Orewa-based design agency, The Brandery, is on a mission to provide a “service-first” approach to its clients. With a keen desire to help more businesses take their brand to the next level, the team is ready to dive in and get to work.
Six years ago, having previously worked as an art director and copy writer, Ian Mason decided to start his own design agency with a difference. Now the agency has successfully built up its client-base through good referrals and has worked with a number of high-profile brands such as Datacom, HUMM Group’s suite of Mastercard products, and deep tech company NanoLayr.
Describing it as a “service-first” agency, Ian and his team of four work hard to be as helpful as they can as partners, eliminating any friction that the usual client-agency relationship might have, and consider themselves very much as part of their client’s team.
“Our strength lies in being the reliable creative partner that covers all bases. We have a full service model where we can produce creative ideas and then execute in-house across most mediums. Of course we have specialist partners to fill the gaps,” he says.
No project is too big or too small and Ian and the team’s typical day might be working on a new brand idea, producing campaign artwork, designing and building both open-source and proprietary platform websites, producing brand and product videos, or even tidying up the powerpoint deck that is needed at 3pm for that presentation that needs to look slick.
“We tend to just not ever say no, and to be as helpful as we can. We’ll always be honest about the roles involved, so there’s no smoke and mirrors disguising us as bigger than what we are. When we’re shooting a TVC or a video for social, we probably won’t be the people behind the cameras but we’ll have written the script, drawn the story-board, project managed the day, doing the shoot list, doing the call sheet, organising the makeup, getting the contractors sorted. We’ll be art directing on the day, making sure it goes smoothly, and then editing video and producing video in house after that.”
With a broad skillset at their fingertips, The Brandery is able to help with whatever is needed to get the best results for the client.
“It’s my goal in life to make it as stress-free as possible, as easy as possible to take any friction away from the whole process,” says Ian. “That often means putting aside any ego, not being controlling, just aiming for the best result.”
Being an owner-operated design agency also means The Brandery can maintain an agility that is often lost when a business gets bigger. Ian makes all the key decisions and his team reacts accordingly.
“There is no hierarchy, I don’t have a whole lot of bureaucracy with levels of people. The best idea wins. I’m a firm believer in hiring people that are smarter and more skilled than I am, which I think have done. Once I have sketched or written an idea I let the team do their thing, but all our work has to go through me before it goes out.”
And this seems to be working in their favour he says. “I tend to be the face of the business and deal with all the clients myself. But I think that’s what people like – a reliable contact at all times. I have often explained that my business isn’t scalable having me on the tools, but it is having me and my ideas one call away.”
In terms of what projects The Brandery is best suited to, Ian says he and the team love brand development.
“A lot of our clients come to us without even a name. So, right from scratch. I really like doing that work. It is what influenced the name The Brandery, though sometimes I do see that working against us when we seek digital or pure design work.”
One of their highest profile projects has been working with NanoLayr – recognised in The New Zealand HiTech Awards as NZ’s Most Innovative Deep Tech Solution.
The company approached The Brandery for recommendations on how to achieve their business goal of making $ 100 million revenue. The Brandery suggested advertising and getting ready to advertise.
Nanolayr began as Revolution Fibres with a different brand for each product line. Identifying that this wasn’t working well, The Brandery helped the business move towards one cohesive brand instead – coming up with the name and branded house strategy. Then creating the visual communication to take a hyper-novel nanotechnology product and make it easy to understand.
The Brandery is able to help businesses at any stage of the process and Ian will give practical advice to help them achieve their goals.
“We never sell something for the sake of selling it. I have to truly believe it’s going to work because my business will fail if it doesn’t. The reason why we’re sticky with most of our clients is because what we do generally is appreciated or it’s worked really well.”
Currently in the market for new opportunities to work together with entrepreneurs, marketers and business owners, Ian welcomes a nosy at The Brandery’s work at www.thebrandery.co.nz and any enquiry to ian@thebrandery.co.nz, or 02102628180.
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