This event is all about building more influence, more recognition and more results from your business and personal brand. When you consider that getting your brand right is a key part of building a successful and valuable business!

Speakers include…

* Mike Harris – Founder of Egg, which floated for £1.3B just 3 years after launch.
* Kanya King MBE – Founder of the MOBO Awards, seen in 57 countries by 250M people.
* Sabirul Islam – A best selling author and international speaker at just 18 years old.
* Peter Thomson – The creator of over 150 products.
* Dan Wagner - On the Times Rich List, founder of Venda, pioneering internet entrepreneur.
* Justin Champney – Top brand builder and founder of Buildabrand.com
* Mindy Gibbins-Klien – Has helped over 300 people write, publish and promote their books.
* Deirdre Bounds – Founder of i-to-i Travel, which she grew from nothing to over £20M in 10 years.

See you there! Expand Your Brand

The Early Bird Offer allows selected beta-sign ups to download and apply their brand an unlimited amount of times, for the one-off price of only £10! Momblo.com were the first to take advantage of this special offer and within minutes of creating their design, it was up and running on their website – take a look!

They started out as a secondary ticketing marketplace, offering an online portal where customers could access tickets to concerts, sports, musicals and theatre events across the globe… So whether you are travelling to China on holiday or visiting the United Kingdom for a short period, Momblo can offer the best selection of entertainment venues. They also offer a 100% guarantee on authenticity of tickets, payment, and delivery before the event.

Building on that success, they now also offer customers the ability to join free guestlists and book tables at the hottest clubs, working directly with promoters worldwode to guarantee the night is a success!

So what did they want to achieve from using buildabrand.com…

Founder of Momblo.com Pogos Saiadian gives us his thoughts:

‘Branding is very important. What we wanted to achieve with our Momblo brand, was to communicate the trust and professionalism that stands behind the brand, as well as the fact that we are a fun company, specialising in entertainment.’

Did buildabrand.com live up to the task…

‘With a few intuitive clicks, I directly chose what I would like my brand to communicate, a logo that reflected this, as well as the layout and colours. It took me between 10-15 minutes to try multiple variations before choosing my design, at a very affordable price. I think the service is a must for any online vendor; whether you are a reseller on eBay or operate a website, buildabrand will make your services look professional and trustworthy!’

Wow thanks! Check out their new branding and search for an exciting event in your area!

If you haven’t had your invite, don’t worry we are still working through them… and there is still time to sign up – visit our homepage buildabrand.com

We were really impressed with the use of the brand symbols, how it was used on both their website and twitter, and wanted to find out a bit more about Cook Farms history…

They started out in 2004 when Mike retired from the Army, Marci then joined her husband in the family business two years later. What started out as a relaxing activity has now gone from strength to strength; with a speciality of Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red Chickens, a jewellery craft line, and regular science projects with the local schools… this is one busy farm!

Here, Marci Cook tells us why she liked using buildabrand.com so much:

“I found out about buildabrand.com through @MGrosheim from www.thesocialtweep.com when I asked him about his logo. He directed me to your site and the rest is history! Your site is very easy to use. I love it!!! I love that you narrow down the choices for us and that if it doesn’t “look right” or fit, we can always go back and rework it. Everyone that I talk to says they love our logo! They ask about it and I direct them to buildabrand.com.”

We are really happy to see buildabrand.com helping a small and inspiring business, keep up the good work! Our designers Gilles and Cecile were equally impressed, having designed the bird as a cool symbol for an independent and confident brand.

So what does the future hold for these new brands at Cook Farms?

They plan to use their new brand on a sign for their yard, business cards, t-shirts and stationary in the future… WOW, we can’t wait to see it all popping up!

A fellow brand builder in his own right, Michael allows companies and individuals to reserve a day in his calendar where he will promote them all over Twitter, Facebook and his daily blog.

The Social Tweep started out as a response to Michael losing his job over a year and a half ago and deciding to work for himself. Finding the perfect avenue to utilise his fondness for engaging with people (and talking in general) has resulted in big brand names such as Starbucks and Abc using his services!

We have Jason Sadler, founder of iwearyourshirt.com to thank for introducing Michael to the site.
Here’s is what he thought of his buildabrand.com experience:

“The website is very easy to use. Creating a logo which allows you to include personality is amazing. Coupling pictures with style, tone, outlook and character options is very unique. Having the option to go back and forth during the process, making changes to find the perfect logo, and the number of logos provided based on some very basic questions helped me find the perfect logo.”

Michael is very happy to have created the “perfect” logo with buildabrand.com, one that shows his fun side, is eye-catching and prompts people to ask more about The Social Tweep. Well… that makes us very happy too! You can even purchase your own jumper or t-shirt featuring the design through his Tweep Store!

The symbol was designed by Gilles and Cecile as part of a series inspired by happy, chirpy, twittering birds – very fitting for Michael’s brand, whoopie it’s working!

So what does the future hold for The Social Tweep?

Michael has big future plans to build on the community effect of his business – prompting followers to engage and be in with a chance of winning prizes from the brand of the day!

We wish Michael every success with The Social Tweep and will be watching his tweets eagerly!

Our aim? To bring business and individual ideas to life by matching them with great designs!

We are looking for designers from any background or discipline to create unique brand symbols which can be purchased and used by our customers. They can be everything from intelligent everyday logos to urban inspired graphics and even unique, stylised or illustrative characters.

You will have the freedom to upload a wide range and unlimited number of designs and set the price point yourself. We will then match your design to our users and you will receive 50% 70% of the net sales price! That could be anything from £35 ($56 or €39) up to £1050 ($1,705 or €1,175), you decide.

Sound like a good idea to you? You can register your interest here and we’ll make sure you are invited to upload your designs!

Need a bit more information?

