ARCHIVE
An archive of the best design and business practice we know — strategy, marketing, web, and, because of the name, a properly researched wiki about cults. No gated PDFs, no newsletter wall: the same things we tell clients, filed once so we don't have to say them twice.
Business
5 filesHow to Choose a Branding Agency (and Spot the Red Flags)
What to ask, what to ignore in a portfolio, and the six warning signs worth walking away over.
3 min readWhen to Rebrand — and When Not To
Six legitimate reasons, four bad ones, and the cost nobody puts in the quote.
3 min readHow to Write a Creative Brief That Gets You Good Work
A brief is a constraint document, not a wish list. The nine sections that matter — and the ones that waste everyone's time.
3 min readHow to Build a Position Competitors Can't Copy
Any claim a competitor can also make is not a position. The four kinds that actually hold.
4 min readWhat Is Brand Strategy? (And What It Isn't)
The decisions that come before the logo — who you're for, what you promise, and what you refuse to do.
4 min readMarketing
3 filesHow to Split a Marketing Budget
How much to spend, how to divide it, and why spreading it evenly is the most common way to waste all of it.
3 min readSEO Basics for a Small Business
The small share of search work that produces most of the result — and the long list you can safely ignore.
3 min readHow to Get Your Brand Cited by AI Search
Answer engines don't rank pages, they quote them. What makes a page quotable — and what makes it invisible.
4 min readDesign
2 filesWhat Is a Design System — and Do You Need One?
Style guide, component library, design system — three different things. And when you're better off without one.
3 min readBrand vs Branding vs Brand Identity vs Logo
Four words used as synonyms, four different things — and the one you're probably paying for by mistake.
3 min readWeb
2 filesCult
6 filesExactly one branding consultancy maintains a cult wiki. You are standing in it. Sociology, history and the mechanics of belonging — written straight, because the subject doesn't need help being interesting.
What Is a Cult? The Definition, the History, and the One Test That Works
Not a group with strange beliefs — a group with a high price on the exit. The definition, the history, and the question that settles it.
7 min readCult vs Religion: What Actually Separates Them
The honest answer involves size, age and political power far more than doctrine. And every major religion started in the other box.
5 min readSigns You Are in a Cult: The BITE Model, Explained Properly
Behaviour, information, thought, emotion. The four dials, the signs under each, and the difference between a hard group and a harmful one.
6 min readThe Most Notorious Cults in History — and the Pattern They Share
Jonestown, Waco, Heaven's Gate, Aum, NXIVM. What each did, and the five features that recur in every one of them.
7 min readHow to Leave a Cult — and How to Help Someone Who Wants To
What actually works. Why ultimatums backfire, what to prepare before you go, and why contact beats argument every time.
6 min readHow Brands Become Cults — the Mechanics, and the Line
Seven mechanisms, shared exactly with the real thing. The research behind them, and the single difference that keeps it decent.
7 min read