“Niki helped us see our own brand more clearly and turn research into something people could actually feel in store.”
Trevor Wright
Director, RBS Design & Build.
Project overview
Orange – Brand story and product experience
Orange wanted to understand what ordinary people really thought — what mattered to them, what felt confusing, and how those feelings could shape the way the brand showed up. My work sat between the street and the studio: writing the questions that would draw out honest answers, listening to people, noticing what kept coming up, and carrying those thoughts back to the original creative team. Later, on the physical side, I helped translate that thinking into the space itself, supplying the batches and finishes that carried the brand messaging through the store.
Notes from the process
What I worked on
Words on the page
Letting the story grow from what people actually said and felt.
Leaving space for people to bring their own meaning to the story.
How the story took shape
Again and again, people said that ‘Orange’ made them think of colour first. Warmth. Sunshine, summer, feeling happy. It felt bright and full of energy — a colour with vitality and boldness. They talked about freshness too: fruit, health, something juicy and new. To many, it seemed playful and a little unusual. If ‘Orange’ had been a person in 1992, they said, he or she would have been bright, confident and a bit zany — someone lively and fun who brought personality into the room and didn’t take themselves too seriously. As a place, it would have been sunny, lively and welcoming.
What changed
• We listened to what people really felt about the word ‘Orange’ and carried those feelings back to the creative team.
• We carried those feelings into the space itself — into colours, finishes and small details people would meet as they moved through the store.
• We moved from early street questions about what ‘Orange’ felt like to a national retail presence that reflected those feelings.
• The shops felt more like the ‘Orange’ people described — warm, bright, a little different — instead of just another phone shop.
The storytelling process
Those feelings ran quietly through the colours, finishes and small details.
Thinking it through together
If you’re working on a brand story, a space or experience, or your own writing, and you’d like a place to think it through, we can start with a simple conversation.
There’s no pressure to have it all figured out — we can look at where you are now, what you’re trying to say, and whether I’m the right person to help.
If you’d rather look around first, you can wander back through the other project stories instead.”