Mark Kingsley got his start in the music industry, designing packages for the likes of John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Quincy Jones, Ginger Baker, and Jewel. In 2001, his work for Blue Note Records received a Grammy nomination. Mark then transitioned into the world of corporate branding. At Landor, he was the global creative lead on the Citi account, and as executive strategy director at Collins, he developed the new global positioning for Ogilvy and helped Equinox enter the luxury hotel business. His boutique studio, Malcontent, serves independent filmmakers, global advertising firms, fintech startups, arts organizations, living legends, and Pulitzer Prize winners. Mark teaches at the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program and recently held the endowed Melbert B. Cary Professorship in Graphic Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently head of brand for the fashion brand Oumlil.

1. Abstraction

2. Anthropology / Ethnography
3. Association
4. Authenticity
5. Bandits and robots
6. Beauty, not beautification
7. The Big Five
8. Black box or scientific method
9. Blurring
10. Body of work
11. Brand architecture
12. Brands are a technology
13. Branded Unconscious
14. Campaigns
15. Case studies
16. Celebrities
17. Character
18. Comfort
19. Commit to the bit
20. Conflict
21. Context
22. Crafty creativity
23. Customer journey
24. Delivery
25. Difference and Différance
26. Digital to social strategist
27. Disaggregated data
28. Do no harm
29. Don’t fear the audit
30. Ecosystem
31. Engagement
32. Environment/Anti-environment
33. Erotics of brands
34. Everybody lives in a body
35. Everyone works in branding
36. Flexing
37. Frameworks
38. Framing
39. Gathering (and dividing)
40. Generosity (and humility)
41. Go outside your lane
42. Haptics
43. Hearing voices
44. History and genealogy
45. Heterogeneity
46. How you say it
47. Identity
48. Influencers are a racket
49. Intimacy
50. Jargon (and fear)
51. Jungian-ish archetypes
52. Kill the Human
53. Let's put on a show
54. Magic and superstition
55. Management
56. The Master Narrative Problem
57. Mystery is sexy
58. Naming is knowing
59. No such place as “away”
60. Nostalgia
61. Observation
62. One ______ fallacy
63. Out of Home, but in the Mind
64. Parody is a sign of success
65. Party people
66. Permission
67. Playtime
68. Politics
69. Professionalism second
70. Relationships
71. Render unto Caesar
72. Repair and age
73. Repetition and syncopation
74. Retinal / non-retinal
75. Rituals and routine
76. Scoping
77. Semantic infiltration
78. Signals
79. Skepticism
80. Social Responsibility
81. Standards
82. Strategy
83. Tag, you’re it
84. Take me home
85. Talk to the gatekeepers
86. Taste the rainbow
87. Tension
88. Thinking over wisdom
89. Time
90. Touchpoints
91. Values
92. Valuation
93. Viruses and variants
94. War Language
95. Weakest link
96. What if your logo was a drum pattern?
97. What is the product?
98. World-building
99. You are not a brand
100. Zany, cute and informative