Meet The Coach – Jonjo McNeill

I’ve been designing brands across identity and web for over a decade now. Two entirely separate disciplines taken in isolation but it’s always been clear to me that if a client needs a new website it’s because they’ve grown or they’ve changed. Either way that’s a chance to strip their brand back to the core personality and build something more relevant for here and now. And for new businesses I think bringing the identity and digital sides of your brand together coherently from the start has never been more important. So we started our branding and web design agency, Diverge Digital, early last year to help people with all of that.

We have a pretty wide net of clients – this year, amongst others, we’ve worked with an esports tournament, an international wheel refurbishment operation, a railway engineering consultancy, a European goalkeeping brand and a business putting a whole new spin on social networking. We also had a little hand in the visual marketing of Generator’s Evolution Emerging Festival. If the client has faith in their own ideas then it’s a good fit for us.

The best thing about our work is the three-way tie between meeting exciting entrepreneurs with ideas and passion; helping somebody’s vision come to life; and actually watching something you’ve created take flight in the real world. I still get a thrill from that.

I thoroughly enjoy helping businesses so I’m thrilled that I am now an official business coach through Generator! On a base level I can help clients understand exactly who it is they’re looking to work with, what it is they’re offering that makes them indispensable to those people, and how to bring those two together.

Branding is not just the logo of course – although that is a rather large part of it when you’re establishing a new brand. But it’s also every communication you make with anybody else, inside or outside of the organisation – a client, a supplier, the public. We’d use what we know to identify the right tone, the right style and the right level of consistency to make sure their brand is built on the best foundations to connect with the right people. And then we’d produce the assets – logos, style guides, typography – they need to get cracking with it.

If anyone is starting out and needs a push in the right direction getting their new brand off the ground, Generator’s business coaching programme is an incredible opportunity to access first class support for free. I’m excited to get to work with some fantastic new brands!