Design as a brand strategy
Interview with Peter Phelan and Vitri Aldilah, founders of British Bulldog
“Design is not decoration. It’s the way a brand thinks.”
It is a sentence that perfectly sums up one of the most interesting ideas that emerged from our conversation with Peter Phelan and Vitri Aldilah, founders of British Bulldog.
In a market where design is still too often considered an aesthetic element, something to be added at the end of the process to make a product more beautiful or a communication more appealing, their vision proposes a radical change of perspective.
Design, according to them, is not the destination. It is the starting point.
It is where a brand’s strategy becomes tangible, visible and recognisable. It is present in the product, in the choice of materials, in graphics, packaging, physical spaces, digital experiences and, above all, in the way a company interacts with people on a daily basis.
We spoke with them about branding, strategy, consistency, identity and what it really means to build a brand capable of generating trust and, over time, turning its customers into a true community.
Design is often associated with aesthetics. You, however, say that “design is not decoration”. What does that mean in practical terms?
Peter Phelan: First and foremost, it means changing the way we think about design. For many years, design was considered a sort of final stage of the process: first the product, strategy and business are defined, and then a designer is asked to “make it look good”.
We believe the process should be exactly the opposite.
Design should be involved from the very beginning, because it is a tool through which a company can define who it is, what it represents and how it wants to be perceived.
It is not simply about choosing a colour, typeface or shape. It is about making decisions that make the brand’s values tangible.
Vitri Aldilah: Every choice communicates something. The material of a product communicates something. The way it is packaged communicates something. The way it is photographed, described, sold and even used communicates something.
That is why we say that design is not decoration. Design is the way a brand thinks and makes its way of thinking visible.
So can design be considered a component of business strategy?
Peter Phelan: Absolutely. In fact, we believe it is one of the most important components.
When design is considered merely a creative function, its potential tends to be limited. When, instead, it becomes a genuine business capability, it can contribute directly to building a competitive advantage.
A strong brand does not simply sell a product. It builds a system of meanings around that product.
Design helps build this system and make it immediately understandable.
Vitri Aldilah: It is also a matter of clarity. A company may have an extraordinary strategy, but if that strategy cannot be translated into a tangible experience for people, it remains something abstract.
Design allows strategy to become experience.
What are the elements through which this strategy becomes visible?
Vitri Aldilah: Potentially all of them.
The product is certainly one of the most obvious elements, but it is not the only one. There are graphics, packaging, the choice of materials, retail, the website, social media, photography, tone of voice and customer service.
Even the way a customer first comes into contact with a brand is part of designing the experience.
Peter Phelan: And this is precisely where a fundamental difference emerges between designing a single object and designing a brand.
A product can be beautiful, but if everything surrounding it tells a different story, the identity becomes weaker.
That is why we talk about a system.
How important is consistency in building a brand?
Peter Phelan: It is fundamental. It is probably one of the most underestimated aspects
People often think that to build a memorable brand, it is necessary to create an iconic product, something immediately recognisable. But a strong identity does not necessarily come from a single element.
It comes from the consistent repetition of many elements.
When the product, communication, point of sale, website, digital content and relationship with the community all speak the same language, the brand becomes recognisable.
Vitri Aldilah: Consistency creates familiarity and familiarity, over time, generates trust.
It does not mean that everything has to be identical. On the contrary, an effective design system must be able to evolve and adapt to different contexts.
But beneath the surface, the same idea must always be there.
So being consistent does not mean being predictable?
Vitri Aldilah: Exactly. It is a very important distinction.
Consistency does not mean always repeating the same thing. It means keeping your point of view recognisable.
A brand can change, experiment and innovate without losing its identity, as long as it knows which fundamental elements must not be compromised.
Peter Phelan: In this sense, designing a brand is a little like defining a grammar.
It is not necessary for every sentence to be the same as the previous ones. But it must be clear that they all belong to the same language.
And how important is the relationship between design and people?
Peter Phelan: It is everything. Ultimately, design does not exist in a vacuum. It exists because it is seen, used, touched, experienced and interpreted by people.
That is why a project should not be evaluated simply by asking whether it is beautiful.
We should ask: does it work? Is it understandable? Is it useful? Is it natural? Is it consistent with what the brand promises?
Vitri Aldilah: And above all: does it fit naturally into people’s lives?
It is a very powerful question.
A design can attract a great deal of attention, but if it fails to create an authentic relationship with those who use it, that attention can be very short-lived.
This leads to an interesting question: how do you measure the success of good design?
Vitri Aldilah: Not only through the attention it manages to generate.
