A few years out of design school, it feels like a lifetime ago now, I was working at a design studio called ChromeToaster, great people, great environment. I was still early in my design career and just starting to really lean into branding, communication, and what design actually does.

One of my colleagues, David, handed me a book called The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier. I read it, and it reframed how I see branding. It’s one of those books that’s stuck with me, and I still find myself coming back to it.

Some of the illustrations in the book feel a bit dated now, sure. But the core thinking, especially the definition of a brand, still feels incredibly sharp. It’s one of the clearest and most articulate explanations I’ve come across, and it still holds up in today’s fast-moving, AI-driven world.

“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organisation.”

A brand is not a logo, a product, or a tagline, those are just tools. A brand lives in people’s minds, shaped by feelings, memories, and experiences over time. Every interaction contributes to that perception, forming a reputation that defines the brand. In short, a brand is not what you say it is, it’s what people feel after experiencing it again and again.

AI can generate logos, layouts, and visuals in seconds. Tools like Canva have made design more accessible than ever, and that’s a good thing. But branding, real branding, goes deeper than output.

It’s about perception. It’s about meaning. It’s about understanding people.

Strategic thinking, knowing how to position something, how to speak to the right audience, and how to shape how something is felt, that still sits firmly in human hands. You can automate execution, but you can’t outsource insight.

At the end of the day, branding is not just about what something looks like. It’s about what it does inside someone.