Ryo Kikuchi
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Summary
My guest today is a brand designer and entrepreneur Ryo Kikuchi who wants everyone to have access to great branding.
Ryo credits a research fellowship at the Rhode Island School of Design with completely changing how he looked at Design. Now, he hopes his company, ZeBrand, will change how entrepreneurs and business owners look at branding.
Using algorithms, ZeBrand develops a branding plan in minutes for anyone. As Ryo explains it, ZeBrand does about 70% of the work, so more effort can be allotted to the creative side of branding. He also makes it part of his mission to teach entrepreneurs about the vital importance of branding and explains that while art is “zero to one,” design is “one to ten” and can be broken down into a process that repeatable.
We talk about how the shared core values of his leadership team and an appreciation of each other’s strengths help them work in harmony to deliver an innovative platform that helps companies create great branding.
Now Let’s get better together
Actions to Try or Advice to Take
- Branding should be done as early as possible, as it forms the foundation for a business.
- When building your leadership team, establish the core values for your company; once you agree on these, you’ll have laid the groundwork for a fruitful working relationship.
- Seek feedback. Kikuchi shares that their team is always listening to their customers and incorporating their feedback as they evolve their business.
- Art is “0 to 1” while design is “1 to 10” which means that a lot of design is a process or a method that’s repeatable while Art creates something from nothing.