We live in an era in which it is easy to confuse visibility with success. A project can go viral, receive countless shares and attract comments, but this does not necessarily mean that it has created value for the brand.
True success lies in being able to clearly express the company’s values and do so in a natural and consistent way.
Peter Phelan: I would add another element: time.
Good design should be capable of building trust over time.
It does not necessarily have to shout to be noticed. Sometimes the most effective design is the one that becomes part of the everyday experience in an almost natural way.
So should a brand not constantly try to attract attention?
Peter Phelan: Not necessarily. Attention is important, but it cannot be the only goal.
If you constantly chase attention, you risk changing your identity every time a trend changes.
A strong brand, on the other hand, needs to have something more stable.
It needs to know who it is.
Vitri Aldilah: And it needs to have the courage to be recognisable.
In a very crowded environment, where everyone is trying to differentiate themselves, it may seem paradoxical, but true differentiation often comes from the ability to remain consistent with who you are.
How does this philosophy influence the work of British Bulldog?
Vitri Aldilah: It influences practically every decision.
When we work on a project, we try not only to ask ourselves “what should it look like?”, but “what should it communicate?” and “why should it exist?”.
This completely shifts the conversation.
We do not start with decoration. We start with intention.
Peter Phelan: And this also means accepting that some aesthetically interesting choices may not be the right ones.
Design must serve the identity.
If a solution is beautiful but does not tell people who you are, it is probably not the right solution.
In your opinion, what is the most common mistake companies make when approaching a design project?
Peter Phelan: Thinking about design too late.
When design enters the process only at the end, it is often asked to solve problems that are actually strategic.
People try to communicate through a logo or through a new visual identity something that the brand has not yet clarified at a conceptual level.
Vitri Aldilah: Another mistake is thinking that creating a distinctive element is enough.
A memorable logo does not build a brand on its own.
You need a system.
You need a shared vision and consistency in applying it at every touchpoint.
Let’s talk precisely about the “system”. What does it mean to design a brand as a system?
Vitri Aldilah: It means thinking of all the parts as elements of the same experience.
Imagine that a person discovers a brand through Instagram, then visits the website, purchases a product, receives the packaging at home and subsequently gets in touch with customer service.
These are different experiences, but from the person’s point of view, they all belong to the same brand.
If each one communicates something different, the relationship becomes confusing.
Peter Phelan: When, instead, all these elements share the same values and the same sensibility, something very powerful happens: the brand becomes recognisable without having to continually explain who it is.
And that is where design stops being simply a visual component and becomes the brand’s infrastructure.
How important is the community in this process?
Peter Phelan: It is fundamental because a brand is no longer simply what a company says it is.
It is also what people think it is.
The community contributes to building the meaning of the brand through its experiences, conversations and interactions.
Vitri Aldilah: And this is precisely why design must be authentic.
When an experience is consistent and credible, people begin to identify with the brand’s values. At that point, the relationship can evolve from a simple commercial relationship into something much stronger.
The customer is no longer simply someone who makes a purchase.
They can become someone who recommends, talks about and defends the brand.
Is this the transition from customer to brand advocate?
Vitri Aldilah: Yes. And it cannot simply be “designed” through an advertising campaign.
Advocacy comes from the experience.
When a person perceives consistency between what a brand promises and what it actually delivers, trust is created.
And when that trust is maintained over time, it can turn into a sense of belonging.
Peter Phelan: It is probably one of the most interesting results a brand can achieve.
Not simply having satisfied customers, but people who feel that they have a relationship with what the brand represents.
If you had to summarise your philosophy on design in one sentence, what would it be?
Peter Phelan: Design should make visible the way a brand thinks.
Vitri Aldilah: And it should do so in a consistent, authentic and useful way for people.
Because ultimately it is not about creating something that simply catches the eye.
It is about creating something that has meaning.
Design as a way of thinking
From the conversation with Peter Phelan and Vitri Aldilah, a conception of design emerges that goes beyond the purely aesthetic dimension.
Design becomes strategy when it succeeds in transforming abstract values into concrete experiences. When every choice — from the shape of a product to digital communication, from packaging to retail — contributes to telling the same story.
It is also a matter of time.
The strongest brands are not necessarily those that attract the most attention immediately, but those that manage to build recognition and trust through consistent and meaningful experiences.
Perhaps this is precisely the central point of British Bulldog’s philosophy: design should not merely decorate a business. It should help define it.
And when this happens, design stops being simply what we see.
It becomes what we recognise, what we believe in and, over time, what we choose to identify with.