Draft:Branding by Garden

Branding by Garden

Type	Private limited company
Industry	Brand consultancy, design
Founder	Joseph Hedges
Headquarters	Monier Works, Casings Way, Fish Island, London, England
Key people	Joseph Hedges (Chief Executive and Creative Director) Sam Fraser-Steel (Head of Strategy) Dan Boyles (Head of Operations)
Services	Brand strategy, brand identity, packaging design, digital design, retail strategy
Number of employees	25

Branding by Garden is an independent British brand consultancy and design agency headquartered in London. Founded in 2010 by Joseph Hedges, the agency operates from Monier Works in Fish Island, east London. Its practice covers brand strategy, brand naming, brand design, packaging design, digital design and retail strategy, with clients across consumer goods, hospitality, financial services, technology, telecommunications, property, energy, transport, education, fashion, retail, defence and the third sector.

The agency has been profiled in the independent press, including a Digital Journal feature on marketing teams driving business growth, and was recognised at the 2026 Transform Awards Europe with five honours, including Best Overall Visual Identity.

History

Branding by Garden was founded in 2010 in east London. The agency initially also operated an office in Dubai, which closed in 2015 to concentrate the business on its London operation. Its founder, Joseph Hedges, had previously founded Rareform Design in 2002. According to the agency, it was established to build brands from "simple DNA foundations" that extend through communications channels, packaging, environments and employer brands.

In 2016, Hedges was part of the Supershoppers brand expert panel, commenting on the use of branding to influence shoppers' decision-making; for the programme the agency created a baked-bean product with an artisanal appearance that was used to illustrate the effect of packaging design on shoppers' price expectations.

Among the agency's early projects was work for Tu, the clothing brand owned by Sainsbury's, described under Notable work below.

Operations and approach

Branding by Garden is led by a three-person executive team: Joseph Hedges as Chief Executive and Creative Director, Sam Fraser-Steel as Head of Strategy and Dan Boyles as Head of Operations.

The agency operates an internal research function it calls K-Lab, which combines quantitative research, A/B testing, demographic analysis, competitor benchmarking and AI sentiment testing with creative development.

Leadership

Joseph Hedges is the founder, Chief Executive and Creative Director. He has worked in brand and design for over thirty years, with roles at agencies including Rufus Leonard, Siegel+Gale, Interbrand, Dragon Rouge and Bulletproof. He founded Pod in 2000, Rareform Design in 2002 and Branding by Garden in 2010. His earlier work includes the BT.com redesign, for which he was lead designer and which won a Design Effectiveness Award (Gold) in 1998; the rebrand of Les Trois Garçons, which won a Design Week Award for Best Brand; the Etisalat rebrand of 2006, recorded as winning a Benchmarks Award for best brand communication and a Gold Design Effectiveness Award; a bronze award for the Pace rebrand in 2014; a Design Week Gold award for Royal Mail; and the Norwex rebrand, which received four Gold awards and one Silver at the Transform Awards. The Norwex project was undertaken with Brigid McCullen and Workroom, with whom the agency has a long-standing relationship. Hedges has judged design awards for the Chartered Society for Designers and the University of Plymouth and has spoken about branding at events in London and elsewhere in the UK. He has been profiled in a Creativepool feature on the agency.

Sam Fraser-Steel is Head of Strategy and has led accounts including Sainsbury's Tu, GoDaddy and Eurotunnel. Dan Boyles is Head of Operations and has approximately twenty-five years of experience in global brand advertising; he has been recognised in Creativepool's Top 25 Operations Directors.

Notable work

Sainsbury's Tu

In 2013, the agency worked with Tu, Sainsbury's clothing range, to develop its strategy and brand proposition. It refined the logo to feature a capital "T" and a lowercase "c" to aid pronunciation of the French word tu ("you"), and introduced the tagline "live your style" alongside a celebrity endorsement strategy. The relaunch was covered by The Guardian, Drapers and Retail Week. Tu subsequently developed from a value-led clothing offer into a standalone retail fashion business, supported by the launch of its own e-commerce platform.

Janes

In 2020, the agency carried out a global rebrand for Janes, a defence and intelligence company. The work involved brand audits, competitor research and leadership interviews to understand the marketplace, define the business proposition and ambitions, and establish a brand strategy grounded in assurance, agility, accessibility and impartiality; the agency concluded that Janes's identity had not kept pace with its shift from a military publisher to an open-source intelligence agency. Janes launched the new brand on 14 May 2020, alongside a relaunch of its website. Janes was founded in 1898 by Fred T. Jane to document the world's fighting ships, and became an independent business in December 2019 under Montagu Private Equity, a change that prompted the rebrand.

The Origin Tea Collective and OT India

The agency developed the brand strategy, naming and packaging system for The Origin Tea Collective, a premium tea range, and a companion range, OT India (2023), now operating across India. The OT India project produced more than 46 stock-keeping units and was completed in approximately six months. Its packaging used a circular geolocation emblem, organic colour palettes and matte finishes intended to communicate origin and provenance. The project was profiled in a Creativepool feature.

Mollie's Motel & Diner

The agency created the brand identity for Mollie's Motel & Diner (2023–2024), a roadside motel and diner concept launched by Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House; an evolution to the offer was created at the former Granada Studios as a city centre offer and was launched in January 2026. The identity is profiled in a Creativepool feature on the agency.

Electrical Safety First

In 2025, the agency rebranded Electrical Safety First, a UK charity dedicated to protecting the public from the dangers of the rising use of electricity, introducing the strapline "Powering change + saving lives." The visual identity was tested against DDA and W3C accessibility standards and included a Braille version of the logotype. The rebrand was a finalist at the 2025 Third Sector Awards.

Kool Coffee

Kool Coffee is a coffee brand created for its parent company, Kool Smoothie, and is positioned as a distinct brand within the wider Kool family, which now operates across Morocco, North Africa and parts of the US. The agency developed its visual and verbal identity—covering packaging, signage, environmental design and communications—around a "crafted" aesthetic and a bold tone of voice. The identity won Gold at the 2025 London Design Awards and was shortlisted in the Creativepool Annual 2025 for branding.

Eurotunnel

The agency undertook a phased corporate-identity refresh for the car-shuttle service of Eurotunnel, working with the Eurotunnel team on a combined strategy and identity rolled out in phases. The objective of the work was to help define the difference between Eurostar and Eurotunnel, for which the agency devised the copyline "drive through Europe", as well as an aligned graphic device to help convey the cross-Channel benefit.

Other clients

The agency has also worked with Mobily, GoDaddy, Kool Smoothie, Night + Day, Vaperama, Diddy Bites, Stassen, Afriquia, Aksal, Churches Conservation Trust, Ajman Bank, ENOC, Freemove and the Government of Sharjah.

Awards and recognition

At the 2026 Transform Awards Europe, the agency received five honours: Best Overall Visual Identity (winner); Gold for Best Brand Evolution (Corporate); Silver for Best Brand Evolution (Consumer); Gold for Best Brand Development Project to Reflect a Change of Mission, Values or Positioning (Consumer); and Gold for Best Visual Identity from the Lifestyle and Wellbeing Sector.

The Electrical Safety First rebrand was a finalist at the 2025 Third Sector Awards. The Kool Coffee identity won Gold at the 2025 London Design Awards and was shortlisted in the Creativepool Annual 2025 for branding. The agency's work has also been profiled in Creativepool features on the Origin Tea Collective, on Mollie's and the agency more broadly, and on its identity-verification work.

External links

• Official website