Redefining what it means to be a “cool” brand.

We all want to be seen as cool brands. There’s an aura of effortlessness and rapport that comes with being identified and recognized as cool. As a brand designer working with creatives exclusively throughout my entire career, every single client I’ve ever worked with has used the word cool to describe how they want their brand to feel. It’s one of those catch-all words we can’t help but reach for—intangible, aspirational, universally understood, and rarely defined.

But that’s the problem.
You can’t become something you don’t know how to define.

If you Google it, here’s what comes up: fashionably attractive or impressive.
Helpful? Not really. Surface-level at best. Cool has never been about polish alone—it’s about presence, conviction, and clarity.

Here’s what a few people throughout history have said about the elusive idea of coolness:

“The coolest thing is when you don’t care about being cool anymore. Indifference is the greatest aphrodisiac—that’s what really sums up style for me.” — Rick Owens

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe… But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing.” — Jude Law

“Recognize excellence. Celebrate weirdness and innovation. Oddballs should be cherished, if they can do something other people can’t do.” — Anthony Bourdain

“I’m not terribly interested in beauty. What touches me is someone who understands herself.” — Vivienne Westwood

“I don’t think it makes sense to play safe in these times. The world needs fantasy…” — Alexander McQueen

There’s a throughline here. Cool isn’t about fitting in. It’s about owning yourself—with depth, intention, and curiosity.

Here’s how I define “cool” when it comes to people and brands:
Distinct. Truthful. Human. Original. Uncompromised.

When I build brand identities, I’m almost always meeting creative business owners at the antithesis of the generic, trend-driven, socially influenced definition of what a brand should look like. And that’s where the interesting work begins. As creative business owners, you already bring something inherently original to the table—your experiences, taste, intuition, perspective, values, contradictions. What a shame it would be to dull that sharpness by starting the process with “How do I fit in?” instead of “Who am I, really?”

Before creative direction. Before fonts. Before colors. Before logos. Before the visual world building, the work starts with knowing yourself as a creative identity first.

Some practical places to begin:

#1 Start by paying attention to what you naturally gravitate toward when no one is watching. What kind of work do you make when there’s no algorithm, no client brief, no audience expectation? What ideas do you keep returning to, even when you try to move on?

#2 Name your non-negotiables. What do you refuse to compromise on in your work, your process, or how you show up? What feels like a hard no—even if it would be easier or more profitable to say yes?

#3 Study your own patterns. Look at your past work, projects, collaborations, and seasons. What threads keep repeating? What tensions exist? What do people consistently come to you for, whether you’ve claimed it yet or not?

#4 Define what you care about—not what you think you should care about. Cool brands don’t chase relevance; they articulate values clearly enough that the right people recognize themselves in them.

#5 And finally: trust yourself enough to make choices. Indecision often disguises itself as flexibility, but clarity is what builds confidence. Confidence doesn’t come from pretending you have all the answers—it comes from being grounded in who you are and why you do what you do.

As a brand designer for photographers, artists, designers, musicians, and other creatives, I’m never interested in blanketing a set of rules or adjacent trends onto someone’s work. The most successful, compelling brands are the ones that feel inevitable—like there was no other way they could have shown up. That confidence is never accidental. It’s backed by research, context, process, and lived experience.

But it always starts in the same place:
Deeply knowing and trusting yourself.

That’s where impact actually lives.

If you’re interested in not doing it alone, drop a line. Building cool brands that last & feel good all the way through is literally my job.