We speak to Hamish Shand, Founder & Creative Director of London-based agency Boundless Brand Design, to find out more about their award-winning work and plans for the future.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and Boundless Brand Design

I am Hamish Shand, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Boundless Brand Design, an independent strategic and creative branding agency based in the creative heart of London, Shoreditch. We are a curious and collaborative team of conceptual thinkers, writers, designers, and illustrators. We are all passionate about bringing deep and meaningful brand stories to life through crafted and compelling design, that captivates at every step of the customer journey.

What is your area of expertise?

We specialise in creating emotive, impactful ideas that thrive in the real world and captivate consumers at every interaction. We enjoy working on all aspects of the brand world, from packaging to activation to motion to retail environments and as our agency grows, we are starting to move into more and more exciting sectors. That being said, we do a lot of projects within the drinks sector which is great because it allows us to take one brand into so many different fields.

What is your company philosophy, what motivates you?

The industry has changed a lot since the ‘good old days ’ with nowadays, timings being tighter and budgets lower so I felt a need to create an agency that streamlined the model to help create better strategic and creative output with deeper client relationships. Four years ago, I set up Boundless with this as my motivation and it is still motivating to me today, as we are in a constant state of flux. Everything changes so fast; we need to be able to adapt and flex depending on our clients’ needs to allow them to be agile. In short, our philosophy is, ‘creativity for a changing world.’

Royal Salute, 21 Year Celebration Edition

Boundless Brand Design has worked with famous beverage brands like Beefeater and Royal Salute. What have you enjoyed the most about and learned from these experiences?

We have learnt that working with brands on a deeper level is a great way to create an impactful change in the creative work and evolves the brand in a way that feels more holistic.

With both brands we have enjoyed a very close relationship and it almost feels like we are an extension of their team, helping them move from a fractured portfolio, based in the past to a new consistent design, based around the modern consumer. They are both great brands with rich history but with huge ambitions for the future. It has been amazing to work so closely with the brand teams, helping to transform the brands over the last few years and really encapsulates the way we like to partner with our clients. Watch this space as we have some exciting work launching for both brands in the coming months.

Tell us about some of your favourite packaging designs from the last few years 

We are proud of all the work that goes out of the studio, and whilst it would be like picking our favourite child, there are some projects that stand out when we think of some of our personal favourites.

Wessex Distillery

Wessex was one of the first projects we did when I first started Boundless. With this project we were hugely inspired by Anglo-Saxon Wessex and the reign of Alfred the Great, using elements in the design that could be found within the region. A key icon for the brand is the silver penny that hangs around the neck of the bottle, an exact replica of a rare Alfred the Great coin along with the Wessex logo of a Wyvern, which is the symbol of Wessex. The unique bottle shape is expertly made, taking inspiration from ancient potion bottles with cork stoppers and unusual colours. This importantly gives a true feeling of heritage and authenticity, as well as allowing us to create something beautiful and traditionally crafted.

Royal Salute Polo Collection

We have done so many amazing projects for Royal Salute that any of them could be selected as a favourite, but the Polo collection that we created is particularly special to us as it is ground-breaking for the category. Last year we did the Snow Polo Edition, based on St Moritz, this year we created the Polo Estancia Edition. The design brief was to create a proposition that illustrated the luxurious lifestyle, history, legacy, and art of Argentine polo, depicting the strong equestrian tradition with its Gaucho culture, creating a new edition that continues to tap into Royal Salute’s awe and wonder.

Beefeater Botanics

With more consumers becoming increasingly conscious of what they put in their bodies, we were delighted to work with Beefeater on a new ‘lower abv’ innovation, to open up a world of new drinking opportunities, Beefeater Botanics. This proposition needed to not only drive the classic Beefeater premium credentials, but also offer a refreshing natural alternative for those demanding a better for you offering. Beefeater wanted to ensure they portrayed the no compromises, crafted excellence of this new proposition, the perfect offering for urban lifestyle explorers. It was so exciting to do something contemporary and fresh for the category, especially with a brand that has so much heritage, this kind of innovation is what we live for.

Are there any particular types of products or services you’d like to work on in the future? Anything exciting coming up that you can share?

I think it is great to work in areas you are passionate about so no surprise as a team we enjoy working in the food and beverage industry but we all love to travel and explore new places so the travel sector, hospitality or an airline would be awesome to work in. Some team members have said rebrand a football team, some have said a luxury beauty brand, but we don’t like to be pigeonholed by a sector as our approach would work with any brand wanting to connect more with their consumers. We have some epic projects coming up in all different fields. Currently, we are working on a super cool sex/lifestyle brand, rebrand of an architectural studio and have just started work on a fashion brand started by a Rockstar, but that’s as much as we can say… We have also recently started working with Twinings Tea as their new packaging design partner. This is a big deal for us and something we are so excited about for the future.

Congratulations on being shortlisted for the 2021 competition! Boundless Brand Design was a Pentawards winner in 2020. What was it like winning a Pentaward? Can you tell us a bit about your shortlisted work?

It’s great to get recognition, for both the team and the client. It means increased credibility, endorsement, morale, motivation, new business possibilities, and a great reason for a celebration! We enter the Pentawards as we feel it showcases the creativity and effort that we put into creating impactful and effective designs.

We have two exciting projects shortlisted this year, Rogue a super cool brunch brand and Double Dutch, an innovative premium mixers brand. Both really encompass what we do well here at Boundless, we think about the core of the brand, the story they want to tell, what makes them tick and how this means they should present themselves. Both are quirky and cool, they are disruptors and forward thinkers, both in categories that are somewhat dry and in major need of a new player to step up and give consumers something new to get excited about.

Rogue project

Double Dutch Drinks Rebrand

How did you manage to stay creative and find inspiration during the pandemic? Are you back in the office/studio now?

We are back in the office now but managing to stay creative during the pandemic was no different really. Design runs through our veins and so isn’t dependent on a pandemic. Creativity is often enhanced when exposed to new situations. We made sure that all the team felt empowered on a regular basis. We ensured that we spoke about what worked and what needed to be improved.

Leading a relatively new agency remotely for the first time during a global health crisis was overwhelming and worrying at the start, however despite all the uncertainties, we had so many creative moments that kept us all very much engaged. This showed the true potential in each one of us despite tough times. Our clients were experiencing the same, so we were all in the same boat and if it taught us anything, it’s that you can always find a way to make it work!

If there was one thing you could change or improve within the industry, what would it be?

Eliminating free pitching. It diminishes the value of what we do as an industry, and it eliminates the value of what we produce. I think the biggest issue with free pitches is that you are giving away ideas for free. It takes dedication and significant time and effort to prepare a considered pitch, with free ones leaving room for superficial reactions. Creativity is the way we and so many agencies earn our living, so we should not miss out on being paid fairly. It may sound like a lot of fun, but it takes hard work and is a highly professional career, with every designer having spent a minimum 5 years studying and perfecting their craft before they even start in industry. People’s talent should be rewarded. As every chef knows, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

What would you say to your younger designer self, or to students wanting to get into the industry?

I would say design is a journey of hard work and challenges that never end. We are lucky to be on this journey as everyday there is a new challenge and new things to learn. There is no end to this journey. At every level, we improve, evolve and we get out only what we put in. And I would have told myself to buy Bitcoin.

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