It’s so easy – A quick registration so we know who you are and how we can pay you is all  it takes to start uploading designs.

No stress – We don’t ask you to define colours or select fonts, you just create brand symbols and upload them instantly.

You have control - There are no design briefs, restricting site styles or controlling customers to deal with; you decide what you want to upload, when, where and how many designs!

Everyone can get involved – Whether you are a student or graduate in London, a freelancer in Sydney, a professional in Berlin, or hobby designer in Tokyo, you can upload your work for sale on buildabrand.com.

Simple Design Upload - All you need to do is design a vector based brand symbol saved as an SVG file. We can even show you how to do this if you’re not sure.

One price, one sale – You set the price for your design and one lucky customer receives that symbol exclusively for their brand. Once an individual symbol is purchased, it will be removed from the site and all associated rights are transferred to the customer.

Royalties – You will receive a 50% 70% share of the net sale price for each brand symbol sold. Remember, there’s no limit to the amount you can upload!

Convinced? Register your interest here so you can be one of the first to experience it for yourself!

(We don’t condone this sort of behaviour but love the outcome it creates!)

Our beta testers have been really impressed with the ease of use, functionality of the site and ability to create relevant brands. These are some of the brands that have been created so far… (let us know your favourite in the comments)

There have also been plenty of suggestions for the team to take on board and excellent feedback to help improve the branding experience; we are now working hard to make these last few tweaks!

Here’s a round up of our favourite feedback so far and we’re really looking forward to hearing more…!

- we LOVE @buildabrand – we made our brand in 30 mins flat! love it. thanks chaps @engagefirst

- Having so much fun with @buildabrand Beta that I am not getting any work done today. oh well, this is much more entertaining. LOVE IT!!! @McGrosheim

- @theycallmeShua: @iwearyourshirt oh and i got an @buildabrand invite today. its cooler than i expected i have to admit

- @TriFunk: thanks for the invite @buildabrand wow! just playing around in the site and I am blown away. this is going to change the world! love it

- Thanks a lot!! Just made my first logo. Really cool end easy at first glance. Looking forward to test it in full … andersbn

- jonlongoria: Davey, want to say ya’ll did a great job. Left a lot of constructive criticism in feedback, hope this takes off! @daveshanley @buildabrand

- @buildabrand Yes…I had so much fun…I’m wondering what to do with the last of it [credits] because we do other things here…so I’m saving them @TheMarciFactor

- thanks a lot for your email! I was really looking forward to it…Merry Christmas and thank you for the great gift - Aspiring Entrepreneur in Maritime Equipment and Services

- I starting playing around with the site and it is fantastic. Love the usability and design. Ariel Remer, Aspiring Entrepreneur in Clothing Line

- The whole process is really intuitive, I like it. – Benjamin Larralde, Apiring Entrepreneur in funding platform for individuals

- Thanks so much for the invite. Your team has built an impressive site – Dennis Lyandres, Early-stage non-profit organisation

- Simple and clean interface generally.  Good staged process – Philip Wilkinson, Founder & CEO at Crowdstorm

- I saw a few logos there that really inspired me, and that could become new the logo for our company! – Alicia Navarro, Company Founder and CEO of Skimlinks

- Worked really intuitively and easily – Kate Siddiqui, Marketing and Editorial Manager at start-up company – www.leaveitout.co.uk

The report highlights the trends set for 2010 in different markets, including design and predicts the impact this will have on brands.

Author Jason Little, creative director in the Paris office of Landor Associates writes:

Computers have given rise to a means of creating visual graphics without direct human involvement; designers can set general conceptual parameters and then let the program do the rest. Soon software will be capable of generating every element of an identity system: logo variations, color palettes, imagery, typography, you name it.

Check, Check and Check! buildabrand is already capable of this and we are really excited to see it as a trend for 2010!

It’s definitely worth a read and nicely rounds up the brands that will stand out in 2010 for each area, so take a look:

Jason Little on trends in design

We plan to have the design page framed anyway!

Our very own CFO Rob Carter showed them how easy it is to use buildabrand.com and they were delighted with the results, as you can see!

brilliant new @EngageFirst brand created in the pub with @buildabrand online app. Genius http://twitpic.com/ujr3x

we LOVE @buildabrand – we made our brand in 30 mins flat! love it. thanks chaps!

@RACarter look at my profile on normal twitter – ive put the logo all over the place! woop wooooop! : D

Check out the EngageFirst design on their twitter page, we LOVE IT! Looking forward to seeing more buildabrand creations popping up!

Guess we better get down to the pub now…

A Closer Look at BuildABrand’s Closed Beta

BuildABrand.com is a new online service available shortly which will empower you to create and develop your brand, be it for yourself, your company, or whatever. The basic premise is, you give the app a bunch of details about the brand, such as the industries it relates, plus other related info, and the app will quickly generate some brand designs (ie a logo and font design) for use anywhere you want, as well as some pre canned options which we’ll discuss later.

BuildABrand say that the ease and speed of creating a new brand is as fast and simple as registering a domain name. I’m gonna test that, so here’s how it works:

BuildABrand – Step 1 – Related Industries

The first thing you have to give BuildABrand is some idea of what industries your brand relates to (that is, after you’ve told the app the name of your brand). The app uses a simple horizontal scroll navigation for you to cycle through the industry sectors. When clicking on a specific sector you are given various options within it to select.

The navigation is smooth and sleek, the icons have been well chosen, giving clarity to what you’re looking at.

I think one area I’d love to see modified slightly would be to allow you to see all the sectors you can choose from, rather than blindly scrolling through them, not knowing what’s coming next, and if it’s relevant. A minor tweak though… to read the rest of the Steve Reynolds’s review please head to his site www.reynoldsftw.com, you can also catch him on twitter at @stevereynolds