Honesty is not just a name. Even before starting the agency in 2009, honesty (lowercase h) was at the core of my philosophy of communication. Maybe I just don't have enough memory capacity to be a good liar, but communication gets so much easier when you don't have to think about whether what you are saying now is consistent with what you've said before.

Building your communication on wishful thinking is also dishonest and seems much like peeing your pants – warm and cozy for a while, but a sketchy long term strategy. Rather than thinking of a branding project as an exercise in logos, color, and typography where you try to make something that people will like, I believe in making it a business development project where we take a good long honest look in the mirror and ground strategies and concepts in your actual reality. And if you're not happy with that reality, then we should probably start there.

From here we have a much better platform to build upon. We can now formulate a philosophy for your brand and seek its expression in everything from product and HR to design and communication. Do this right and your branding suddenly becomes much more straight

I come from engineering roots, trained in systematic- & analytical thinking as well as math, modelling, and coding. But I also have two decades of hands-on experience building brands across industries, ranging from industrial recycling to high-touch lifestyle, beauty, and fashion brands. And when I say hands on, I mean working directly on strategy, creative concepts, copywriting, design, photography, film, editing, post-production, and music. I even sing in some of the LYKO commercials.

It's a very different thing to oversee things as a manager and to actually make things with your hands. Even if you don't work on everything yourself in every project, it's a completely different thing to collaborate with and lead creatives as a creative yourself.

Conversely, it's a very different thing to procure technical production as an engineer yourself. You know and understand what you buy and pay for.

When standing firmly on both these legs, you can see product, organization, business, technology, and competitive landscape as one coherent image. You can craft strategy, design, and communication based on a holistic understanding where nothing gets lost in translation. And yes, I am well aware of how misused and overused the word holistic is, and I do not use this word lightly.

Through the years we have worked with more than fifty clients, some for one off projects and many spanning several years of close collaboration. With time, you start seeing patterns. There some things that are just universally true. Honesty is one such thing. I've never seen anybody thrive from building on a lie. That should be encouraging for all of us.

Most of my clients have shared the traits of courage and ambition. I think they would also agree that while we are not for everybody, if you’re looking to develop a brand that not only stands out, but stands for something, and are prepared to pull that bow a little further than you're comfortable with, you should probably give me a call.

Walter Naeslund, Founder & CEO