Welcome. If you’ve managed to find your way to this site, the chances are you know quite a lot about brands, and you know a little bit about semiotics too.

Maybe you have heard Semiotics described as a kind of whizzy way of thinking about brands, carried out by boffins. You may have experienced it already, and found it brilliant in theory, but hard to apply.

Semiotics can be defined in lots of ways. I think of it as exploring signs and symbols as if they behave like a language, and within the context of culture.

Semiotics is a brilliant diagnostic tool because it enables you to look at the world, and at brands, with a series of critical perspectives. These filters can help you cast new light on old problems, and think your way into new spaces. This makes Semiotics perfect for fixing brands that have gone astray, and for innovation.

I love it: I haven’t had a bad day at work for years. Semiotics is like a magic pair of glasses that allows you to see through to the heart of things. The more you look, the more you want to know.

Real World Marketing

I spent ten years managing brands before retraining in Semiotics. As an innovation manager with a major multinational, I was frustrated by the tools at my disposal in mainstream marketing. I could see that there were traditions of real knowledge that had largely been ignored.

I spent five years developing the black arts into a series of usable products for brand managers. Brand Semiotics Limited is the formalisation of my five years in this field into a proper operating company.

My contention is that most client briefs are basically the same, and that the interesting bits – the cultural, creative dimensions of brands - get left out. But the flip side of this is that it’s no good turning on the clever stuff if you can’t turn your ideas into practical marketing. So I also apply semiotics: write briefs, positionings, copy, create and delineate brands, develop innovations.

I work both direct and indirect, and have a track record in turning brands around and winning business. I mainly work alone but behind BSL is a ‘virtual’ network of academics, researchers, designers and professionals from all sorts of interesting walks of life including theatre and the visual arts. I’m also plugged into a series of partner agencies so I can generate design, advertising, below-the-line campaigns and much more.