The Invisible Hours Behind Great Design with Joseph Hedges

Thank you. I'm Joseph Hedges, the Creative Director of Branding by Garden. It’s hard to be too precise on what inspired me to pursue a life of design, but retrospectively, I can say that I enjoy the process of creative play, the idea of starting out with nothing and ending with something; that process always seemed to bring me joy no matter what it was I was doing.

It's a tremendous honour that validates the dedication and hard work our team put into every branding project. Such recognition motivates us to push boundaries, inspire others, and continue evolving as designers.

Winning gives us the recognition we deserve and helps to open doors to new collaborations, increased visibility for our work, and boosted confidence within the team.

At the end of the day, with the process of design being a complex road of client opinion and customer acceptance, it brings questions to the ‘designer’ around me, client, result for the masses, awards are a way of us getting feedback from like-minded people while setting the standard for the leading edge of what we do.

Experimentation is central to our process—it is the only real way that allows for new discovery and innovation. Without experimentation, we cannot find new and interesting ways to express ourselves, and in a world of ever-increasing AI content, originality is king, and the only way to get there is through experimentation. The mistake or the discovered approach is far more powerful than painting by numbers.

The wings of a butterfly are always unique, and yet you recognise them straight away and can even identify which exact species. I love the fact that things can be different but the same; this is something I like to bring into our work, where we can.

Good design is extremely hard to find. Try building a creative team, and you quickly learn, there are many designers out there, but finding the special ones is tough. Clients may see me do something quickly in a meeting and think "That’s easy, I’m only paying for the time it took to do that!".

The reality is it took 30+ years and probably several weeks of thinking, plus research, strategy, etc. So, the design process takes, first of all, an excellent team, then you need knowledge, benchmarking, audits, a clear strategy and lots of play.

Clear communication and understanding the core of what the client wants helps us align our ideas with their vision. We also provide thoughtful explanations of our design choices to foster collaboration and to properly engage the client. Following a rigorous strategic process with the client also helps to ensure we arrive at a solution we can all agree is right for the brand.

We saw an opportunity within the Kool Smoothie product range to expand and establish proper coffee credentials aimed at a specific audience, which resulted in the creation of Kool Coffee.

The challenge was to create something original that would appeal to the commuter coffee drinkers, the office workers, the students and city dwellers who are looking for a little friendly boost to their day-to-day lives and routines. It needs to link to the parent. There is no messing around with Kool Coffee, it’s exactly what it says it is. Coffee with an edge, crafted for the bold.

I step away from the project to seek inspiration elsewhere, sometimes simply working on something mundane to distract the journey, or I find the right music can really influence me and inspire me, when all that fails, I pick up my guitar for a bit, I think it’s the distraction that lightens the challenge and opens the door.

Seek the unique, learn the unlearnable, simplify the complicated, build the loveable, invent the unknown and imagine the impossible.

Stay curious, keep learning, and don’t be afraid to take risks. Find your unique voice and persist despite setbacks.

I would love to collaborate with Jony Ive. He’s created some truly iconic stuff at Apple, so it would be very cool to collaborate with him on a project, or Stefan Sagmster, more controversial for sure, but I do love the playful way he thinks.

I wish people asked, “What story does your design tell?”

My answer is that every project should communicate a narrative that resonates emotionally and contextually with its audience, but also feel original and make you think.