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OUR HISTORY - Mindcandy Branding
Brand Creation Agency



THE EVOLUTION OF MINDCANDY

As Mindcandy approaches its 25th Anniversary,
I now have nearly 14 years living, working and playing in Acapulco, Mexico.
I can say that I am, without a doubt, "steeped" in Mexican Culture—its
language, traditions, music, food and—most importantly—its brands.

For 14 years I have been studying Mexican brands—and continue to study them daily.

During my years in Acapulco, I have created bi-cultural brands
for restaurants, law firms, bars & cantinas, hotels, tourism services, veterinarians & non-profits.

So how did "Mindcandy" begin?
It all started way back in 1992, just before graduating from college.



The Birth of "Mindcandy": 1992

The brand "Mindcandy" was born in November of 1992.

I was completing the the last month of my studies at the Art Institute of Houston.
It was just before graduation. I remember one of my professors telling me:
"It's a highly competitive industry—so you better love what you do!"

Fortunately, for me, I do love what I do.

During Mindcandy's first few years in business, I worked from Houston, Texas.
I created brand names, brand identities and brochures for clients
in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

I did most of the design work for Mindcandy's clients in the evening hours.
From 1992 until 1995, my days were occupied working at Advertising Agencies,
Design Studios and Video Production Agencies. After working briefly in Dallas for
a Video Production company, I set my sites on Austin—the jewel of Texas.



"Mindcandy": Digital Type Foundry: 1995

In the Spring of 1994, I moved to Austin, Texas. I was unemployed, ambitious and ready to work. It was a very exciting time in Austin. It was the beginning of the "Tech-Boom"
and there I was, right in the center of it. The perfect place at the perfect time. Austin was booming!

I was hired at a prestigious design firm, opening a new office in Austin.
We got most of our projects from GSD&M, Sherry Matthews and some of the other big
agencies in Austin at the time. I worked on projects for clients like Whole Foods,
Southwest Airlines, the US Olympic Committee. There were many long hours and many
weekends where we worked both Saturdays and Sundays.

During this time, I became fascinated with digital typography.
Most of my days were spent designing logotypes and typesetting books and annual reports.
The mid 1990's the dawn of the "Indy Type Foundry" era.
Small digital type foundries like Emigre, Lunchbox, T26, Thirstype, 2 Rebels and Psyops
where springing up around the world. They were creating new and exciting
digital typefaces using a new application called Fontographer.

In the fall of 1995, I created Mindcandy, the digital type foundry. I left my day job and again went out on my own. I was still doing graphic design for clients in Austin during the day.
After 5pm, I dropped everything and started creating my own digital typefaces. I was hooked!

I designed the fonts in Adobe Illustrator and literally "pasted" the characters into Fontographer.
In less than 6 months I had created a few dozen typefaces.
I was ready to launch. I began with printed catalogs and a direct mail campaign.
The following year I created a website—mindcandy.com—and sold my fonts online.

Over the next few years, I focused on networking with other Indy Foundries
in order to increase the number of fonts offered at Mindcandy.com.
By the Spring of 1999, Mindcandy.com offered over 450 fonts, created from over 13
digital type foundries and nearly 50 type designers from around the world.
Our typography collection was vast, unique and impressive.

By 2000, our small digital type foundry had grown into
an internationally recognized brand—boasting one of the most unique collections
of digital typefaces from the world's most talented type designers.
Mindcandy's type collection and graphic design and web design has been featured in dozens
of typography and graphic design books.

During the 6 years while Mindcandy.com was selling digital typography online, we sold
our fonts to an amazing list of clients—including:

A/E SPORTS, ABC, CBS, Disney, HBO, Jim Henson Productions, Kodak, MLB, MTV, Microsoft, NBC, NHL, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Showtime, ToysRUs, Viacom, Yahoo! & The World Bank.



