Axel Burla

Brand Identity & Naming Expert | Creative Director @ PROP À GANDA | NYC

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

If your team cannot speak in one voice, your brand does not have one yet. That is fixable. https://t.co/KeryMR8TMx

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

Verbal identity is the system that governs how your brand sounds. Tone, vocabulary, structure, principles. Not a tagline. A framework.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

An identity without language is half a brand. The voice is where recognition lives.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

So if your brand had to be one word apart from your closest competitor, what would that word be? And are you actually using it, or just thinking about it?

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

On Cloud sounds like invitation. "Feel your run." Light, optimistic, almost weightless. Performance without suffering. The promise is ease. You're already capable. We're just removing friction.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

Most founders pick words they like instead of words their customer needs to hear. The result is a brand that sounds like everyone or no one.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

This part of the work does not get faster with experience. Every new audience requires the same effort. I have learned to budget for it.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

Recently I worked on a comprehensive identity for a UAE-based gifting company. Gift boxes designed for kids. I am not that audience. I had to build fluency from zero.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

The verbal identity we landed on works because I put in that time. It sounds like it belongs in that world.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

1/ A wellness brand came to us with a problem. The hero ingredient is tallow. That word alone loses half the room.

This is how we built a verbal identity that made it work.

2/ First thing we did: map the voice on four axes. Grounded vs. Playful. Polished vs. Conversational. ...

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

When was the last time you audited how your brand actually speaks?

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

Most founders fixate on visuals: logo, color, layout. But a brand also speaks. It has tone. Rhythm. Vocabulary.

[Axel Burla @AxelBurla]

If your business has something to say, it should sound like you. Not like a template. Not like every brand someone scrolled past today.