new users skip the 30 day free trial period and opt to buy now.

Between November 13th to December 18th.

Get Deal

101+ Gift Ideas for Graphic Designers & Creatives

In a shopping mood? Check our feature on the best 101+ gifts for graphic designers and the best Christmas gift ideas for designers. Or the best gifts for writers and the best gifts for photographers.

More 2026 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals

I will update the deals below as they come in. If you have your own, please contact me.

Courses

Online Courses from Udemy – $10-$15 (85% off)
Skillshare – 4 Free Weeks of Unlimited Classes
CodeCollege – 50% Off all memberships and courses. Use code BLACKFRIDAY2026
Coursera – 10% Off or more
GoSkills – BFCW50 to get a 50% discount on 1-year subscription (Nov 24-Dec 2)
Interaction Design – UX courses – 25% off – Nov 26 to Nov 30.
Mastering The Logo Grid Course Bundle – 65% off

Graphic Design Assets / Marketplaces

MightyDeals – 25% Sitewide Sale (Nov. 22 – Nov. 28)
CreativeMarket – Graphic design marketplace 30% Off
Envato – 30% off
InkyDeals – 25-95% Off + extra 60% Off Site Wide
FontBundles.net Marketplace Items – 50% off
HungryJPEG – Up to 50% off + Special Holiday Bundle
Vexels – 55% Off on Nov 30
YellowImages– 3D Object Mockups – 50% Off
MasterBundles – 50% Off. Code ‘BlackFriday2026’ (Nov 24-26)

Mock Ups

PlaceIt – 40% Off – 25th Nov – 3rd Dec
Mockup – All-in-one online design platform – 70% OFF
MockPlus – Up to 70% off

Stock Photography

Abobe Stock – Get 10 Free Photos
DepositPhotos – 30% Off
StockUnlimited (3 Years of Unlimited Downloads) – $49
Shutterstock Stock Photos & Vectors – 20% off
iStock – Save 15% – Coupon: ANNUAL15
Freepik – 40-63% Off (Nov 23-30)
Hum2d.com – 40% Off

Design

Adobe Creative Cloud – 40-65%% off
Corel – 60% Off
The Ultimate Guide to Logo Design eBook – 35% off
Logo Package Express – Get 40% off with coupon code ‘fri40’. Nov 25 to Nov 30.
Moo.com – Printing – 30% off – Nov 25 to 30
Business Templates for Designers & Creatives (Nov 25-30)
Bonsai – All-in-one freelancing solution – 2 Week Free Trial
Framer – UX design tool – ‘FRIDAY20’ for $30 off
Better Proposals – Business proposals – 50% off for 4 months
WrapPixel – Templates & Admin Dashboards
UXPressia – 30% Off. Use code UXP-BF-21 (Ends Dec 31)

Fonts

MyFonts – Best Sellers & Special Offers – 20-80% off
FontSelf – Font creation software – 10% Off
FontBundles.net – 50% Off

Icons

Streamline Icon Pack – 10% off
RoundIcons – 30% Off with code BLACK2026
IconScout – 50% Off

Hosting / Domains

BlueHost – 66% off hosting and 50% off domains
GreenGeeks – Up to 70% Off
LiquidWeb – Up to 60% off (Nov 24-Dec 1)
WPEngine – 60% off with code CYBERWPE30 (Nov 23- Dec 4)