Mindcandy Studios: 2003

After doing business under the name "Mindcandy" for over 10 years, I decided it
was time to rebrand Mindcandy. Over the years, "Mindcandy" had been both a graphic design firm and a digital type foundry. I knew I needed to narrow my focus. I needed to
recreate "Mindcandy" into something more dynamic, yet more focused.

In 2003 I officially changed my name to Mindcandy Studios and focused exclusively on
brand development—creating brand names, brand identities, taglines & websites.

In the final months of 2003 I was creating a new brand for Martin Marietta Materials,
a subsidiary of Martin Marietta, based in Houston, Texas.
They sold industrial aggregates—sand, crushed rocks, stones & the materials to make asphalt.

After an extensive analysis of their new product brief I created the brand MILEX.
This was my most complex and challenging branding project to date.
During the brand creation process, I created three verbal brand names, various brand
identities, positioning taglines, brand messaging, technical writing and branded print collateral.
You can read more about the Milex Brand Development project in the
Case Studies section of this website.

 

Mindcandy: Brand Creation Agency: 2015

In 2015, I bought the domain for Mindcandy Branding.

Mindcandy is a "Brand Creation Agency". I focus on the inception of the brand.
My focus is on creating an entirely new brand, from concept to completion.
First, I create a brand name, then your brand identity, positioning tagline, brand messaging
and your brand's story—your narative. All powerhouse brands begin with a great story.

In October 2017, Mindcandy launched it's new website. It's primarily a "portfolio website", with some added tasty treats! You won't want to miss our two newest sections, Inspire Your World and the Stuff Your Brain section. Here you'll find over 200 links to some of the Internet's biggest brands. Enjoy!

 

Our Strategic Vision - 2020

Mindcandy® will be focusing on Verbal Brand Naming,
also referred to as "Verbal Identity" by us "brand naming nerds".

During 2020, we'll be launching a new brand named | Doozie™.
We've been creating a database of thousands of brand names; the United States,
Mexico, Europe, South, and Central America.

We've created over 50 "brand name archetypes" and are in the process of writing a book—after spending over 5 years analyzing and modeling the process—about
"The Science of Creating the Perfect Brand Name."

It's guaranteed to be like anything you have read before about brand naming.

We'll also be developing the new brand Doozie™ | Brand Naming™
and combining thousands of brand names into a database,
ranking them for their strength and categorizing them into one of our
"brand naming achetypes" .

Once you are trained in the "Science of Brand Naming", you'll be able to create your own
unforgettable brand name—in short—unforgettable.
Brands with the most unforgettable brand names RULE their domains.

These globally known brands own their category: Examples?
Lyft, Ebay, Silk, Dove, Tide, Amazon, Facebook, Match.com, AIRBNB, Travelocity, WholeFoods!

It's "Brand Name Imprinting", as we call it.

DICCIONARIO DE "BRANDING"
EN EPSAÑOL - desgargar gratis

I recently proudly completed the "Diccionario de Branding" It contains 500+ branding terms
and their definitions, impeccably translated into layman's terms strategically to introduce the
"Science of Branding" to both professional marketers and brand enthusiasts, alike.

This book is unique and versitile because the branding terms and their respective definitions
have been defined in a manner to which anyone can understand them.

AVAILABLE ONLINE ON JANUARY 20th, 2020.

Translated with passion for all you branding fanatics who speak Spanish.

The "condensed version" (93 terms) is currently available - for the public domain - and
I encourage you to share it with all of your friends & fellow "branding nerds".
Click on the graphic below to download the free. PDF version
of the "Diccionario de Branding" en Español.

 

Descargar Gratis el Diccionario de Branding por MindcandyBranding.com


STUFF MY BRAIN!

My vision is to push my own limits—Stuff My Brain—and see where knowledge, hard work,
perseverance, and an open mind can take me. I shall expand the boundaries of
what it means to be "creative". I challenge you to do the same.

 

ideas@mindcandybranding.com  
Mindcandy | Jeff Gillen on LinkedIN Mindcandy Branding on Google+ Mindcandy Branding on Twitter



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