--- title: "Branding Insights Journal - Page 3 - Maker Street Studios" description: "Brand strategy, identity, and design thinking from a Brisbane branding agency. Practical guides for founders building brands that last." url: "https://mkrst.co/journal/page/3/" updated: 2026-03-27 --- # Branding Insights Journal - Page 3 - Maker Street Studios > Brand strategy, identity, and design thinking from a Brisbane branding agency. Practical guides for founders building brands that last. URL: https://mkrst.co/journal/page/3/ ## The Feed ### [A Crash Course in Brand Storytelling: How to Make Your Brand Narrative Work Harder](https://mkrst.co/journal/a-crash-course-in-brand-journalism/) Read it Posted on 04/12/23 in Branding. Brand journalism is not content marketing with a better name. It is the discipline of telling your brand's story with the rigour of a journalist and the strategy of a brand developer. ### [When Is the Ideal Time to Do a Brand Refresh?](https://mkrst.co/journal/when-is-the-ideal-time-to-do-a-brand-refresh/) Read it Posted on 04/05/23 in Branding. Not every brand needs a full rebrand. Sometimes a refresh, updating the system without resetting equity, is the smarter move. Here is how to tell the difference. ### [Branding in a Downturn: How to Protect Brand Equity When Budgets Tighten](https://mkrst.co/journal/branding-in-a-recession-how-to-get-through-it-and-come-out-on-top/) Read it Posted on 03/23/23 in Branding. When budgets shrink, brand investment is the first cut, and the worst one. Here is how smart founders protect and build brand equity when the market turns. ### [Build a Minimum Viable Brand to Test Your New Venture](https://mkrst.co/journal/build-a-minimum-viable-brand-to-test-your-new-venture/) Read it Posted on 03/02/21 in Branding. You would not launch a product without testing it. Do not launch a brand without the same discipline. A Minimum Viable Brand gives you enough to learn, without over-investing before validation. ### [Brand Storytelling 101: Think Before You Speak](https://mkrst.co/journal/brand-storytelling-101-think-before-you-speak/) Read it Posted on 02/23/21 in Branding. Most brands talk too much and say too little. Brand storytelling starts with strategic silence, knowing what to say, what to leave out, and who you are speaking to. ### [Design Serves a Much Higher Purpose Than Its Form. Here’s Why.](https://mkrst.co/journal/design-serves-a-much-higher-purpose-than-its-form-heres-why/) Read it Posted on 02/15/21 in Branding. Design is not decoration. In brand development, design is how strategy becomes tangible, the system that makes positioning visible, credible, and ownable. ### [Another Advertising Agency?](https://mkrst.co/journal/another-advertising-agency/) Read it Posted on 10/27/20 in Branding. The world does not need another ad shop. It needs branding partners who do the thinking and the making, strategy, identity, naming, and design as one connected system. ### [9 Aussie Breweries With Banging Branding](https://mkrst.co/journal/9-aussie-breweries-with-banging-branding/) Read it Posted on 10/15/20 in Branding. Nine Australian breweries that prove what happens when brand identity, packaging design, and positioning work together, lessons any founder can apply. ### [How Polarised Sunglasses Killed Generic Brand Design](https://mkrst.co/journal/how-polarised-sunglasses-killed-advertising/) Read it Posted on 10/05/20 in Branding. When every brand in a category looks the same, differentiation is not a creative challenge. It is a strategic one. A lesson in what happens when identity fails. ### [What Uncertainty Means for Your Brand, and How to Stay Credible When the Market Shifts](https://mkrst.co/journal/what-covid-19-means-for-advertisers-and-how-you-can-stay-on-top-on-the-edge-of-a-recession/) Read it Posted on 03/31/20 in Branding. When the market shifts overnight, brand equity is either your safety net or your blind spot. Here is how to protect and strengthen your brand during uncertainty. --- Maker Street Studios (MKRST) is a branding agency in Brisbane, Australia. - Start a project: [Contact](https://mkrst.co/contact/), studio@mkrst.co, +61 7 3556 5329 - Index for agents: [llms.txt](https://mkrst.co/llms.txt) - Homepage in Markdown: [index.md](https://mkrst.co/index.md) - Sitemap: [sitemap.xml](https://mkrst.co/sitemap.xml)