Web Apps / Software / Services

Common Ninja: – 40% off over 145 customizable widgets
BuddyBoss – Online Communities – 30% Off Nov 25-30. Code: BLACKFRIDAY2026
HoneyBook all-in-one business management tool – 50% off first year. Coupon ‘justcreative’
WPEngine – 5 months FREE on any annual shared plan at WP Engine. Coupon Code: cyberwknd30
NordVPN – VPN service – 75% off
Freshbooks online invoicing and accounting
BlogVault – WordPress backup, staging, migration & security. 40% Off. Nov 25-Nov 30
GravityForms – WordPress form plugin – 50% Off
WPManageNinja – Up to 50% off all plugins
AAWP – Amazon Affiliate Plugin – 30% Off – Code ‘BLACKWEEK2026’
PDFLiner – Document management – 50% off Nov 26-29.
Rawsie – 20% Off with code BF22 – Reduce RAW file sizes by up to 80%
Writecream – AI content generator. Offer: $59. Nov 19-Dec 31
Linkz.ai – 50% off for 6 months. Code: BLACKCYBER2026
UXPressia – 30% Off – Visualize customer journeys, creating personas, and impact maps. Use code JUSTCREATIVE (Nov 10- 29).
SocialBee.io – 70% discount for 3 months. Social media management.
WP Hacked Help – 40% off – WordPress Cleanup & Security Deal. Coupon code: WPHH10 (Nov 25-Dec 31)
ReadyMag – 10-30% off – Website Design Tool (Nov 21-25)
Tidio – 16-20% off Customer Service Software / Chat bot (Nov 17-Dec 4)
Brand Style Guide Builder – Get 30% off until November 29 with code BF22 – Create an expert-level brand style guide with little effort.
Tagbox.io – 80% off BF deal for creatives – A Creative Asset Management platform – The deal will be up for 48- hours only, This Fri-Sat.
StatusGator – Monitoring – 20% Off. Use coupon BLACKFRIDAY2026. Valid 11 to 12 12.
DocuGenerate – Generate high-quality PDF documents. 50% Off. Promo Code: BLACKFRIDAY2026. From Nov 10th to Nov 30th, 2026

Web Site Builders, Themes & Templates

WebFlow 50% off templates. Ends 12/3. Code: WTNCC-CYBER2026
Elementor – Website Builder – 30% Off – Nov 24 to Nov 30
Pixpa – No-code website builder. Use BLFPIXPA55 for 55% off. From Nov 28 – Dec 31
TemplateMonster – Templates up to 55% Off (Nov 19 – Dec 1)
Divi Theme – 35% Off – Code: DPBLACKCM35
Qode – WordPress Themes – 50% off
We Love No Code – 40% off
CrocoBlock – 40% off – WordPress plugins (22-30) Code: BFCROCO22
ThemeSelection – 30% off admin dashboard templates & UI kits. Code: CW30OFF
WebAudit – Get 50% off for 3 months on ANY plan or 3+ months on annual plans.

Marketing

SmarterQueue – Social media scheduling tool – 30-40% Off – Nov 29-Dec 2

Lead Gen

Aweber – Email Marketing – 25% off for 1 year. 29th Nov to 2nd Dec.
OptinMonster – 35% Off. Use code: BF2026.

Other

Company Folders – Printing & Marketing materials – Save 20–50%
ContractShop – 40% off Contracts
SleekLens Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Products – 20-30% Off. Code BLKFRIDAY
Teachable – 14-50% Off
Wing – Dedicated Assistants for Growing Businesses – Get $200 credit. Code: BF200
Whatagraph – 20% off – marketing analytics visualization and automation platform

Submit your own sale and I’ll add it above.

Best Black Friday Laptop Deals for Designers in 2026

Looking to grab a laptop deal on Black Friday? Check out these posts:

Also check out the retailers below.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Retail Links

The big boys will have some great deals too, see their quick links below.

Black Friday Deal Compilations & Resources

Where to Find the Best Black Friday Deals for Creatives
More 2026 Black Friday Deal Compilations coming soon.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving and is best known for its heavy discounts and sales. For retailers, it’s the day they hope their sales will take them from “in the red” to “in the black” and end the year on a profitable note. For consumers, Black Friday can be one of the best days to do their holiday shopping.

What are the best Black Friday deals for courses?

Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, and Futur often offer great deals on courses. For those interested in studying branding, we recommend the Brand Master Academy courses.

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026. It is the Monday following Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and one of the best times to find discounts on electronics, gadgets, software, and other online purchases.

What are the best Black Friday deals for designers?

Adobe, Envato Elements, Design Cuts, Creative Market, and Amazon are some of the best places to look for Black Friday deals for designers.

When are the Amazon Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales?

Black Friday falls on Friday, November 27, 2026, while Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026. Amazon typically begins offering deals before Black Friday and continues them through Cyber Monday, although the exact dates and offers can vary.

What are the best laptop deals for designers on Black Friday?

For the best budget deals, take a look at our article on the best budget laptops and keep an eye out for discounts on any of the featured models.

Please share the love with your fellow designers! If you enjoyed this post, a share on your favourite platform would be appreciated!

Thanks!